Mark and Debra Kuhn of Asheville, North Carolina were arrested and charged with assault on a government employee, obstruction and flag desecration.
The Kuhns were flying a flag upside down on their own property with signs pinned to it explaining why it was being flown in that manner: being upside down represents a sign of distress. A picture of George W. Bush was also pinned to the flag with the text “Out Now” printed underneath. The Kuhns apparently desecrated the flag by pinning signs to it, not by flying it upside down.
According to the Sheriff’s office, deputy Scarborough informed the couple that they were illegally displaying the flag and attempted to issue Mr. Kuhn with a citation. Kuhn allegedly refused to show I.D. and slammed the door on Scarborough’s hand causing a glass pane to break, which cut the deputy’s hand.
The Kuhns have a different story to tell. They claim that they shut and locked the door and that Scarborough intentionally broke the glass with his fist in order to reach in and unlock the door. He then proceeded to enter their home, without a warrant or permission, and placed them under arrest.
Flag desecration is protected under the First Amendment of the constitution as free speech; a fact that is supported by two U.S. Supreme Court cases. Any law prohibiting it is blatantly unconstitutional.
Mark Radford, the National Guardsman who issued the complaint about the flag, does not seem to care about the Supreme Court or the constitution he swore to uphold.
“The law is the law, and if we don’t follow the rule of the law as a society, where does it go from here?” he asked.
Ever heard of civil disobedience Mr. Radford? A principle employed by Samuel Adams and many others in the founding of our country. A principle exploited by Martin Luther King Jr. in his quest for civil rights. Have you learned about the Boston Tea Party? How about the Revolutionary War? Does any of this mean anything to you?
When there are bad laws, they need to be broken and any law — whether constitutional or not — that restricts free speech is a bad law. Civil Disobedience and Jury Nullification are the last strings for citizens to grab at if they wish to change the laws that oppress them. That is, after all, how the prohibition of alcohol was essentially ended.
I would like to personally thank the Kuhns for standing up for their rights and subsequently the rights of every citizen of this country. If we lose the right to free speech, unpopular being the most difficult to protect, then we really have no rights at all. Expression is the most essential human freedom.
[...] Freedom on the is already on the ropes, with the RIAA lawsuits, Elton John calling for the internet to be shut down, people in America going to jail for letting people post links to web sites, people being attacked by police for flying flags upside to protest the state of the nation, and of course police threatening Ron Paul supporters for having signs at a Ron Paul Rally. [...]
i’m so glad i live above the 49th parallel.
but that won’t last too long, the canadian dollar is doing so well, that the only sensible thing to do is to merge economies.
mark my words people, read up on the NAFTA super highway, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are going to be joined as one…
You should learn to spell if you want any sort of credibility. Even a spell checker would help you, but you are far too lazy to do even that. We don’t care about the opinions of a moron.
“You should learn to spell if you want any sort of credibility. Even a spell checker would help you, but you are far too lazy to do even that. We don’t care about the opinions of a moron.”
Why don’t you show me the spelling and grammar mistakes. I surely do not see any.
“we loose the right to free speech”
lose
Totally agree with what you’re saying, but it did stick out like a sore thumb.
” “we loose the right to free speech”
lose”
Good catch! It’s fixed.
idiot diserved it. why does he live in the us if he doesnt like it. Id want to beat up that idiot too.
Grammar Nazi– You are a posturing and pustulent imbecile. I am an ex-spelling champion who twice went to the national Bee, and even I am not sufficiently anal and insecure to cavil at an obviously intelligent poster who has misspelled one WORD. Are you threatened that that poster’s brain power obviously so far exceeds YOURS? LOL!
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