The Allen Almanac

Abel Tomlinson, the person who made the speech on Morality and Liberalism at the Fayetteville March for Change before the election, was arrested on election day, apparently for repeating the same speech. There is a video of his arrest on youtube, but first here is Abel’s recount of what happened (from his website, buddhachristlove.blogspot.com):

UAPD Arrested Me Unjustly

I was arrested by UAPD on November 7th at 12:30 p.m., and I believe they arrested me unjustly. UAPD arrested me during a debate with the fundamentalist Christian Moses, but they considered my method of argument “disorderly conduct”. In terms of true justice, either UAPD violated my Constitutional right to free speech, or UAPD should have arrested Moses for disorderly conduct as well. Before completing this argument, allow me to provide historical context for my relationship with Moses.

I have witnessed Moses preaching on campus for years and have never been angry with him, but with the agenda he pushes. Everyone knows his sermons about everyone burning in eternal hellfire. He says Greeks, cheerleaders, shorthaired women, longhaired men, liberal professors, liberal students, homosexuals, and anyone that disagrees with his literalist interpretation of the King James Bible will burn in hell.

I am particularly angry with his hateful diatribes toward gay people because this is a growing reality in America, especially among fundamentalist Christians. They’re amending Constitutions everywhere in fear of gays destroying marriage, which is ridiculous because if marriage is religious, then we should simply separate it from state. The level of hateful discrimination toward gay people is identical to past hatred toward blacks. It seems fundamentalists need an enemy, which used to be heretics, witches, indians, and blacks. Now the enemy is gays, Muslims, liberals and Mexican immigrants. Hierarchical churches fear the losing of their grip on power over people, so they transmutate that fear into hate for their flock to practice.

Now, let’s talk about the arrest. Moses was preaching his usual hate-filled sermons, which is antithetical to Jesus’s message of Love for all God’s children. I was going to lunch and heard his hate speech, but this time he was also telling people to vote Republican. He was saying that liberals and Democrats were evil and going to burn in hellfire. I couldn’t take anymore! I tried debating him civilly to prove his misunderstanding of Jesus’s message of Love, and that pro-life religious and political leaders are the world’s biggest hypocrites when the subject of life is philosophically broken down. He wouldn’t listen to me, and wouldn’t let anyone else listen to me. He constantly interrupted me and never let me finish a point, highly characteristic of fundamentalists.

I thought this is my campus, and I’m sick of the hate and hypocrisy, and support of the highly immoral Republican Party. I then retrieved my megaphone and gave a speech I had written about pro-life hypocrisy, and violations of morality and law by our Republican controlled government.

Moses then called the UAPD on me. When Officer Evans came, I immediately said I’m leaving and I‘m sorry. Evans ignored me and said, “give me your driver’s license”, so I started getting it. He then said, “put your hands behind your back” and clamped the handcuffs so tight that it cut off circulation and made my hands numb. I became very angry and called Moses many impolite, but not immoral swear words. Evans then led me to his car, and in doing so I fell and busted my head on the concrete because I couldn’t catch myself. I was then even angrier, so I kicked a trashcan.

I was then taken to Washington County Department of Corrections. Then I was placed in an ice-cold concrete cell without shoes, jacket or a blanket for 13 hours before they lackadaisically booked me. In the cell were hard criminals and a violent meth addict with bleeding sores all over his body. I finally bonded out at 3:00 a.m.

At the jail, I discovered I was arrested for disorderly conduct. The booking officer told me Officer Evans justified my arrest because I “threatened Moses”, which wasn’t true. Evans also said “he told me to leave and I didn’t”, which wasn’t true. In fact, I immediately offered to leave and apologized!

Here’s my argument. UAPD either violated my Constitutional right to free speech, or assuming Evan’s was right, I was disorderly. However, if I was disorderly for making a constructively angry argument, Moses should also have been arrested for disorderly conduct. He preaches immoral hate and hellfire condemnation, and he purposefully incites people to anger and the type of action I exhibited. Furthermore, I’ve heard he travels to Universities and tries to get people to assault him, so his lawyer wife can sue Universities for vast sums of money. My point is that either my civil rights were violated or Moses should have been arrested as well. Either way UAPD acted unjustly toward me, and my reputation is potentially tarnished forever!

Here is the video of his arrest for disorderly conduct.

If you haven’t been to the UofA and heard “Moses” speak, it’s hard to really understand just how inflammatory the guy is. If you’ve ever seen the Westboro Baptist people protesting, he’s alot like that. You can kind of hear some of it on the video but it is hard to make out. It’s really messed up that the UofA “gives” free speech to people like Moses and then arrest someone for trying to refute his hate. I’ve heard that Abel has retained an ACLU lawyer so hopefully he can get past this.

UPDATE Here is a little more on Moses and the UofA. And here’s a little list of the people Moses says are going to Hell:

“Drinker, smoker, glutton, breather, hippie, musician, fornicator, sorority member, fraternity member, gay, lesbian, Catholic, Episcopal, Jew, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, Muslim, Confucian, atheist, agnostic, pro-choice, anti-gay marriage amendment, Democratic, Republican, blond, brunette, redhead, hunter, fisher, Harry Potter fan, Lord of the Rings fan, Star Trek fan, Star Wars fan, Wizard of Oz fan, pop music fan, movie fan, Irish, sexually active, couch potato, casual dater, partier, speaker of any language other than English, newspaper or magazine subscriber, tax payer, potty mouth, day sleeper, postal carrier, truck driver, drive-thru window attendant, waitress, mall employee, zoo keeper, basket weaver, songwriter, liquor store clerk, student, unwed mother, single father, foreign car driver, consumer, soldier, judge, lawyer, doctor, professor, lover, hater, indifferent party, dissenter, or human being.”

As an aside, the Alliance Defense Fund describes Moses as “a Christian man [..] who has shared his faith with passersby on public grounds.” For anyone familiar with the ADF, it’s pretty fitting that they would choose to ally themselves with him. If you’re not familiar, check out Dispatches from the Culture Wars and do a search for “ADF.” They are a homophobic theocrat organization created to oppose the ACLU. There was a good article on them in the Washington Post earlier this year.