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posted by janrinok on Monday June 29 2015, @03:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the big-brass-ones dept.

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.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday June 29 2015, @01:06PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 29 2015, @01:06PM (#202763) Journal

    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.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:27PM (#202774)

    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

      by SecurityGuy (1453) on Monday June 29 2015, @01:58PM (#202802)

      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

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @06:07PM (#202924)

        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

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:38PM (#202783)

    > 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

      by everdred (110) on Monday June 29 2015, @06:17PM (#202933) Journal

      >>> 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

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @01:56PM (#202800)

    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 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

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @03:59AM (#203174)

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2015, @04:49PM (#203367)

        The US flag already makes that statement.

  • (Score: 1) by lars_stefan_axelsson on Tuesday June 30 2015, @11:41AM

    by lars_stefan_axelsson (3590) on Tuesday June 30 2015, @11:41AM (#203275)

    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