93-Year-Old Stetson Kennedy Vows to Arrest Qur’an Burner
Local (in my neck of the woods anyway) legend Stetson Kennedy, best known for his ground-breaking journalism exposing Ku Klux Klan members in the 1940s, is taking on the Qur’an burning church. The 93-year-old Kennedy has vowed to perform a citizen’s arrest of Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center on Sept. 11.
Stetson Kennedy says he’ll be in Gainesville this weekend, and will conduct a citizen’s arrest on Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones on the grounds of inciting violence and rioting.
“Any citizen in the presence of a crime in progress may make a citizen’s arrest,” Kennedy said.
“In this case, I would intend to take the Reverend Jones to the nearest U.S. Attorney.”
Kennedy plans to arrest Jones on grounds of sedition, which can be defined as inciting people to disturb the public peace. It’s a bit of a reach, but it makes more sense than Jones’ own plan to paint all of Islam with one brush, based on the attack by Osama bin Laden’s followers nine years ago.
Around the world, others are making a similar error of generalization in mistaking Jones’ idiocy as representative of all America, or all of Florida, or even all of the Missouri-born Jones’ operating base of Gainesville, with some Muslims vowing revenge for Jones’ ignorant actions against Americans, including troops, abroad.
