A protest in Huntsville involving images of President Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache drew the attention of residents and the Huntsville Police Department Tuesday.
According to HPD spokesperson Lt. Jim Barnes, authorities began getting calls from concerned residents around 2 p.m. about a booth set up outside the post office on 10th Street. In addition to literature being handed out at a table, posters of the president with the infamous facial hair of former German leader Adolf Hitler were prominently displayed.
When officers arrived, Barnes said two members of the protesting LaRouche Political Action Committee and about eight citizens angry with the posters were having a heated back-and-forth.
The Huntsville Item quotes Dr. Richard Watkins of Huntsville, one of the upset citizens, as saying, “I fought for this country so that people can believe whatever they want. We only had a problem with the pictures. You draw the line at the commander-in-chief.”
Lt. Barnes says the biggest concern of the officers was that the poster debate would become physical, so they offered up the idea that the posters could come down, but that the protesters could remain at their booth and hand out their literature. Barnes says both sides agreed to that solution.
News 3 is waiting to hear back from the LaRouche PAC's representatives in Houston concerning this incident. Barnes says the protesters remained at the post office for a while longer even after the posters were taken down.
The nationwide movement is based on the beliefs of Lyndon LaRouche, described by mainstream media and political groups as a conspiracy theorist and cult leader. They described the recent debt ceiling deal passed in Washington as treason, and that Obama is in the midst of a "Hitler coup."
