- UPDATE
5-6-7
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- Ham Sandwich Fiasco
- From: usasylum@comcast.net
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- I enjoy your Web sight and visit daily however, I take
all stories with a grain of salt and usually do some of my own research.
I just thought that I would let you know, I did a little research on the
"Ham Sandwich" story in Lewiston Maine. It appears that the
story posted may not be quite right. I have posted a link to the Sun Journal
in Maine and the story that appeared April 25, 2007 below:
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- http://www.sunjournal.com/story/209231-3/LewistonAuburn/Ham_report_stirs_mess/#
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- Ham report stirs 'mess'
- By Judith Meyer , Managing Editor/days
Wednesday, April 25,
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- LEWISTON - An obscure online
parody of the recent hate incident at the Lewiston Middle School - a parody
reported as news on a national Fox broadcast Tuesday - launched an immediate
avalanche of angry phone calls and ugly e-mails to the school system.
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- In the parody, the ham steak became a ham sandwich. Fake
quotes were attributed to Superintendent Leon Levesque, Stephen Wessler
of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, and one of the Somali
students targeted in the incident.
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- The post then appeared to legitimize the information
by attributing The Associated Press as its source.
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- Larry Laughlin, chief of bureau for AP in Northern New
England, said the parody was "clearly improper use of The Associated
Press brand."
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- "You can't," Laughlin said, "fancifully
make up comments and add them to an Associated Press story."
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- Lawyers for the AP are reviewing the parody post and
will take action as appropriate, Laughlin said.
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- The parody, posted by Nicholas Plagman of Atlanta, Ga.,
and published Monday on an Associated Press look-alike site called Associated
Content, and the resulting comments and posts on that and dozens of other
online sites, created tension at the middle school and among parents of
students.
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- "We're in a mess here," Levesque said, that
they want to straighten out by talking about the cafeteria incident with
students. Students are upset and don't want to talk, he said, because they're
worried about harassment.
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- Following the Fox broadcast, Levesque's office received
dozens of angry phone calls and profanity-laced e-mails, made and sent
by people all over the country, who charge the school district overreacted
to what they believed from news reports to be a ham sandwich tossed at
a Somali student.
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- "Leaving your sandwich on a table is now a crime
in Maine?" one e-mail asked. It continued, "This child did nothing
illegal in placing his sandwich in front of several intolerant people that
will kill YOUR students for sitting at the same table let alone placing
a sandwich next to them."
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- >From North Carolina, a e-mailer wrote that he'd read
the "news media of your actions with regards to a child leaving a
ham sandwich on a table used by Muslim students at one of your schools.
Excuse my bluntness, but are you people insane?" Related Info RELATED
STORY: 'Hate incident' in city Read the story on associatedcontent.com
And, in another e-mail, "A ham sandwich is not a hate crime. It's
two pieces of bread with a processed meat between them. Stop catering to
the less than 1% and offending the other 99%. Please!"
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- Another e-mail suggested Levesque wasn't qualified to
be superintendent of a public school because he "obviously escalated
a simple prank into a hate crime."
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- That's not the case, Levesque said.
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- The incident, which happened in the school cafeteria
on April 11, was considered by school staff to be a hate incident. School
resource officer Bill Brochu, according to Principal Maureen Lachapelle,
followed police procedure by filing a report "because the ham incident
was perceived as a hate/bias crime" by the students.
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- "The Somali boys said they were offended by it because
of their religion," which considers pork unclean, and Brochu "did
an investigation and forwarded his report to his supervisor, Adam Higgins,"
Lachappelle said. From there, the report was sent to the Attorney General's
Office for review and to the Androscoggin County District Attorney's Office
for review for possible harassment charges.
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- According to Lachapelle, a student brought a honey-baked
ham to school to share with his friends. While they were in the cafeteria,
one or more students dared another student (not the one who brought the
ham to school) to put the ham on a table in front of five Somali boys.
That student took up the dare, and followed through even though his friends
immediately tried to talk him out of it. The student "knew it was
wrong," Levesque said, while he was doing it.
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- Lachappelle said the student regrets the incident and
his parents have supported the punishment meted by the school district.
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- The Sun Journal published a story about the incident
on April 19 as the lead article on the front page. After Monday's Associated
Content posting, the altered story moved rapidly across personal and news
sites and was discussed with outrage.
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- In the parody, Levesque was quoted as saying "These
children have got to learn that ham is not a toy, and that there are consequences
for being nonchalant about where you put your sandwich."
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- Wessler was quoted as saying his agency was working with
the school to create an "anti-ham 'response plan.'"
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- Neither man said those things.
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- Levesque never made any reference to a need to make students
feel safe from attacks from any ham product.
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- The parody also attributed a quote to the student who
was targeted with the ham, equating the experience to being "back
in Somalia being shot at all over again."
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- Plagman never spoke to the student, and the student never
made that statement.
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- The Sun Journal attempted to contact Plagman for comment,
but he did not respond.
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- Wessler, who talked to a Texas CBS affiliate and two
Fox affiliates Tuesday and has been scheduled to appear on another Fox
broadcast today, said, "This kind of distortion by reputable news
outlets is destructive."
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- "Fox has figured out, from the calls we've gotten,
that they've made a big mistake," Wessler said.
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- "This is a wake-up call that the level of hate and
anger, among a small population, is vibrant," he added.
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- Levesque said he was bothered not only that the parody
took aim at a sensitive issue in Lewiston, but also that Fox and others
reported the information as fact without checking. The national media,
Levesque said, sees information posted online and "uses it as gospel."
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- In this case, reporting false information is getting
in the way of the city and the school's continued work to build community
understanding and tolerance for immigrants, said Phil Nadeau, Lewiston's
assistant city administrator. The parodied news account cast a false impression
of an overwhelmingly tolerant city and its population, Nadeau said, and
of the Somali population in particular.
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- "The last thing they want is to be above the fold"
of a front page or featured on the evening news, Nadeau said.
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- Watching the parody and news reports unfold Tuesday,
Levesque said is proof media "is interested in entertaining and playing
on people's emotions," which gets in the way of building community
relations.
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- Lachapelle said she won't let it get in the way of the
disciplined student's return to school, ensuring steps are being made to
make sure he feels safe when he comes back.
-----
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- A middle school student in Lewiston, Maine is being investigated
by the police for a possible hate crime after he placed a bag containing
a ham sandwich on a table where Somali students eat lunch.
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- According to the school's superintendent, Leon Levesque,
the student has been suspended, and more disciplinary action could follow
pending the outcome of the investigation.
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- Muslims, who believe pork to be unclean and highly offensive,
were reminded of a man who threw a pig's head into a mosque located in
Lewiston last summer. "That ham sandwich in a bag where we couldn't
even see might as well have been that pig's head," said one of the
traumatized Somali students, "and that cafeteria might as well have
been the most religious building for Muslims in the state of Maine."
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- According to Superintendent Levesque, "the school
incident is being treated seriously as a hate incident." Police are
currently investigating the matter alongside the Center for the Prevention
of Hate Violence, who is also working with the school to create an anti-ham
"response plan."
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- "We've got some work to do to turn this around and
bring the school community back together again." Said Levesque, "These
children have got to learn that ham is not a toy, and that there are consequences
for being nonchalant about where you put your sandwich."
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- "Placing ham where Muslim students were eating as
an awful thing," said Stephen Wessler, the executive director of the
Center for Prevention of Hate Violence. "It's extraordinarily hurtful
and degrading. They probably felt like they were back in Mogadishu starving
and being shot at. No child, Muslim or normal, should have to endure touching
a ham sandwich."
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- Wessler continued, "incidents like this that involve
degrading language or conduct are often said by the perpetrator as a joke.
But unfortunately we don't live in a world where young children try to
be funny, we live in a society in which these types of actions always escalate
into violence against minorities."
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- "If people think insulting Muslims with ham is okay,
more degrading acts will follow. The Jews had to go through the same thing
when the Nazis would force-feed them bacon; do we really want our schools
(like this really happened! -ed
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- Added Levesque, "the incident does not reflect the
moral values of the school staff and students. We need to take a look at
this and review how a careless act is degrading and causes hurt to other
people. All our students should feel welcome in our schools, knowing that
they are safe from attacks with ham, bacon, porkchops, or any other delicious
meat that comes from pigs."
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-
- Comment
- Edgar J. Steele
- steele@conspiracypenpal.com
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- This incredibly ridiculous item gives new meaning to
the term "snack attack"....
- I get stuff like this every single day. The frequency
has ratcheted up several notches in recent years.
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- Note the Jews involved: "The Jews had to go
through the same thing when the Nazis would force-feed them bacon."
(like this really happened!)
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- Are they defending Islam? NO. Do they care about Muslims?
NO. This simply is part of the ongoing Jewish attack upon White America.
Keep your eye on the ball...
- Our day is coming...
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- Comment
Jay Diamond
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- Yes, the Zionists don't miss a beat. They jumped on this
in a second to keep the drumbeat for 'anti-hate' laws unbroken. Their hypocrisy
of supporting Moslems to serve their own ends is missed by 99% of America.
As soon as their 'anti-hate' laws are passed here, it's goodbye to full
Freedom Of Speech...just like in Europe and Canada.
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