The guys at SC Hotline snapped the above photo of of a protester at a Mike Huckabee rally in Greenville — the same event where a “mysterious” attack flier was circulated. Out of curiosity, they followed the masked “Wayne DuMond” back to his car where they “found out this person is associated with the Mitt Romney campaign in Greenville.”
They refused to name the culprit, but added, “We know his name and we know that he has been used by the Romney campaign in Greenville for tracking purposes.” And a source close to The Palmetto Scoop who was at the event confirmed, in a similar statement, that Romney’s campaign sent this protester to harass Huckabee.
So what’s the big deal? Well, beyond being a dirty, thuggish tactic, the DuMond protests may be illegal.
S.C. Code Ann. § 16-7-110 says:
No person over sixteen years of age shall appear or enter upon any lane, walk, alley, street, road, public way or highway of this State or upon the public property of the State or of any municipality or county in this State while wearing a mask or other device which conceals his identity. Nor shall any such person demand entrance or admission to or enter upon the premises or into the enclosure or house of any other person while wearing a mask or device which conceals his identity. Nor shall any such person, while wearing a mask or device which conceals his identity, participate in any meeting or demonstration upon the private property of another unless he shall have first obtained the written permission of the owner and the occupant of such property.
Now, this sounds like a stupid law, and to an extent it is, but it is has real consequences that include a $500 fine and up to a year in jail. And while holiday masks, safety masks, emergency masks and theatrical masks are protected, anonymous attacks are not.
But this law is written in the male pronoun. So if the Romney guys had found a female to wear the mask, they may have “skirted” the law — pun intended. And since most of the guys who work for Romney act like 10-year-olds, they may not meet the minimum age requirement.
Sphere: Related ContentThis entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Primary Season, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
After holding up a sign and having a mask on, the culprit was seen jaywalking, and finally tore the “DO NOT REMOVE” tag off of a mattress.
Freedom of speech includes the right to be a jerk about what you say and how your present it.
If Mr. Huckabee’s support is so soft as to be convinced by a guy with a marker and a piece of cardboard then who’s to say they will bother to vote in the primary instead of being distracted by something shiny?
If Mr. Huckabee doesn’t have thick enough skin to deal with a fool in a halloween mask he shouldn’t be the leader of the free world.
Two words:
Ben Adams.
Movin’ on…
Easy solution: get 15 year old kids to wear the mask.
What a cry baby.
At least two other candidates have been hit by folks dressed up in costumes.
This has been done over and over again in SC in past elections.
If you can’t take the heat, don’t run!
The Democrats are going to come up with much tougher questions for whomever we nominate.
“Politics is like sports for old guys”.–Name the author!
I’ve seen chickens and dolphins showing up at campaign events as well. Perhaps I should call 9-11.
You guys need to get a life–one that can be happy without going after Mitt Romney. What’s with the fetish? Are you still holding out hope that John McCain will be re-incarnated or have you switched alegences to the Huckster?
[...] Mitt’s campaign, you’re so scandalous! Next thing you know, they’ll be sending anonymous protesters to rival campaign events or putting out phony push poll calls on themselves. Oh wait… [...]