Cactus Murdered by Alleged Abuse Victim

The Angry Cactus Anti-Defamation League’s Facebook page has dropped off users timeline today, following what administrators believe was a complaint spawned by protestors of the prickled boxing phallus.

The page was set up last week when a San Angelo LIVE! poll went viral, asking readers to evaluate renderings of a proposed structure for the rooftop of a soon-to-come downtown restaurant called the Angry Cactus.

Two questions on the poll asked if the sign was appropriate for downtown, and if poll-ees found it offensive; and a related article explained objections voiced by board members of the Design and Historic Review Commission, who used an arsenal of adjectives from phallic and offensive to kitsch and inappropriate to describe the drawings.

Following the release of the poll on Facebook, a San Angelo businessman started the Angry Cactus Facebook page as a place for “debate on where the town is heading”.

In only two days the page had reached more than 150 likes and over 7,000 visits in user traffic, and featured only a few posts—mostly pictures of various forms of cacti.

“There was 1 or 2 posts from San Angelo Live, public posts and some tongue-in-cheek about how stupid the whole thing was,” the administrator said. He didn’t believe that there was anything objectionable on the page that would warrant a complaint or the page’s suspension.

In order to suspend a page on Facebook, a complainant is given six options as to why the page and/or its content is objectionable. Those include options such as whether the page is a duplicate, miscategorized, if the event is being held at a different location, if it represents a space that is not public, if the place has permanently closed, and finally, ‘other/abusive content’.

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Proponents of the cactus would say that most of these do not apply, however it could well be that someone misconstrued the images of muscled and gloved cartoon cacti as resembling genetalia.

In a screenshot of the explanation for the page's suspension, Facebook explains its zero-tolerance policy for abusive behavior directed at private individuals. As of Wednesday evening, visitors to the page say they had not noticed any "sticks and stones", however a few cheeky words about banning pickles and bananas for the innuendo they illicit in supermarkets were on the page.  

One of the board members, as well as the board as a whole, was also called out on the page, however per Facebook's explanation, users are permitted to freely discuss public figures and events, which would appear to apply to board members of the DHRC. The administrator maintains that the intent was to spur conversation, not to offend. What the abusive behavior was and who it was directed at remains unclear.

In the absence of the pro-cactus debate page, an official Angry Cactus Facebook page has been set up by owner Tim Condon.