Oklahoma Mayor’s Husband Dresses in KKK Robes for Halloween ‘Prank’
The husband of the mayor of Lahoma, Oklahoma got drunk on Halloween with some friends, dressed in white sheets reminiscent of KKK robes, and “pranked” their neighborhood with a supposedly fake cross-burning.
According to News 9, Cary Sharp and friends “thought it would be something kind of funny,” but now realize that dressing up as white supremacists and pretending to burn a cross “[is] not funny at all.”
Photos of Sharp and his friends went viral in Oklahoma and elsewhere over the weekend. Aside from the potentially racist and insensitive nature of the ordeal, however, the main reason the press cares so much about Sharp’s shenanigans is the fact that he’s married to Theresa Sharp, the mayor of the town of Lahoma.
“I am embarrassed. I’ve shamed my family and friends and I apologize for that,” Cary told News 9, while stressing that no cross was actually burned (despite what the blurry photo apparently shows).
“I just don’t condone it regardless of who it is whether it’s my husband or Joe Smith around the corner,” said Mayor Sharp. “It’s not anything that I think needs to be represented for our community at all.”
The mayor was nowhere near the incident, as she was out trick-or-treating with her son. Meanwhile, her husband insists the outcry is “ridiculous” since “it was a Halloween night.” However, Enid News reports that locals and other elected officials don’t think it’s that simple.
Garfield County Sheriff Jerry Niles later said that “bad decision making” and “very poor judgment” ultimately caused a “Halloween prank gone bad.”
As for Misty Meister, the witness who initially reported the incident to the local sheriff’s office, she said “It is upsetting due to the fact that we live in a community with families of different ethnic backgrounds, and this is a symbol of hate and intolerance.”
“Many people and children were out for evening festivities,” Meister cautioned. “Unfortunately, now this is something we have to talk to our children about.”
Check out the clip above, via News 9.
[h/t Gawker]
[Image via screengrab]
