Lahoma mayor Theresa Sharp says he "meant no harm" and that it was merely "four good ol' boys sitting around drinking and things got out of control."
After the group headed out into the night, complaints started rolling into the local Sheriff, who reportedly notified Sharp—but not before photos of their antics were posted to Facebook by observers.
"Please don't tell me racism is dead!" Alfred Baldwin III wrote. "This just happened a few miles outside of Enid. A little town called Lahoma. And to make matters worse, one of them was the mayor of Lahoma's husband! The mayors HUSBAND!"
Lahoma has a population of about 611, and Sharp has been its mayor for four years.
She did not apologize for her husband's choice of attire. The sheriff saw fit to remind America that there's nothing illegal about setting wood on fire.
Theresa Sharp said that the men never lit the cross on fire, nor did they intend to. "They basically had a stick on fire," she said.
No charges were filed against the men, and in a Facebook post, Niles responded to calls that they be arrested by describing what they had done as "poor decision making."
"They were holding it up next to the cross. The fire was legal, the consumption of alcohol was on private property, and no one had stated anyone made threats of [violent] acts to the deputy at that time," he wrote. "The Constitution of the United States guarantees certain rights including the right of speech. It doesn't say the speech has to be in good taste, of common sense or that we have a consensus of agreement."
