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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: 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.

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  • (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.