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Courthouse News Service reports
A woman climbed a flagpole and cut down the Confederate flag in front of the South Carolina statehouse Saturday before promptly being arrested and seeing the banner raised again less than an hour later.
Bree Newsome, dressed in climbing gear, spoke respectfully with police gathered at the base of the flag pole as she continued to move ever closer to the flag. A video of her climb captures Newsome, a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, talking to police from about two-thirds the way up the 30-foot pole, evidently acknowledging her imminent arrest.
"I know sir. I'm prepared", she says.
"Ma'am, come down off the pole", the officers yell as passing motorists honked their horns at the scene.
"You cannot get to me with hatred and oppression and violence", Newsome shouted as she cut the flag down. "In the name of God, this flag comes down today."
The New York Daily News identifies the woman as Brittany Ann Byuarium (Bree) Newsome of Charlotte, NC and continues
[...] When she reached the bottom, State Police took the flag out of her hands and arrested her. Another North Carolina activist, James Tyson, climbed over the four-foot wrought-iron fence and held the pole to make sure Newsome didn't fall, Lewis said. He was arrested alongside Newsome as a group of onlookers cheered off camera. The 30-year-olds were charged with defacing a monument on state Capitol grounds, a misdemeanor that can bring up to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
A judge ordered $3,000 bond for each of them and said they were free to travel to other states.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Katastic on Monday June 29 2015, @04:00AM
These people are all jumping on a bandwagon. They hate that the state is associated with a flag that brings up "bad memories" for people.
Meanwhile, tobacco industry intentionally gets millions of children addicted to a harmful drug and nobody feels the need to scream at their representatives to demand change.
"A historic image racism" vs "millions of actual dead children" and people choose the former.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Monday June 29 2015, @04:26AM
These people are all jumping on a bandwagon.
So what?
Bandwagons is just a pejorative way of saying every body is finally coming to their senses. You term it "progressive" when it involves your pet gender issue or environmental issue. You call it a bandwagon when something you don't like prevails.
The confederacy was an immoral construct, a struggle to preserve the "right" to own another person. No part of that can be honorable, serving in the Confederate army isn't something you can look back at you family history with pride.
A modern day "son of the confederacy" should be asking himself "how wrong headed could great grand dad have been
to leave his family and fight to the death for the right to own people like cattle". The sooner we get past the point of believing any part of that was honorable, the better.
The union should have outlawed the flag at the end of the war.
I say good for her. Let her demand a jury trial. The governor has already said the flag should come down. She walks, or the judge watches his courthouse burn to the ground. Its PRECISELY for cases like this that we still have Jury trials.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @04:55AM
The reverence of symbols of the Confederacy is quite illogical.
There is a town in Brazil where descendants of slaves of former Confederates [thinkprogress.org] revere that flag.
It truly is a Klein flask of twisted thinking.
-- gewg_
(Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday June 29 2015, @01:06PM
I disagree with the banning the flag thing. It works for Germany to ban the Nazi flag because freedom of speech isn't a sacrosanct ideal there. Here it is, and sustaining a culture of freedom is essential to the US.
But any government that raises a symbol of war, murder, slavery, and treason on daily basis just to spite the rest of the nation isn't earning the respect of the people that a democracy ought to have. It's a petty appeal to factionalism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:27PM
These were North Carolina residents bringing down a South Carolina flag.
If you weren't just being an ass, you would've made sure it was a South Carolina resident doing this so rather than it looking like another attack by the North, it would look like 'South Carolina residents finally sick of their own state's hypocrisy'. Instead it looks like 'Union dogs trying to tear down the South's history.'
(Score: 4, Informative) by SecurityGuy on Monday June 29 2015, @01:58PM
Likewise, calling NC residents "union dogs" and labeling this "another attack by the North" makes you look pretty foolish. North Carolina was part of the CSA, seceding from the Union on May 20, 1861. The capitol of the CSA was, for most of it's history, in Richmond, VA, 170 miles north of where these people came from.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @06:07PM
True, but it has the word 'North' right in the name.
That's enough for some people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:38PM
> I disagree with the banning the flag thing.
Good thing the confederate flag isn't actually banned. Not flying it on government grounds and some retailers choosing not to carry it makes it no more banned than pornography is banned.
(Score: 2) by everdred on Monday June 29 2015, @06:17PM
>>> The union should have outlawed the flag at the end of the war.
>> I disagree with the banning the flag thing.
> Good thing the confederate flag isn't actually banned.
I think you missed something.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:56PM
But they could have banned its use at official buildings. After all, what is flagged at official buildings is not an expression of free speech by the people, but an official statement of the state.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @03:59AM
So it can't be an official statement of the state that its people have the right to freedom of speech and expression?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:49PM
The US flag already makes that statement.
(Score: 1) by lars_stefan_axelsson on Tuesday June 30 2015, @11:41AM
It works for Germany to ban the Nazi flag because freedom of speech isn't a sacrosanct ideal there. Here it is, and sustaining a culture of freedom is essential to the US.
That would have made more sense if the Germans banning Nazi speech wasn't forced upon them by the US after the WWII.
And I'm not even saying that was the wrong thing to do, and I'm not saying that the Nazis fought for free speech, but for the love of Deity, get off that high horse! Germany today is restricting speech because you made them do it. So it's evidently not that "sacrosanct" an ideal...
Stefan Axelsson
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday June 29 2015, @01:17PM
Distrust of power and rebelling against authority runs deep in America, for good reason. Power that could and should be employed for the benefit of all is so often abused. Consider the Dukes of Hazzard. The county officials are always scheming to get rich off the backs of the people through some illicit, unfair, and abusive employment of their powers. The heroes who stop them drive around in a car with that Confederate flag painted on the roof. I'm good with symbols of rebellion against corrupt power.
But the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism first, and rebellion second, and the TV show completely ignores the primary to focus on the rebel aspect. In that, the show is a reflection upon society, pandering to the fantasies of southern whites. There are so many other symbols they could have used, such as the first US flag with 13 stars, the "Don't Tread on Me" flag, the Jolly Roger, the Guy Fawkes mask, the flag of Republican France or Marianne, the Phrygian cap or liberty cap, the Liberty Bell, or a symbolic representation of the US Constitution or even the Magna Carta. The Confederate flag is no better than a Nazi flag. Even a Communist flag would be better.
Another telling fact of the show is that there is not an African American person to be seen anywhere. Like the racism, the existence of African Americans is completely ignored by the TV show.
Two of my great great grandfathers served in the Civil War, one on each side. Family tradition has it that my Confederate ancestor was in Lee's army, and deserted about the time Richmond fell. Wish I could ask him why he fought at all for such a despicable cause. He never owned any slaves, he wasn't rich enough. Why did he put his life on the line for rich slave owners? Did he really hope to one day gain admission to the club? They didn't think much more of his sort, the poor, than they thought of slaves. Slavery helped keep him poor by putting downward pressure on wages.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:46PM
Go read up on the history of the US during that period and tell me that it was about 'rebelling' rather than the first steps in enforcing conformance.
There was a lot of injustice being enforced by the very people who had a decade earlier been promoting independence from the crown.
(Score: 1) by AntiAntagonist on Monday June 29 2015, @06:30PM
Citation please
(Score: 5, Insightful) by shortscreen on Monday June 29 2015, @06:13AM
We'd better take down the United States flag itself while we're at it.
The United States perpetrated genocide against Native Americans. It oppressed racial minorities for generations with Jim Crow laws. Bombed civilian populations during WW2. Nuked Japan. Abused, tortured, and killed both civilians and POWs (Dachau, My Lai, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, etc.). Supplied money and weapons to dictators and death squads. Conducted political assasinations. And so on and so forth.
Who wants to be associated with that flag???
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Adamsjas on Monday June 29 2015, @06:42AM
Oh, excellent. Because of Acts in wars we must re-establish slavery just so you can feel all smug about your racist posting on the internet.
Where are your parents?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @06:54AM
Gitmo is not about an act of war. It's revenge and retribution on people who's human rights have not been acknowledged. The USA is the only western country with a concentration camp for people they are mad at.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @02:51PM
Hey I thought it was a terrorist factory. You take mere suspects, and hassle them until they hate your guts, and then release them. Isn't that what it's done there?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @03:51PM
What makes you think the first goal and the second result are mutually exclusive?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @07:14AM
How is that different from any other nation of any significance? Every one has done terrible things directly or on their behalf. Just take a look on what the UK has done. They even let their other colonies keep slaves over a decade after the US abolished it. Korea took nearly an extra century to decide that humans are not livestock.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:35PM
> We'd better take down the United States flag itself while we're at it.
The confederate battle flag existed for one reason - to represent a rebellion dedicated to preserving slavery. It was retired when the rebellion was put down only to be resurrected specifically to oppose the civil rights movement. Thus it has only one meaning. The US flag was not created to represent the terrible things the US has done and it also represents all the great things the US has done. Equating the two is the kind of teenage logic you should have grown out of decades ago.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 29 2015, @02:03PM
The confederate battle flag existed for one reason - to represent a rebellion dedicated to preserving slavery.
While slavery was a big part of the reason for the Civil War (I believe most of the declarations of succession prominently mention slavery), you overstate your case. The Confederacy got a lot of people to die for it who didn't give a damn about protecting slavery.
Personally, I think the only reason anyone is doing anything about it now is to stir up the Democrat Party base for the 2016 elections. While I grant that is part of the point of elections, it'd be nice if someone involved would care about the future of the US rather than its past. Blocking use of a Confederate flag in a few public areas isn't going to help the US's economy or make us more free from tyranny and oppression.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @03:33PM
> The Confederacy got a lot of people to die for it who didn't give a damn about protecting slavery.
There will be always be credulous followers ready to believe the manipulative bullshit of people who want them to do their dirty work. That doesn't elevate the manipulative bullshit to anything more than that.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 29 2015, @09:07PM
There will be always be credulous followers ready to believe the manipulative bullshit of people who want them to do their dirty work. That doesn't elevate the manipulative bullshit to anything more than that.
Actually, yes, it does elevate the bullshit to reasons especially when there's a long history of pretty talk not being enough on its own to get people to die for you.
(Score: 1) by AntiAntagonist on Monday June 29 2015, @06:45PM
Convincing people to fight for you regardless of your core belief is the central aim of politicking. It is also beside the point since from it's inception the Confederacy was about keeping slavery; it was one of the central points of the Cornerstone Speech [wikipedia.org].
Indeed taking the flag down doesn't affect the US economy much at all, however it was put up specifically to disenfranchise minority voters. I don't know how else you could label that except as "tyranny and oppression". Can the South Carolina Legislature and Governor really not walk and chew gum at the same time?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 29 2015, @08:44PM
Indeed taking the flag down doesn't affect the US economy much at all, however it was put up specifically to disenfranchise minority voters. I don't know how else you could label that except as "tyranny and oppression".
I would label it as an empty act of minor defiance.
(Score: 1) by AntiAntagonist on Wednesday July 01 2015, @04:51PM
Yep, defiance against human decency, equality, and pluralism.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 02 2015, @01:21PM
(Score: 1) by AntiAntagonist on Thursday July 02 2015, @04:04PM
I am not casting aspersions on your character. I attribute those to the flag and what it symbolizes. I do not know why you think I do not value human decency, equality, and pluralism. Or is this an indirect ad hominem on my character?
Why would it be a fruitless effort if people are upset at what the flag symbolizes and therefore want it removed? Typing comments takes minutes and is free. Working for cash, then donating to causes takes hours or days.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 02 2015, @08:39PM
I am not casting aspersions on your character. I attribute those to the flag and what it symbolizes. I do not know why you think I do not value human decency, equality, and pluralism. Or is this an indirect ad hominem on my character?
My view on this is that we suddenly have all this care about the old civil war flag because racism in the traditional sense of the word motivates a considerable portion of the Democrat party base to vote and those additional voters will be needed in order for the Democrats to hold their ground in the 2016 elections (and possibly win the US Presidency).
The thing is, if we do strip the civil war flag from US public buildings for your alleged reasons, then what? The Democrats still need to win the 2016 elections (and beyond). There will be new race baiting. I'd much rather this be directed at a colorful rag in Georgia than say the traditional process of Balkanization.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 29 2015, @09:02PM
Convincing people to fight for you regardless of your core belief is the central aim of politicking. It is also beside the point since from it's inception the Confederacy was about keeping slavery; it was one of the central points of the Cornerstone Speech.
I obviously disagree. Confederate soldiers endured considerable privation over a several year period. You wouldn't get them out of bed to protect rich peoples' slaves yet they fought, suffered, and died for up to four years. That shows there was more to this rebellion than just protecting slavery. As I see it, the reason was that there was a considerable loyalty to the state in the early years of the US republic at least in the South and most people sided with their state over the federal government.
In large part, this was because the federal government was puny prior to the Civil War while the state level played a prominent role in the lives of their citizens. There also wasn't as much mobility as there is today. So the period leading up to the Civil War was also about a remote government imposing its will on a local respected government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @09:27PM
Apparently not. Just the other day I read that their Legislature won't eve debate the issue of removing the flag until January. Yes, January. I can't help but think they are just hoping this brouhaha will go away after something else moves this story off the front page headlines. Bastards, all of them!
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by FatPhil on Monday June 29 2015, @08:37AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @10:58PM
The flag is literally a symbol of treason, flying it is sedition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:07AM
The flag is literally an inanimate piece of cloth and is incapable of any treasonous acts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:53PM
Your sophistic statement intentionally missed the word "symbol".