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In a recent standoff between Republican and Democrat protest groups, two party leaders realized simultaneously that they were standing in the wrong crowd.

At issue was an Atlanta court’s ruling to release Genarlow Wilson from prison, and the subsequent appeal that prevented the order from being carried out.

Wilson, 21, was convicted of child molestation for having consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. He was supposed to serve a 10-year sentence, and has already served more than two years of the sentence, but jurors recently overturned that ruling. Wilson was expected to be set free when a last-minute appeal prevented him.

Outside the courthouse that day were two groups: one was arguing that Wilson had broken the law and should not be given special treatment; another was arguing that Wilson had committed no crime and had been wrongfully prosecuted.

Although the groups were not originally divided between Republicans and Democrats, protesters began shouting accusations that the “Democrats were too willing to look the other way in matters of justice” while others argued that “Republicans were too stupid to recognize a bogus ruling when they saw one.”

Members of both camps began uncomfortably shifting their feet as these accusations began, and soon the party members shifted sides, walking back and forth across an imaginary line, until the two groups were organized along political preference alone.

Two leaders, one from both sides, continued to shout accusations at each other, but due to some confusion in the shuffle, became somehow entrenched among the opposite party’s protest group. Apparently swept up in the wave of the shouts from the people around them, whom they assumed all belonged to their respective political parties, the two group leaders began arguing viewpoints that matched the people around them, but not the party they belonged to.

The Republican standing in the middle of the Democrats, who had started to call for Wilson’s immediate release, realized his mistake when someone next to him shouted that “Republicans hate black people!”

The Democrat, meanwhile, who had been arguing that Wilson should stay in jail, was heard muttering, “Wait. Wilson’s black?”

The crowds fell silent as the two leaders sauntered across the invisible line and joined their respective political parties.

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