SF gallery owner becomes target after showcasing painting of Iraqi prisone

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/29/state1749EDT0067.DTL&type=printable

After displaying a painting of U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners, a San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nations unresolved anguish over the incidents at Abu Ghraib -- a black eye and bloodied brow delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to the art work.

The assault outside the Capobianco gallery in the citys North Beach district Thursday night was the worst, but only the latest in a string of verbal and physical attacks that have directed at owner Lori Haigh since the painting, titled "Abuse," was installed there on May 16.

Last Wednesday, concerned for the safety of her two children, ages 14 and 4, who often accompanied her to work, Haigh decided to close the gallery indefinitely.

Painted by Berkeley artist Guy Colwell, "Abuse," the painting at the center of the controversy, depicts three U.S. soldiers leering at a group of naked men in hoods with wires connected to their bodies. The one in the foreground has a blood-spattered American flag patch on his uniform. In the background, a soldier in sunglasses guards a blindfolded woman.

[Democat]

1. By closing the gallery, she is letting them win

If she cares about the future of her kids, in the long run, and about the kind of world they will live in, she should leave the gallery open, not close it because of some right wing threats.

[Frances]

3. If I were her, I'd give people time to cool off

When I was teaching in a public school, we were told to give people a face-saving way out of a difficult situation.

If it were me, I'd give people time to figure this one out for themselves

[Voltaire99]

23. Easy for you to say

What an arrogant post. What the fuck do you know about how much she "cares" for the future?

Go volunteer to run the gallery for her if you're such a champion of the future and don't mind the beatings of the present.

[Democat]

27. Easy for me to say? You have no idea what I have done or gone through!

Speaking of arrogant and ignorant, try re-reading your own post. :)

She put up an extremely controversial painting at a volatile time in American history. Is what happened to her right? Of course not, but she either stands up for what she believes in or lets the thugs win. She chose the easy way out.

Do you think people should just give in whenever someone threatens them or punches them?

That's how the country got into the mess we're in, because wimpy people on our side let bullies on the right push them around.

I feel bad for her, but she only puts more people in danger by allowing the thugs to win in this way.

[Cocoa]

2. I'd call this a hate crime

and frightening that this happened in S.F.

[nosmokes]

8. there are bigots and idiots everywhere

even in san francisco.

[artistforpeace]

22. North Beach says it all

People in that area are 70-80% out-of-state tourist straight males. You know what I mean if you have ever been to North Beach. I lived in SF for 6+ years and really this is the only place (well not true the piers as well) in the city that reminds me of 90% of the rest of the US.

[arwalden]

4. Here's What Comes To My Mind... The Usual Suspects...

Republican
Freeper
Limbaugh Fan
Liddy Fan
O'Reilly Fan
Born-Again Fundie
Pro-War


Did I forget anyone?

[PartyPooper]

6. Ann Coulter fan.

;-)

[Lou_C]

15. Lucianne Goldberg?

[saigon68]

31. They are thugs hoodlums and NAZI STORMTROOPERS

AssCrofts Angels

[daleo]

5. Cognitive dissonance is getting to be too much for some freepers

They are blowing their stacks. If they are caught they should be charged with hate crimes. In my opinion, this sort of suppression of free speech and artistic expression really does approach terrorism. Maybe she should take down the painting and replace it with the actual photos, taken by the U.S. troops. The freepers couldn't complain about that, could they?

And to physically assault a woman over art, would take a seriously deranged freeper coward. That might describe a depressingly large number of people, though.

[gottaB]

9. approach terrorism?

I don't see a great difference. The freepers suffer from a political martyr complex, convinced that they're fighting an asymmetcrical infowar for the greater good (Freedom, Justice, Truth) as they badger, harrass, punch, burn, maim, detroy, and humiliate all who dare to publicly express contrary opinions.

I don't see much point in quibbling about acceptable vs. unaccepatble tactics, or names of the almighty, or which governments sponsor which terrorist groups--those things don't define terrorism itself.

[daleo]

12. I am assuming that it is just one person, for now

Not an organized group. I agree that this behaviour is a form of terrorism (using violence and terror to further political goals), I just fear that the word will become overused and lose meaning. Also, since there are specific legal penalties involved if a crime is considered to be terrorism (as far as I know), I think it is important to be careful not to use the term too loosely. I can easily see the authorities branding anti-war protests that get out of hand as terrorism, that sort of thing, which is why I am being careful in my phrasing.

[gottaB]

32. You're being reasonable, I know

My thinking: Crimes are invented. "Hate-crime" for instance is an invention. As a legal device for dealing with a specific phenomenon of social disruption, it's may be perfectly apt and just. Actually, I believe it is (with caveats, to which I shall return). I do not believe that the justice of "hate crimes" is written in stone or stems from immutable principles other than those that are embodied in the inalienable dignity of the person, acknowledged and upheld through democratic processes.

Okay, so there's a potential problem with classifying crimes this way, a danger that crimes may be "ghettoized" or thought to apply to certain groups. Is that in the nature of hate crimes legislation? I don't believe so. The issue as I see it is one of making how we deal with certain types of social violence a matter of national priority. That's political of course.

Right now "terrorism" is a national priority. "Hate crimes" are not. Whether that's a kind of injustice in itself, or whether it merely provides cover for some vicious inequalities, I don't know for sure. This I do know: The people President Bush has charged with setting the national agenda and implementing policy have said things which ammount to hatespeech against muslims. It is not just the obvious hatespeech, such as General Boykin uttered. Even the judiciously weighed statements of diplomats such as Colin Powell contain the seeds of antimuslim and antiarab discrimination.

The war on terror, to be true to its most noble rhetoric, ought to target Christian white rightwing terrorists, some of whom, it has been discovered, almost as if by accident, have plotted to use weapons of mass destruction. The Clinton administration had plans for dealing with such violence, and many successful joint operation programs. What happened to those? Why not bring back what worked? As we cycle through the list of reasons why successful law-enforcement policies have been abandoned--arrogance, incompetetence, idiocy, indifference, racism--we see the usual suspects, racial hatred and ignorance, recurring as they always do, in tandem.

I don't believe we as a nation can adequately address the problem of terrorism without dealing with religious and ethnic hatred. If that saps meaning from common understandings of "terrorism," so be it. That's my political view.

[leesa]

10. They are. I have seen a lot more hostility directed towards

anti-war or other sane people lately. They are loosing it and as dangerous as we predicted the brownshirts would be.

[liberalpress]

34. Sorry.Usually I let grammatical mistakes go...

... but the "seriously deranged freeper coward" is a triple redundancy and has to be pointed out! ;-)

[snippy]

7. Probably just some pranks by the Brown Shirts for Bush. n/t

[leesa]

11. No doubt a fraternity/sorority hazing of some sort

[screwfacecapone]

13. Typical republican family values

Punching a woman in the face becuase she owns a gallery which contains a picture of something you don't like. Way to reinforce the stereotype that bush supporters are sexist neandethals.

[SemperEadem]

19. Sounds like a Law and Order episode I saw not too long ago

in reruns.

Very close to the scenario of the tv show.

[Rex]

14. Repukes don't like the truth, that's why their leader is the

King of Idiots.

[madmax]

16. My country tis of thee

we've lost our Liberty
For this I cry :cry:

More and more like Germany everyday :scared:

[mhr]

17. Revised Lyrics

My country tis of thee,
land of lost liberties,
I weep for thee!

[drdtroit]

21. "Further Revision"

My country 'tis of thee
Land of lost liberties
For thee we weep

Land where our soldiers died
For all George Bush's lies
Shout from every mountainside
"Impeach the King!"

[madmax]

26. This is wonderful

You are both talented. I'm going to a BBQ tomorrow and if anyone starts defending bush I'll start singing. If they don't get the message from the new words...my singing voice will definately make them sorry they opened their yappers.

:loveya:

[madmax]

25. Beautiful!

Much better :)

[0rganism]

18. So the terrorists win again

I wish she could have fought back, but I can understand, since threats were levelled at her children as well.

[SemperEadem]

20. she needs to buy a couple of survellance cameras and recorders

and reopen her gallery.

And SF Police need to treat this as an act of terrorism, using the Patriot Act in all its glory to deal with whomever it is who cannot respect another person's artistic expression, is too cowardly to step forward and take responsibility for assaulting this woman.

Freepers would be noble if they'd take their asswhippin' for the crap they do. But they want to punk out by using the excuse of "I was mad" or "I'm a patriot" as all the excuse they need to justify criminally assaulting someone who is not hurting them in any way shape or form.

[Wind Dancer]

24. This is so sad!

I owned an art gallery for years, this speaks volumes regarding our rights and ability to live as a free nation. We are becoming a country where a large number of people think it's appropriate to spread hatred thru the media, personally or by whatever means deemed necessary to be patriotic. Unfortunately, the majority have no idea that the very thing they claim to fight for is being slowly erased and possibly forever changed if our admin. remains in office.

I am disturbed that this woman has had to close her gallery, resulting in loss of income, due to the hostile nature of the beast we must destroy.

This is disheartening in every aspect and I truly fear for the safety of those who dare disobey. I never thought I would live to see anything like this in my lifetime and I have been around for a long time.

[Domitan]

28. What primitive savages

They need to be outed and charged pronto!

[pinniped]

29. KRON 4 did a segment on their late evening news.

They played the recording of the puke who phoned in the threats. The coward sounded very mad and was most likely a repuke who doesn't live in SF IMO.

[LumitraC]

30. remember guys, we are the ones who hate america....

ya, thats pretty shit.

apparently some cant voice their concerns like an adult, they have to act like a child and suckerpunch a chick.. the hell is that about..

apparently we dont want to "rile up" the freepers with "our rights", especially when our views conflict with theirs.:mad:

[jeff30997]

33. What a bunch of savages!

:(

[natrat]

35. i was thinking coward

imagine that some nasty man spitting in a woman's face. If he were honorable he would have ranted outside exercising his freedom of speech. He should have his face smashed into the sidewalk by someone his own size.

[susu369]

36. This email message certainly rang true

Among the expressions of support she's received since shuttering the gallery, her favorite is an e-mail whose writer said, "I'm sure that a few and dangerous minds don't understand that they have only mimicked the same perversity this painting had expressed."

[PATRICK]

37. Put her own picture sans bandages

up there as well. Same deal, she earned it. That would make the point.

[robertpaulsen]

38. Kick