Free speech updates

The First Amendment still exists in eastern North Carolina…for now. The following reports come from WCTI-12.

Phipps' Gallows

Last week, District Attorney Dewey Hudson announced that Lacy Phipps could not be charged with anything for his display of local and state justice officials hanging in effigy in Duplin County.

Hudson was one of those represented in the gallows along with former governor and state attorney general Mike Easley, plus a local judge and sheriff among others. “What Mr. Phipps has done, although distasteful, it is protected by the 1st Amendment,” Hudson told reporters.

Feds called for controversial coffin

By William R. Toler

When Bill Harper arrived to pick up his coffin Saturday morning, he didn’t find it.

Instead, Harper found a representative from the NAACP, according to Michael Speciale, Craven County GOP chairman, who believes the involvement of the civil rights organization may have intimidated Sheriff Jerry Monette to fail to keep his word.

Over the weekend, the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, state chairman of the NAACP, released a statement calling the coffin “threatening” because it had an anti-Obama bumper sticker on it. Barber added, “There is no telling how many voters it had frightened away.  It appeared to be an obvious threat to Sen. Obama—a warning to him to stay away from North Carolina.”