17 Sep 2004 Child Abuse

Jeez. You wouldn’t think grown-ups would do this to a little kid.

Hat tip to Poisoning Pigeons.

Addendum: The Washington Times has more details.

(I just knew the thugs would turn out to be labor union guys.)

Addendum 2: I predict three-year-old Sophia Parlock may get to meet the President of the United States personally the next time he’s in West Virginia…

Addendum 3: Michelle Malkin reports the union is apologizing (good for them) while Captain Ed doesn’t think much of the story or of the Parlock family.

I love Captain Ed, but my instincts go the other way completely. I’ve been to, and organized, many many counterdemonstrations over the years. Folks who attend them are expressing their political views, and as long as they do so lawfully, they should be applauded for participating in the process. (Frankly, if a few more Americans had participated in counterdemonstrations in the 60s and early 70s a few million Vietnamese killed by the communists after we left might be alive today.)

I myself got slugged pretty effectively by a grandmother in Texas in 1980 after I unfurled a Reagan sign at a Jimmy Carter rally at the Waco airport. Some would say I should not have done it (in fact, that’s what the Reagan people said later to me that very day; Jimmy Carter had some pretty graphic words, too), and now that I’m 24 years older I probably wouldn’t do the same thing given the same circumstances.

Ultimately, however, what I did was harmless, and I went on to participate in probably over 100 more demonstrations and counterdemonstrations over the years with very little violence of any kind ever taking place. Violence at political rallies is the exception, not the norm, at political rallies in the U.S., so it is not surprising to me that citizens would expect to be able to wave signs without fear at an opposition-party rally. I can’t call it irresponsible that one family tried.

Addendum 4:An update on the story from the Parlocks’ local newspaper.