American Veteran strikes back

[Death from the Sea]

Apparently a business in Reno was flying the Mexico flag over the US flag, which is illegal (or at least that is what EVERYONE says), and a veteran took the initiative and cut it down.

http://view.break.com/376719

I see this often around my city and I take corrective action in the form of making the business owner fix it. I don't know the specific law but I always BS them with the old "it is a Federal Law, so breaking that is an automatic felony" and they fix it so fast your head spins.

Anyone know what the law is and where you can find it?

[Knife]

That guy was a fucking moron. I have sympathies in that it bugs the shit out of me too, but that doesn't give him the right to commit two or three crimes himself to correct the problem.

[Siege]

I don't know if it's the best source in history, but this site claims the following:

"When flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown from separate staffs of the same height. The flags should be of approximately equal size. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in time of peace."

It specifically mentions this incident as well. So it's not wrong because the Mexican flag is above the US flag and it should be the other way around, but because you're not allowed to hoist to flags to the same flagpole. Apparently. Dude should've gotten two poles, or display only one flag, I guess.

[Darth Wong]

What kind of a fucking moron gets so incensed over a couple of flags in the wrong order that he commits acts of vandalism in righteous rage?

[Turin]

I see this often around my city and I take corrective action in the form of making the business owner fix it. I don't know the specific law but I always BS them with the old "it is a Federal Law, so breaking that is an automatic felony" and they fix it so fast your head spins.

So you intimidate people because you don't like the way they hang their symbolic pieces of cloth? Nice. Do me a favor and stay down in Texas.

[Darth Wong]

I see this often around my city and I take corrective action in the form of making the business owner fix it. I don't know the specific law but I always BS them with the old "it is a Federal Law, so breaking that is an automatic felony" and they fix it so fast your head spins.

So you intimidate people because you don't like the way they hang their symbolic pieces of cloth? Nice. Do me a favor and stay down in Texas.

It's good to know that police officers in Texas are stopping important crimes, like sales of sex toys, hentai anime being sold in comic book stores, gay couples fornicating, and improper flag displays

[salm]

I´m speechless. Not at the fact that some asshole cut this flag down but that people here are actually bothered by someone flying a flag over another one.

[General Zod]

I could see how it might be perceived as a slight if it were a government building or something, but a private business? Who gives a shit?

[Glocksman]

IIRC, it's not a 'you can be arrested' type law with penalties for non compliance, but an advisory code that doesn't have any penalties attached.
Frankly, I don't see how it even could be made illegal because of the 1st amendment violation it'd entail.

That guy was a fucking moron. I have sympathies in that it bugs the shit out of me too, but that doesn't give him the right to commit two or three crimes himself to correct the problem.

Agreed.

[CaptainChewbacca]

It isn't illegal, its just against the flag code.

So quit telling people its a felony, ya twit!

[Beowulf]

This sort of thing (along with flying a tattered flag, et al), bugs me. There isn't actually any punishment for violating the US Flag Code, though. It's Title 4 Chap 1 of the US Code. Essentially the violation is that the Mexican flag is being put in a position of honor relative to the US flag. To prevent that, you need to fly them from separate staffs.

[Masami von Weizegger]

Phew, good thing he did that or who knows what dire consequences a breaking of the fucking flag code would have had on America.

[Kanastrous]

What kind of a fucking moron gets so incensed over a couple of flags in the wrong order that he commits acts of vandalism in righteous rage?

Someone incapable of distinguishing between the colorful piece of cloth, and the nation, people, Constitution and polity that the colorful piece of cloth represents.

[Elfdart]

It's also a breach of etiquette to wear white shoes after summer is over, or to eat your main course with your salad fork. I wonder if this fucktard plans to go around snatching white shoes.

[Edi]

The American attitude of wanking to their flag is just as tiresome as the wanking to the US constitution. That veteran was a compete fuckwit. Displaying two flags one above the other may be in bad taste, but it is not illegal. Vandalism is, for good reason.

It's also nice to know that SDN members of the law enforcement services routinely abuse their power to enforce their own arbitrary standards of conduct and see nothing wrong with lying to members of the public and threatening them with criminal penalties without any basis. Real fucking upstanding, that is.

As far as flying two flags from the same pole, which of necessity means one has to be above the other, I can easily think of a couple of legitimate reasons. Someone who lives in the US but is not a US national may want to honor both his original homeland and his new one and may actually not have the luxury of setting up two flag poles (lack of space, building codes etc being just some of the possible reasons) and there is no real reason at all why they should necessarily give precedence to the US flag and not the one of their own nationality when it comes down to display national symbols.

One also wonders what castle doctrine states would say about some jingoistic American fuckwit getting shot dead for trespassing and attempted vandalism while he was going after a foreign flag. In such cases one can actually see a justification for it from the Americans' own point of view, since anybody deranged enough to take such umbrage at a mere display of flags should automatically be considered dangerous. And dangerous Americans often being armed, shooting first and asking questions later would be the prudent thing to do. If he's a danger to you and your family in your own home, fuck him, he asked for it and got exactly what he deserved, right?

[Kanastrous]

The American attitude of wanking to their flag is just as tiresome as the wanking to the US constitution.

Change the flag to a portrait of GWB sodomizing a boar hog, and I won't be particularly moved.

But I *do* very much appreciate our Constitution.

What's left of it.

[Jadeite]

Apparently a business in Reno was flying the Mexico flag over the US flag, which is illegal (or at least that is what EVERYONE says), and a veteran took the initiative and cut it down.

http://view.break.com/376719

I see this often around my city and I take corrective action in the form of making the business owner fix it. I don't know the specific law but I always BS them with the old "it is a Federal Law, so breaking that is an automatic felony" and they fix it so fast your head spins.

Anyone know what the law is and where you can find it?

You should have known better than to post this on a forum full of leftists.

[Chardok]

Anyone know what the law is and where you can find it?

You're in Law enforcement?

Well, At any rate, I don't there is a law, but I can tell you that it's strictly adhered to in military circles. To violate the flag code is punishable under atricle 34 of the UCMJ (where almost anything is punishable.)

[Kanastrous]

You should have known better than to post this on a forum full of leftists.

That's not about leftism, that's about rule-of-law.

As in, it's seriously fucked-up for a peace officer to outright lie to citizens, and use his badge to underwrite the lie, because his personal sensibilities are offended by their display of the flag.

That's the kind of behavior that erodes - no, demolishes - public confidence in law-enforcement officers.

[Jadeite]

You should have known better than to post this on a forum full of leftists.

That's not about leftism, that's about rule-of-law.

As in, it's seriously fucked-up for a peace officer to outright lie to citizens, and use his badge to underwrite the lie, because his personal sensibilities are offended by their display of the flag.

That's the kind of behavior that erodes - no, demolishes - public confidence in law-enforcement officers.

I was referring more to the flag issue itself rather than his actions, but yes, he should have figured there'd be a lashing out at his abuse of power.

[Edi]

Obviously his abuse of power was going to generate a backlash. Any fool could have seen that. I'm one of the people identified as lefties here and I already stated that flying the flags the way they were done was in bad taste, assuming there was a possibility to fly them according to the flag code. Otherwise, see my previous post.

The American flag in and of itself is no more special than any other nation's flag and what turned this thread down the track it tok was the cavalier treatment of the far more serious issue of the rule of law.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Honestly, I don't really care much for the flag, and I definately don't have any real loyalty to this country, but this has been pissing people off for a while.

First I'd heard of it was when all the illegal immigrants got out and protested by holding Mexican flags and IIRC an American flag upside down.

I love how you discount symbolism though. Half the bloody problem with religion is that it give people a powerful symbol to rally behind. That's why the flag code exists, and why you have those recurring arguments over whether or not desecrating it is protected speech.

Hell, it's why they burn it in effigy in countries with populations that hate us.

To a good number of people, the flag is as much a part of themselves as the color of their hair. Yeah, it doesn't give him the "right" to do it, especially not in a country with protected speech which covers almost everything, but I sincerely doubt he'll get in any legal trouble, if charges are even filed.

[Flagg]

Apparently a business in Reno was flying the Mexico flag over the US flag, which is illegal (or at least that is what EVERYONE says), and a veteran took the initiative and cut it down.

http://view.break.com/376719

I see this often around my city and I take corrective action in the form of making the business owner fix it. I don't know the specific law but I always BS them with the old "it is a Federal Law, so breaking that is an automatic felony" and they fix it so fast your head spins.

Anyone know what the law is and where you can find it?

Wouldn't a uniformed police officer going around subtly threatening people with arrest and prosecution for something that isn't even a crime be guilty of extortion?

[Kanastrous]

Malfeasance, or something-under-color-of-authority, I should think.

[SirNitram]

You should have known better than to post this on a forum full of leftists.

Remember: Knowing what the fuck you're talking about and not freaking out over a peice of clothes' positioning makes you an evil leftist! Resist education and masturbate to the tricolour cloth daily to be right with Jesus!