Two Charged in latest Obama Effigy incident

Lexington: Two men faced criminal charges for hanging an effigy of Barack Obama from a tree with a noose, the latest in a string of racially-tinged incidents targeting the man who hopes to be the first black president.

The effigy hung at the University of Kentucky on Wednesday was seen as particularly offensive because it was reminiscent of the lynching that once took place in the former slave state.

Its discovery prompted strong rebukes from the Kentucky Governor and University president, an apology letter sent to Obama by the Lexington Mayor on behalf of the city's residents, and a campus forum.

The two men who turned themselves in to campus police said the effigy was hung in response to the highly publicised effigy of Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin hung from the roof of a California home.

Four students at a small Christian college confessed to hanging an Obama effigy from a tree in Oregon last month, while homeowners in Indiana, Ohio and California have also used Obama effigies as Halloween decorations.

Meanwhile, two white supremacists remained jailed in nearby Tennessee for threatening to kill Obama during a "killing spree" of more than 100 African-Americans.

And in late August, the alarm was also raised when it was revealed three men were arrested with a weapons cache in Denver, Colorado, where the Democratic party convention was being held. US attorneys later said there had been no credible threat against Obama.

Obama said on Monday that he was not worried about the threats to his life, saying that hate groups have been marginalised by his candidacy.





Via