HITLER VICTIM BLAMES LAROUCHE SIGN FOR ASSAULT

KOMO News
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Sept 17 2009

By Denise Whitaker Watch the story EDMONDS, Wash. — It was just a
sign featuring President Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache.

But one man says what it represents got his blood boiling. And now
the 70 year old is facing assault charges.

Supporters of Lynden LaRouche often stand on sidewalks, passing out
brochures outlining their beliefs. One of their latest campaigns
involve their accusation against President Obama, whom they believe
is trying to revive Adolf Hitler’s genocide programs.

When Henry Gasparian saw the LaRouche supporters handing out pictures
of the mustachioed president, his anger boiled over.

"I asked them, ‘Do you know who Hitler was?’ Do you know why you’re
standing here?’" he said.

But all he got was a casual rebuff, he said.

To Gasparian, the Hitler reference is very real. The Armenian immigrant
tears up whenever he thinks back to the life he lived under Hitler.

Gasparian watched his brother starve to death under the German
occupation of the Soviet Union. And the image of Obama donning a
Hitler mustache rushed him with a flood of emotional memories.

So Gasparian confronted two young men holding the signs. Then he
tried to snatch their brochures.

The two teenagers who were working the LaRouche stand called police,
and Gasparian has been charged with assault.

"I do not regret that I stood up and said that. Maybe the way I did
should have been more civilized," he said. "I never meant to push or
strike them, they are teenagers."

Chris Fleck, another Edmonds resident, LaRouche supporters anger him
and his wife, but said he knows they’re just exercising their right
to free speech.

"They can have all the speech they want, but we have right to be
offended by it," Fleck said.

But Gasparian doesn’t see it that way.

"It’s not freedom of speech. It’s not freedom of speech. It’s freedom
to insult anyone you want to?"

One thing LaRouche supporters may be guilty of is spreading their
word illegally, at least in the city of Edmonds. The mayor said they
have not obtained a proper permit.