Burning Cross Mishap Leaves Florida Racist With Burns Over 50 Percent Of His Body

By Shannon Barber

A Florida racist gets his when he burns 50 percent of his body while setting up a burning cross. Image: Image Editor @ Flickr

Burning Cross Burns Racist

Karma is a bitch, yes she is. The perfect example of said bitchiness is the fact that when a Florida racist was erecting a burning cross, he set himself on fire, resulting in second degree burns over 50 percent of his body.

According to neighbors, Ron Nielson, 50, of Palm Bay, was erecting the display with his wife when he lit himself on fire by accident, says Yvonne Martinez of the Palm Bay Police Department. Nielson was apparently carrying the cross and some candles onto his lawn when the incident occurred. Martinez said:

It started as some kind of prank, apparently, and involved a wooden cross. We don’t know if he was trying to light the cross or the candles but when he did, his clothes caught fire.

A prank? Now that’s rich! Last I checked, a Halloween prank would be, say, toilet papering someone’s home. Or egging neighborhood cars. Immature, and inconvenient to the owners of the homes and cars, but hardly sinister.

However, burning crosses are definitely sinister, considering that these were what the Ku Klux Klan left in the yards of African- American families in the deep south in times past. This was no prank. This was a cruel, hideous display by a racist gone wrong. Or, in the eyes of people who see it for what it was, gone right.

Police are still investigating the scene where the burning cross injured its owner. A fire marshal told Martinez that the area was not properly ventilated.

When Neilson poured gasoline onto the materials, he caught fire, burning his midsection. He was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center’s Burn Unit.

Let me help y’all out with this here investigation.

Candles are their own fuel. They do not require gasoline or anything else to catch fire like say, oh, a wooden cross would. They were trying to light the cross. Also, if this was outside, how was it not properly ventilated? Things that make ya go hmmm….

Do yourselves a favor here, Palm Bay PD, and don’t look the other way on this one. See this and call it for what it is: a couple of wannabe Klansmen whose little shindig went wrong.

Now, a more vindictive person would wish the man a slow, painful recovery. However, while I do believe that he got what was coming to him, considering his activities, I wish Mr. Nielson no ill. I wish him a comfortable, speedy recovery with as few scars as possible.

I also hope he learns a lesson from this. Don’t play with fire, and quit being a racist. I also hope he has a few African-American attendants at the hospital. If he gets to know some of us, perhaps he will like us a bit better.

Nope, no ill will here. After all, karma’s a bitch.