Pastor Terry Jones arrested with thousands of kerosene-soaked Qurans

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**Ouze**

Pastor Terry Jones arrested with thousands of kerosene-soaked Qurans, deputies say
By Desiree Stennett, Orlando Sentinel
10:16 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2013

Controversial Gainesville Pastor Terry Jones, known for his plans to publicly burn copies of the Muslim holy book, was arrested Wednesday with thousands of kerosene-soaked Qurans, authorities said.

Jones, 61, was arrested on felony charges after a traffic stop near a pharmacy in Mulberry, a small town in Polk County, just before 5 p.m. He faces charges of unlawfully transporting fuel and openly carrying a firearm.

Deputies said Jones was riding in a pickup truck that was towing a smoker and trailer filled with kerosene-soaked Qurans. He also had extra bottles of kerosene inside the truck bed.

According to Jones' website, he planned to burn 2,998 Qurans in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday. He was arrested along with Associate Pastor Marvin Sapp.

Sapp's pickup truck was seized. He also was charged with unlawfully transporting fuel and was cited for improper lighting on the trailer.

"My detectives had many conversations with Terry Jones prior to today," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday. "He was told he was welcome to come to Polk County and express his First Amendment rights. However, if he violated the law, he would absolutely be arrested and placed in the county jail.

"On Sept. 11, he arrived in Polk County, violated the law, and our detectives arrested him and booked him into the county jail just as he was informed."

As pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Jones' controversial stances have drawn widespread scrutiny.

Most notably, Jones announced plans to burn copies of the Quran in 2010, prompting protests and condemnation nationally and internationally.

In April, he organized a Sanford event in support of George Zimmerman, the man acquitted in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

source

(Despite the last line of the article, discussion of George Zimmerman in this thread is offtopic - please post appropriately).

**motyak**

Maybe its best if we just delete the last line. Temptation is hard to avoid sometimes....

And if he broke the law its good that he was arrested. Thats how the law works. Would this be classed as a hate crime? Or does it have to be directed at an individual of another culture for it to class as that?

**Ouze**

Believe me, I considered deleting it, but posting an article incompletely would in my mind violate the journalistic ethical standards to which we expect of the OT

Anyway - I gotta be honest. I sort of think it was lame he was arrested. I'm all for enforcing the law, but "illegally transporting fuel" sounds like kind of a made up thing. If you believe there is a constitutional right to burn a flag (and I do) then I think you similarly have a constitutional right to burn a book. It feels like prior restraint to me.

I think this guy is a horrible, horrible person, and the worst kind of attention whore - the kind whose antics will actually have repercussions for other people - but we're arguing about whether you have the right to do something; not whether you you should do something (I don't imagine too many fights to get to the front of the line defending that latter idea).

Anyway that's how I feel - free speech for everyone, even donkey-caves.

**Jihadin**

I do not care if he torched 2990+ Qurans. I do not care if someone torched 2991+ Bibles. Like Riddick said. "God wants nothing to do with this"

**Peregrine**

Ouze wrote:
I'm all for enforcing the law, but "illegally transporting fuel" sounds like kind of a made up thing. If you believe there is a constitutional right to burn a flag (and I do) then I think you similarly have a constitutional right to burn a book. It feels like prior restraint to me.

You have a constitutional right to burn a book. You do not have a constitutional right to transport dangerous amounts of fuel-soaked paper on public roads. Laws about safe storage and transportation of fuel exist for very, very good reasons.

**Cheesecat**

I hope he didn't buy that many books, that's a lot of money.

**azazel the cat**

Didn't this happen once or twice already? I don't understand why it keeps repeating. Let him burn the books; some nutcase will kill him out of holy vengeance or something, and then that nutcase will be prosecuted and go to prison. Then the news agencies can move on to real news, and everyone wins.

**daedalus**

Jihadin wrote:
I do not care if he torched 2990+ Qurans. I do not care if someone torched 2991+ Bibles. Like Riddick said. "God wants nothing to do with this"

"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn’t seem to mind."

DO:

Make your statement burning whatever you want, so long as it's your own property.

DON'T:

Be an ass and transport them dangerously, while violating firearm laws.

**Ouze**

Peregrine wrote:
You have a constitutional right to burn a book. You do not have a constitutional right to transport dangerous amounts of fuel-soaked paper on public roads. Laws about safe storage and transportation of fuel exist for very, very good reasons.

A fair point.

**Breotan**

Note to self. Read all posts in a thread before replying.

**Barksdale**

I wonder what they did with the kerosene-soaked Qurans.

**daedalus**

Soaked them in water and bagged them in evidence, I'd imagine.

Not that I'm an expert.

**Grey Templar**

Why did he soak them before taking them to where he was going to burn them?

Just seems like it would be easier to dump the gas on them once you've piled them up.

Seriously, this guy fails at burning books.

**daedalus**

And you'd think he'd be an expert by now.

**hotsauceman1**

So he just pulled this out of no where. No one knowing what was going on?
Can you imagine if he MADE IT. Like out of left feild "Thousands of muslim holy books burnt is a massive orgy of fire by christian fundamentalist"

**Jihadin**

Waiting for his defense of "Its God Will" to come into play. So I can say to Orlando Blume "Asshat. You should have destroyed the damn city!:"

**sebster**

Westboro Baptists have carried on their hateful, insane preaching without falling afoul of the law. In fact, they've even used the courts for protection at various times.

Point being, there's still plenty of scope within the law to say all the hateful stuff you want and you won't get arrested. So when a guy is going about saying the most attention seeking hateful nonsense he can... and getting arrested for doing dangerous stuff related to his protesting, I'm left to suspect the guy is just a dumb gak as well as having odious political beliefs. Or possibly he kind of likes inviting arrest to help his persecution complex.

**Palindrome**

azazel the cat wrote:
Let him burn the books;

In an ideal world thats fine but his actions caused the deaths of several people (including UN security guards) the last time he did this crap due to the inevitable riots that it sparked. The man is an attention seeking cretin with blood on his hands.

The last thing that the world needs at the moment is more instability.

**Kilkrazy**

In an ideal world no-one would burn books. It's generally regarded as the act of fascists and idiots.

**Seaward**

In an ideal world no one would riot and kill people because somebody burned books, either.

**xole**

Well, I suppose it's a good thing that everything is going digital then.

if you burn your iPad not only is it the wrong symbolism but you look like even more of a moron.

**sebster**

Palindrome wrote:
In an ideal world thats fine but his actions caused the deaths of several people (including UN security guards) the last time he did this crap due to the inevitable riots that it sparked. The man is an attention seeking cretin with blood on his hands.

In an ideal world we'd be able to easily assess what acts of political resistance are just gak-stirring and should be banned, and what acts are important statements. But in this world, we get that wrong all the time, and as a result we're really not very comfortable with banning any kind of political speach.

We do this because history has taught us the risk of some idiots provoking some other idiots and some other people getting hurt is a lot less of a risk than our governments banning our ability to make needed political commentary.

**PhantomViper**

sebster wrote:
I'm left to suspect the guy is just a dumb gak as well as having odious political beliefs.

They kind of go hand in hand. People with more than two brain cells don't usually do and believe in this type of thing.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Seaward wrote:
In an ideal world no one would riot and kill people because somebody burned books, either.

In an ideal world, the media wouldn't pay any attention to this type of antics and no one would ever hear about it to be offended by it.

**Palindrome**

sebster wrote:

We do this because history has taught us the risk of some idiots provoking some other idiots and some other people getting hurt is a lot less of a risk than our governments banning our ability to make needed political commentary.

What this muppet is doing is very far from political commentary, in fact buring books of any kind can only have negative effects, political or otherwise.

**Frazzled**

Ouze wrote:
Believe me, I considered deleting it, but posting an article incompletely would in my mind violate the journalistic ethical standards to which we expect of the OT

Anyway - I gotta be honest. I sort of think it was lame he was arrested. I'm all for enforcing the law, but "illegally transporting fuel" sounds like kind of a made up thing. If you believe there is a constitutional right to burn a flag (and I do) then I think you similarly have a constitutional right to burn a book. It feels like prior restraint to me.

I think this guy is a horrible, horrible person, and the worst kind of attention whore - the kind whose antics will actually have repercussions for other people - but we're arguing about whether you have the right to do something; not whether you you should do something (I don't imagine too many fights to get to the front of the line defending that latter idea).

Anyway that's how I feel - free speech for everyone, even donkey-caves.

It was made up. Burn 10,000 Bibles, hey thats just free speech. Burn a Koran and the President calls.

**motyak**

Frazzled wrote:
Ouze wrote:
Believe me, I considered deleting it, but posting an article incompletely would in my mind violate the journalistic ethical standards to which we expect of the OT

Anyway - I gotta be honest. I sort of think it was lame he was arrested. I'm all for enforcing the law, but "illegally transporting fuel" sounds like kind of a made up thing. If you believe there is a constitutional right to burn a flag (and I do) then I think you similarly have a constitutional right to burn a book. It feels like prior restraint to me.

I think this guy is a horrible, horrible person, and the worst kind of attention whore - the kind whose antics will actually have repercussions for other people - but we're arguing about whether you have the right to do something; not whether you you should do something (I don't imagine too many fights to get to the front of the line defending that latter idea).

Anyway that's how I feel - free speech for everyone, even donkey-caves.

It was made up. Burn 10,000 Bibles, hey thats just free speech. Burn a Koran and the President calls.

Thats a ridiculous thing to say as if it is an obvious reaction to that happening in America. Has someone actually done that and I've missed it and thats why you say that? Because that'd be the only way your statement is reasonable.

**djones520**

He was exaggerating a bit, but the whole reason they've been stopping this guy, is because they are afraid of reprecussions from the more militant Muslims out there.

Burn 3,000 bibles, what would happen? Nothing? Publicly burn a bunch of Korans like this? Death marches will occur across the Middle East.

**motyak**

djones520 wrote:

Burn 3,000 bibles, what would happen? Nothing?

But you don't know that because it hasn't been done, how do you know how people would react?

**Jihadin**

Bad side. He burns the Quran and sets off a fire storm in the ME with the US and since our troops are in Afghanistan....

Flip side. He dies by third degree burns because in the process of soaking the Qurans with kerosene he also soaked shoes and pants. Perhaps his buddy was a smoker and flicks a butt out the window of the truck.....

Good side. We laugh at his demise from unintentionally setting himself on fire. Reaffirming the belief of many Muslims and reassuring ourselves that the gene pool is improving by itself.

**Frazzled**

motyak wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Ouze wrote:
Believe me, I considered deleting it, but posting an article incompletely would in my mind violate the journalistic ethical standards to which we expect of the OT

Anyway - I gotta be honest. I sort of think it was lame he was arrested. I'm all for enforcing the law, but "illegally transporting fuel" sounds like kind of a made up thing. If you believe there is a constitutional right to burn a flag (and I do) then I think you similarly have a constitutional right to burn a book. It feels like prior restraint to me.

I think this guy is a horrible, horrible person, and the worst kind of attention whore - the kind whose antics will actually have repercussions for other people - but we're arguing about whether you have the right to do something; not whether you you should do something (I don't imagine too many fights to get to the front of the line defending that latter idea).

Anyway that's how I feel - free speech for everyone, even donkey-caves.

Considering the last time the guy threatened to burn a Koran he got the President and the Sec Defense asking him not to, no its not rediculous. Maybe you shouldn't comment on local affairs in another country.

It was made up. Burn 10,000 Bibles, hey thats just free speech. Burn a Koran and the President calls.

Thats a ridiculous thing to say as if it is an obvious reaction to that happening in America. Has someone actually done that and I've missed it and thats why you say that? Because that'd be the only way your statement is reasonable.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Peregrine wrote:
Ouze wrote:
I'm all for enforcing the law, but "illegally transporting fuel" sounds like kind of a made up thing. If you believe there is a constitutional right to burn a flag (and I do) then I think you similarly have a constitutional right to burn a book. It feels like prior restraint to me.

You have a constitutional right to burn a book. You do not have a constitutional right to transport dangerous amounts of fuel-soaked paper on public roads. Laws about safe storage and transportation of fuel exist for very, very good reasons.

But you can transport a Tanker full of gas...

I'm not calling this guy the brightest bulb in the room, or that I agree with him, but lets get real.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

daedalus wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
I do not care if he torched 2990+ Qurans. I do not care if someone torched 2991+ Bibles. Like Riddick said. "God wants nothing to do with this"

"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn’t seem to mind."

DO:

Make your statement burning whatever you want, so long as it's your own property.

DON'T:

Be an ass and transport them dangerously, while violating firearm laws.

I am down with that.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Seaward wrote:
In an ideal world no one would riot and kill people because somebody burned books, either.

In an ideal world I would rule from a throne high atop Mount Doom.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

motyak wrote:
djones520 wrote:

Burn 3,000 bibles, what would happen? Nothing?

But you don't know that because it hasn't been done, how do you know how people would react?

Were you born yesterday?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/10/florida.quran.reactions/index.html
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/making-sense-of-news/126878/florida-quran-burning-afghanistan-violence-raise-questions-about-the-power-of-media-blackouts/