Obama as Hitler poster causes stir in Easthampton

By OWEN BOSS

Staff Writer

EASTHAMPTON - Two unidentified men waved to motorists Monday, holding a sign that read "Pull over to stop Obama" along with an image of the president with an Adolf Hitler-style mustache.

The two, who declined to identify themselves to the Gazette, stood next to a car with Massachusetts plates parked in front of Easthampton Savings Bank on Main Street and said the display was in response to Saturday's shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six people and wounded 14 others, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

"This is our answer to what happened in Arizona," one of the men said. "We're here on behalf of the LaRouche Political Action Committee."

They were later joined by two more people with similar signs who set up shop nearby on the Pulaski Park rotary.

The signs drew strong responses from some city residents, including a local business owner who mobilized a response from Florida, where she was vacationing and spotted a picture of the signs on Facebook.

Demonstrators claiming to be with the LaRouche PAC were also spotted in Holyoke on Monday with similar signs.

According to the literature they were handing out in Easthampton, the display was intended to thwart what political activist Lyndon LaRouche called an effort to blame Sarah Palin for the Arizona rampage.

"An attempt is being made to use the case to attack Sarah Palin, who had targeted Giffords and 19 other congressmen for defeat in the November elections because of their vote for Obama's Nazi health bill," the handout read. It also read: "Anyone who attacks Sarah Palin is implicitly pro-Hitler."

LaRouche, a perennial presidential candidate and prominent conspiracy theorist, has built a worldwide organization over several decades that espouses his idiosyncratic political views. Most recently LaRouche, 88, has railed against bank bailouts, against the health reform act and, now, against political attacks on Palin in the wake of the Arizona shootings. His supporters are known for their signs that draw comparisons between Obama and Hitler.

As the men stood on the roadside in Easthampton Monday, some residents slowed to a stop and honked in support. Others muttered curses at the men as they attempted to hand out fliers to residents entering the bank.

Attempts to reach a manager at Easthampton Savings Bank for comment were not successful Monday afternoon.

Two teenagers were seen around 3:45 p.m. trying unsuccessfully to grab one of the signs from the men. One began forming a snowball to throw at the men but ultimately walked away.

Nashawannuck Gallery owner Marlies Stoddard had a more noticeable response to the demonstrators. Stoddard saw a picture of the signs on Facebook Monday after Eastmont Custom Framing owner Jean-Pierre Pasche snapped a few shots.

Stoddard, who is vacationing in Florida with her mother, Mai Stoddard, called Pasche and asked him to compose a response to the demonstrators, whose message she called "incredibly hateful."

Pasche walked down to the Wing Travel sign, owned by Mai Stoddard, near the rotary on Northampton Street and arranged the letters to read: "Say No To Hateful Political Rhetoric!"

"I love people expressing themselves, but it was just very hateful and divisive," Marlies Stoddard said Monday evening by telephone. "And the timing couldn't have been any worse, in my opinion, with the shootings."

After about an hour on the side of the road, a city police officer pulled up behind their car and asked the pair - on behalf of bank officials - to take down the table they had set up and to stop handing out fliers, police said.

Soon after, the two men moved their display to Pulaski Park, in the center of the rotary, and continued to wave to motorists into the evening.

Stoddard said she got some satisfaction when Pasche reported to her by telephone that the demonstrators had piled into a car and headed out of town right past the message on her mother's sign.

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Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com