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09/17/2004 Archived Entry: "Phil Parlock"

Much is being made of the mass-circulated photo of a little girl crying because a Kerry-supporter has ripped a Bush/Cheney sign out of her hands. Phil Parlock is the father upon whose shoulders the little girl is perched and he has quite a history of actively supporting/stumping for the Republicans. And, according to a poster on the Democratic Underground, he had a similar incident happen in 2000 with Bush/Cheney signs and his son. The DU poster writes, "Sorry I can't actually link to this [news item], since I pulled it from a Lexis-Nexis search. If anyone wants to delve into the Charleston, WV, Daily Mail archives, have at it." The cite he offers is "Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia) October 28, 2000, Saturday, SECTION: News; Pg. P1A, LENGTH: 861 words, HEADLINE: Signs for Bush taken at rally, father, son say, BYLINE: SAM TRANUM...

The text provided: "Phil Parlock didn't expect to need all 12 of the Bush-Cheney signs he and his son Louis smuggled in their socks and pockets into the rally for Vice President Al Gore. But each time they raised a sign, someone would grab it out of their hands, the two Huntington residents said. And sometimes it got physical. 'I expected some people to take our signs,' said Louis, 12. 'But I did not expect people to practically attack us'." The news item concludes, "As workers cleaned up the debris from the rally in front of the Capitol after the rally, Parlock sat next to a pile of ripped up Bush-Cheney signs he had collected. He said he thought the people who took his signs went too far. Still, he said he'd do it again."

The same DU Poster provides the text of another supposedly similar incident that happened to Parlock -- this time at a 1996 Democratic rally. The poster writes, "Same source, also off of Lexis Nexis, so I can't link -- Copyright 1996 Charleston Newspapers Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia) August 27, 1996, Tuesday, SECTION: News; Pg. P3C LENGTH: 342 words, HEADLINE: DOLE SUPPORTERS FIND IT ROUGH AT CLINTON RALLY, BYLINE: The Associated Press... The text provided: "Phil Parlock's experience was less calm. The Huntington man said he was knocked to the ground by a Clinton supporter when he tried to display a sign that read 'Remember Vince Foster,' the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in a Washington, D.C., park. "

Moreover, if you go to post 51 on the DU thread discussing the incident, two photos are provided. One is of Parlock's eldest son; the other is of the man who grabbed the little girl's sign (just as a camera was conveniently aimed to capture the moment.) The men look *remarkably* similar. Moreover, to quote the poster once more, "Randy Snyder, who made the photograph, is the chief photographer of the Herald-Dispatch--the paper that had written previous articles about Parlock's activism--and had to be aware of this man's history of disruption and skirmishes at Democratic events. I would go so far as to say that Snyder and Parlock worked together to get this shot. If you want to email your findings to Snyder, here is his contact info."

If even one of these allegations is true...can you say "SET UP?" Posters on the thread are sending the 'evidence' around to various major media outlets -- strange, I don't remember CBS on the list -- so you may hear more of this story on the evening news.

Best to all,
mac