Freedom Fighters - Coleman Style

Nick Coleman has found a fascists in our midst, in this piece on the brutal repression of a couple of Duluth kids outside President Bush's speech a few weeks ago.

The Ringsred brothers of Duluth may turn out to be poster boys for the 2004 presidential election.

What, indeed, happened?

The Ringsred brothers of Duluth may turn out to be poster boys for the 2004 presidential election.

According to Coleman, it was a crushing of free expression:

The Ringsred boys had gone down to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center to demonstrate against the president and wound up getting free rides to police headquarters, where they were held and interrogated.

If the cops wanted to make an example of them, they succeeded: The Ringsreds offer a splendid example of why you better keep your mouth shut this election. The politicians and police are in no mood to tolerate protest. You raise your voice, you may have to raise bail.

Shocking. Just shocking. It's like we don't have a democracy anymore at all - maybe Josh "ua Micah" Marshall was right?

Anyway - the Ringsred boys sure seem like clever lads, according to Coleman:

On July 13, Odin Ringsred, one of the twins, pasted his shaggy hair to one side and painted a Hitler mustache on his face. While Bush was inside the arena speaking to 7,000 supporters, Odin was outside, holding a handmade sign that had the president's name and swastikas on it. It wasn't very subtle. [Or clever. Or smart - Ed] Miles, it must be noted, was wearing a dress, which he figured was another sure-fire way to irritate Republicans. There is nothing like a teenager for understanding how to needle an adult. [And nothing like a button-pushing little prick to irritate a human - Ed]

But that's OK, it's America, you have a right to be a moron - and if you're a lefty moron, you have plenty of company.

The real beef is, what was the brave piece of political criticism that prove, as Coleman says, "you better keep your mouth shut this election"

During the President's speech, the Ringsred boys got into an argument, and a scuffle over the swastika-bedecked sign, with soe pro-Bush protesters at the event. Then, after the speech:

Odin, still steamed by the tug-of-war over the sign, tossed it at the guy who had been grabbing it and said, "Here, you want it so much, take it!"

At that point, a cop came up and asked Odin what his name was. Odin had a perfect 14-year-old wise-guy answer at the ready: He said his name was Adolf.

As fast as you can say "Nazi jokes are verboten," he found himself shoved into the back of a squad car.

Odin's twin, Anders, came over to argue that the cops should be going after the alleged grownup who had tried to swipe Odin's sign. A gaggle of cops answered Anders' pleas by roughly tossing him inside the car with his brother...When Miles realized what had happened, he ran over to the cops and demanded that his little brothers be released. "This is none of your business," a cop told him."Yes it is," Miles insisted.

The cop ordered him to go home and swore at him, Miles says. So Miles responded by making a Nazi salute and saying, "Yes, Mein Fuhrer!"

You can guess what happened next. The only difference was that Miles got his own squad car.

Oh. Oh, my. When Nick Coleman said the boys had been collared for political speech, I had no idea that he really meant "for being stupid". Throwing signs, wising off and giving smart-ass answers to cops who are trying to control a crowd - a crowd full of spoiled little morons waving swastika signs who are doing their damnedest to inflame things, at that.

"Spoiled?"

The Ringsreds come from a prominent family. Their father, Eric, is an emergency room doctor and former school board member who was the driving force behind the reinstallation of the Duluth harbor foghorn (loved by many, cursed by some).

Ah. A bunch of high school kids who grew up around boundless entitlement. Amazing.

So Nick Coleman? You spun this as "crushing of dissent", but in fact, isn't it really "Dumb kids acting like morons?" This has nothing to do with political belief, and everything to do with lousy judgement.

Question: Does anyone take Nick Coleman seriously? The man's writing beggars any description, in my opinion, this side of senility. If you're a Coleman fan, please answer the question "good Lord, why?"

Posted by Mitch at July 30, 2004 10:38 AM | TrackBack