Bulletin Board Posting Lands County Judge in Hot Water
By: Mitch Carr
Updated: August 10, 2009
Lubbock County Judge Tom Head posted an e-mail forward that he received weeks ago on a public bulletin board outside of the Lubbock County Commissioners Court. The posting begins with the headline, "New Fashion Rage Shown in Police Mug Shots..." That headline is followed by text that reads:
"Let's see here. I need to shower, shave, eat some oatmeal (it keeps my cholesterol down), put on my new 'Obama: Change we can believe in' T-shirt, grab my 9 and a few rounds, hold up a convenience store, and then go buy some crack. Who knows, maybe I'll slap the wife around a little bit too...if I have time."
Those words are followed by several mug shots of arrested people wearing T-shirts that support President Barack Obama. All but one of those pictured is a person of color.
Judge Head denies any racial intent in the posting. He says his idea for the post, and indeed the entire bulletin board, is to stimulate conversation."
"It just reveals an interesting point that some people that have been arrested have Obama paraphanalia on them, and if you get to looking, you don't see anybody in there with Republican T-shirts or conservative T-shirts, or christian T-shirts, because I haven't seen any, and I haven't been made aware of any," said Judge Head.
Head also says the post reveals his worries about the direction in which the Democratic Party is leading the United States.
"I am of the opinion that Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congress are liberal, secular, humanistic, hedonistic, socialistic people, who are running this country now, and I think they're going to destroy it," he said.
Pam Brink is the Chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Lubbock County. She says a public bulletin board is no place for a public official to voice these opinions.
"It's racist in it's import. I just think that this kind of skreed is not appropriate for anybody who is part of our governmental system," said Brink.
She also rejected Judge Head's claim that the posting would stimulate conversation.
"This does not lead to any type of discourse. It leads to simple minded alignments. They're not good for a democratic republic," she said.
No matter what criticism is levelled at him, Judge Head says the controversy is welcomed.
"My thought is let's stimulate some conversation, and apaprently its doing that so it's having its intended effect," he said.
