Posted on 11/16/2016 5:39:17 PM PST by markomalley
The artistic genius behind the highly acclaimed conservative satirical site The People's Cube has been arrested and released on $8,000 bail for putting up pro-Israel posters to combat a pro-Islamist conference at George Mason University. He now faces the prospect of five years in prison for allegedly committing a "class 6 felony."
Beloved satirist Oleg Atbashian (who has contributed to PJ Media) has gotten in trouble for defying authorities before: "Back in my Soviet dissident days, when I was collecting signatures in defense of Andrei Sakharov, I was screamed at, threatened, and lectured by the KGB and Communist functionaries," Oleg says. "What I never imagined was that in the United States, the land of the free, I would not only be subjected to similar treatment, but go to jail."
As Daniel Greenfield of FrontPageMagazine noted, Atbashian has been a thorn in the side of the American left for over a decade, exposing political correctness through his hysterical cartoons and political commentary.
Oleg's mixture of art and satire took off with Communists for Kerry. He's the mastermind behind The People's Cube and his tweaking of the radical left and its alliance with Islamic terrorists allowed him to continue the same fight he had pursued in the days of the Soviet Union. But as the US comes to resemble the USSR, political satire and activism carries a serious price.
This is what happened to Oleg when he put up some of his Freedom Center posters challenging the anti-Semitic environment created by the left's alliance with Islamic terrorists on campus.
This was supposed to be a two-day poster campaign, to counteract the George Mason University hosting an official national conference for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which is an anti-Semitic organization with well-documented ties to Hamas - a terrorist group whose stated goal is to exterminate the Jews. The GMU poster campaign was conceived by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
Oleg says "progressivism and its main tool, political correctness, are absurd and dehumanizing not just in theory; its physical implementation is also rather dreadful and painful, as I personally experienced yesterday, being turned from an activist artist into inmate #2076524 in Fairfax County jail, with aching bruises on my wrists from excessively tight handcuffs, and the prospect of spending five years in prison as a convicted felon."
Sounds like the fags have a problem with the First Amendment.
This sounds like PC to me. I hope Trump declares PC dead on arrival, and soon.
WTH is a “class 6” felony?
This is false arrest and they damn well know it.
We do still have a first amendment.
I hope he doesn’t go to prison.
I love People’s Cube.
I agree that it’s a false arrest.
Apparently, four states, Colorado, South Dakota, Arizona and Virginia, have six classes of felonies.
https://enlightenme.com/class-6-felony/
It’s a new one on me.
Free speech for me, but not for thee........
The new GMU mantra....
I agree, Commrade.
Dictatorial
POTUS Trump should pardon him on 1/20/2017.
“WTH is a “class 6” felony?”
Probably it’s just enough to have your 2nd Amendment right revoked.
State or federal?
George Mason University is having more than its share of problems with leftist nonsense. What are they trying to be, Berkeley???
Right under “Loss of Rights and Benefits”.
Thought Washington & Lee (on the *other corner* of Virginia) had that covered. But they only tarnished a guy’s career with a false rape accusation and no due process.
GMU seems to have set a new bar by using lawfare.
1 class higher than a 5...
“While the president of George Mason University was busy issuing a statement upholding the school’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, the senior admissions director at the public university made it clear he believes that, if you are a conservative, you are a “piece of worthless trash.”
“On his public Facebook page, GMU’s Senior Assistant Director of Admissions Andrew Bunting claimed he is fearful of Donald Trump’s presidency because the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group that believes in traditional marriage, said it is hopeful for Trump’s presidency.”
“Bunting stated NOM’s views are “not representative of the key pillars of American society.” He then added, “If you agree with them then that is your opinion. Just know that to the rest of us, you are a piece of worthless trash”
Have they called him an anti-Semite or “white nationalist” yet?
What exactly is he being charged with?
“Since they couldn’t find any weapons and our message was protected by the First Amendment, the officers decided to charge us with “destruction of property worth of at least $2,500,” which was a “class 6 felony.” They claimed we had “super-glued” our fliers to school signs and it was impossible to peel them off.”
“It didn’t matter that we never used permanent glue, or that there could be other volunteers on campus who posted the stickers they could have downloaded online. Our wallpaper paste was made of wheat and water; we only used it on three large posters, which could be easily removed with water and would be washed off by the first rain. The rest were stickers, printed on regular self-adhesive paper found in any office store. They, too, could be easily removed with a tissue soaked in Goo Gone, a common household cleaner found in any dollar store. We even offered to remove any posters and stickers for them, then catch our flights in the morning and never bother them again. But the officers weren’t interested in that. They seemed to have a rather inflexible phantom image of us as dangerous felons and “right-wing extremists” who belonged in jail.”
From the American Thinker article at the link in my previous post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.