Another case of the unfounded Slur "Racist" used against a citizen

[Danno 1,228]

We kicked this story around the other day and I was rather convinced CAIR had taken numbers on a License plate and devoted enough time to arrive at some deplorable code.... all because the guy had an insensitive statement on his tailgate.....and a confederate flag in his window.

Apparently (not to mention logically) the numbers related to his fav. NASCAR drivers.

Virginia driver denies license plate had coded racist message

By Brigid Schulte

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 29, 2010; B01

Douglas Story, a Chantilly dump truck driver for the Virginia Department of Transportation, says he wanted to grab people's attention when he paid $224.90 to have a mural of the burning World Trade Center detailed onto the tailgate of his Ford F-150 along with a sticker that reads: "Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11."

But he got more than he bargained for when a photo of his pickup went viral on the Web last week. Motorists and Muslim groups complained that his Virginia vanity license plate -- 14CV88 -- was really code for neo-Nazi, white supremacist sentiments. The state Department of Motor Vehicles voted last week to recall Story's plates and force him to buy new ones.

"There is absolutely no way I'd have anything to do with Hitler or Nazis," Story said Wednesday. He contacted The Washington Post after an article about his plate appeared last week; the state, citing privacy rules, had declined to release the identity of the plate's owner. "My sister-in-law and my niece are Jewish. I went to my niece's bat mitzvah when she turned 13 three years ago. Does that sound like something an anti-Semite would do?"

Story says the numbers 14 and 88 on his plate were not references to a white power slogan or "Heil Hitler," as the Council on American-Islamic Relations theorized, but an homage to his favorite NASCAR drivers: Tony Stewart, who drives car No. 14, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who drives No. 88.

Story applied for the vanity plate in March 2009, shortly after Earnhardt changed his car number from 8 to 88 and Stewart changed his from 20 to 14.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said his group looked into the meaning of the numbers 14 and 88 after receiving complaints about Story's license plates. He said the group found that among neo-Nazis, 88 refers to "Heil Hitler," because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. White supremacists sometimes use the number 14, Hooper said, as shorthand for the 14-word motto, "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

Story says that his truck has long been decorated with the Confederate battle flag and that he does have "CV" Sons of Confederate Veterans plates, which he obtained after discovering that his great-great-great-grandfather was a second lieutenant with the Alabama Partisan Rangers during the Civil War.

The flag "celebrates my Southern heritage," he said. "And the numbers recognize my favorite drivers in that southernest of sports, NASCAR."

He says he doesn't know who took the photo of his truck, in a handicapped parking spot, that became a viral sensation on the Web. "Probably someone who obviously has a soft spot for Islam," he said, pronouncing the word "I-slam," "because if you pronounce it 'Ih-slahm,' it's not disparaging enough."

He said he has a permit that allows him to park in handicapped spaces because of injuries he suffered in a 1985 motorcycle accident.

Hooper said he doesn't buy Story's version "given the overt anti-Muslim bigotry displayed on the truck and the Confederate flags and their historic connotation of racism. But it's his right to make that appeal to the Virginia DMV."

Story said he has no intention of appealing. "I don't want my truck firebombed," he said.

Story received a certified letter last week from the DMV ordering him to get new plates. And his boss told him that he could no longer park on VDOT property with the anti-Islam mural. So Story spent an afternoon getting new randomized plates and peeling the mural off by hand.

"I feel naked," he said.

[mspain 1]

Wow. I´m glad they made him take it off. That´s just distasteful.

[_Simpson_ 250]

Wow. I´m glad they made him take it off. That´s just distasteful.

What distasteful about the plate? Did you read the story?

[Peikko 1,575]

So, the 'everything I needed to know about Islam I learned from 9/11' isn't bigoted then? Fabulous. I don't care if he continues to display that plate or not, but I don't see how one can argue that the accusations of bigotry are unfounded. It's not racism because muslims are not a race, but it is anti-islamic.

[_Simpson_ 250]

So, the 'everything I needed to know about Islam I learned from 9/11' isn't bigoted then? Fabulous. I don't care if he continues to display that plate or not, but I don't see how one can argue that the accusations of bigotry are unfounded. It's not racism because muslims are not a race, but it is anti-islamic.

The picture yes, the plates no. He was made to get new plates and was not allowed to park at his job with that mural so he decided to take it off.

This guy is a moron, that goes without saying.

[Peikko 1,575]

I don't give a #### about his plates, stupid theories about a bunch of numbers?

The picture is offensive, but he can choose to be offensive it he wants to, in fact, I'd rather know upfront if you are like that, makes life easier.

[Heracles 417]

I wonder if this guy is actually handicapped to be parking in a spot.

Though, if he's not, he sure qualifies brain wise.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Booyah!

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I wonder if this guy is actually handicapped to be parking in a spot.

Though, if he's not, he sure qualifies brain wise.

As do you.

[Peikko 1,575]

I wonder if this guy is actually handicapped to be parking in a spot.

Though, if he's not, he sure qualifies brain wise.

My bigoted evil twin imagines his disability is weight related. I am well aware that such a thought is completely unsubstantiated and deserves castigation.

[_Simpson_ 250]

I don't give a #### about his plates, stupid theories about a bunch of numbers?

The picture is offensive, but he can choose to be offensive it he wants to, in fact, I'd rather know upfront if you are like that, makes life easier.

I didnt say you cared. Simply just letting you know where I was coming from. You acted like I was excusing the mural.

Is this mural offensive to you? I took one look at and thought a stupid man owns that truck. I didnt get offended.

[Peikko 1,575]

I didnt say you cared. Simply just letting you know where I was coming from. You acted like I was excusing the mural.

Is this mural offensive to you? I took one look at and thought a stupid man owns that truck. I didnt get offended.

Why would I get offended? However, I am aware that it would be offensive if you are a muslim - 9/11 is not representative of what it is to be one.

I posted at the same time as you did, more or less, and was not aware of your post when I wrote what I did, therefore I wasn't reacting to anything you wrote.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Madame Cleo

[Danno 1,228]

I wonder if this guy is actually handicapped to be parking in a spot.

Though, if he's not, he sure qualifies brain wise.

He has a HC parking due to a motorcycle accident or so he claims.

[_Simpson_ 250]

Why would I get offended? However, I am aware that it would be offensive if you are a muslim - 9/11 is not representative of what it is to be one.

I posted at the same time as you did, more or less, and was not aware of your post when I wrote what I did, therefore I wasn't reacting to anything you wrote.

My point was that this mural was stupid and to get offended by a idiot with a licences is rather stupid. Would you be offended if someone had a bumper sticker that read the best thing about the UK can be found in any outhouse?

Oh I see, I thought you were referring to me.

[Heracles 417]

As do you.

has spoken.

[Heracles 417]

Chantilly? I'd have thought this guy is in the woods somewhere. This guys live in the DC area.