if burning it is free speech, then knocking him out is free speech also...
Posted on 10/25/2009 5:49:51 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A Cape Girardeau man was arrested for flag desecration Friday, a case that was dismissed within hours because of a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment.
Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said that he was unaware of the case, Texas v. Johnson, that invalidated the laws of 48 states, when he filed misdemeanor charges against Frank L. Snider III. Missouri's law was passed in 1980.
When asked whether the state law could be enforced, Swingle said he needed to research the issue. After reviewing the court's opinion, he dismissed the case and directed Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan to release Snider, 30, from custody.
Missouri lawmakers had never repealed the statute. "It seems like it is still on the books but it is just an unenforceable law," said Tony Rothert, legal director for American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. Rothert said he was not aware of any Missourian being charged under the state law in recent years.
"I agree," Swingle said after reading the Supreme Court opinion. He directed that Snider be released about 45 minutes after the Cape Girardeau Police Department issued a news release announcing the arrest.
On Tuesday, Cape Girardeau police officer Matthew Peters responded to report of a disturbance between neighbors in the 900 block of South Benton Street. When Peters arrived, he saw a 4-foot-by-6-foot flag lying in the street. He picked up the flag, approached Snider and asked why the flag was in the road.
Snider replied that he had torn the flag up and thrown it in the road after failing in an attempt to burn it. "Snider continued to say that he hated the United States because it was the country's fault that he could not find a job," Peters wrote in a sworn statement that accompanied the charges.
Asked why he filed the charge, Swingle said "because there is a statute that makes it a crime."
The Missouri law states that "any person who purposefully and publicly mutilates, defaces, tramples upon or otherwise desecrates the national flag of the United States or the state flag of the state of Missouri is guilty of the crime of flag desecration."
In Texas v. Johnson, the court invalidated Texas' law against desecrating a "venerated object." The case came to the court after Gregory L. Johnson was convicted under the law following a protest at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas. Texas' highest court overturned the conviction before the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The issue of whether flag burning is a crime or protected speech became a major part of the 1988 presidential campaign. An attempt by Congress to pass a national law protecting the flag was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990. Attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow such laws has never gathered the votes in Congress needed to send it to the states for ratification.
if burning it is free speech, then knocking him out is free speech also...
Why not just shoot him from your porch and claim 1st Amendment rights?
Sounds like KIDNAPPING to me, immediately file criminal charges with the Attorney General, if this Attorney doesn’t know the law shouldn’t he be FIRED? as well as the COP.
and no I don’t believe it is right to burn the American Flag, mine is upside down as we speak.
If ignorance of the law is no excuse, will the prosecutor and police officer be on the hook for false arrest and false prosecution? Or is it only no excuse for us plebes?
no satisfaction...
Not to mention his attempted arson.
While the prosecutor certainly should have known about Texas v. Johnson — I studied the case in high school — I’d fix the ultimate blame on the state legislature for allowing unenforceable laws to remain on the books. It’s not a county prosecutor’s job, let alone a police officer’s, to decide which statutes to enforce.
It’s like the woman said, if you are going to burn the Flag please wrap yourself in it first.
I for one am sick to death of the degenerate hoard of ungrateful disrespectful traitors that wipe their cods on our flag and their leftist/libertarian enablers that insist such a damnable act is so called “free speech” 1st amendment rights. If you hate this country so much then pack your $h!T and co start your own country or move to one that suits you.
Whether flag desecration is "free speech" or not, I don't think there is any justification for classifying it as a criminal act. The only thing hurt by flag burning is other people's feelings. I don't think we should use the force of government simply to protect people's feelings.
It’s almost as bad as melting that golden bull on Wall Street down instead of laying hands on it and praying.
obama’s “flag czar”.
There is a very good chance the FCC will determine that what we do at FR is not.
Spare me, The absurd idea that (in the name of liberty)nothing is sacred except total anarchy and disrespect to those who’s sacrifice made possible the freedom that you abuse is repugnant to anyone with a single molecule of honor and integrity.
I'm not saying anything about what is sacred and what isn't. I'm saying that in a free society the government needs to be strictly limited to a few essential tasks. One of those tasks should not be protecting people's feelings from things that are merely repugnant.
Or do you believe people have a right not to be offended?
This is why libertarians are a joke and nobody ever takes them seriously, They think pissing on graves unabated is the definition of liberty.
Back when our forefathers founded this country, anyone that desecrated the flag would've been drawn and quartered as a public spectacle and warning to any other traitors.
What if it's just some guy on a soapbox on the corner saying "America is a lousy, shameful country and here's ten reasons why." Should the government lock him up, too?
Look up the word treason in the dictionary.
No, I think he should be informed this is a free country and he's free to move to france if he doesn't like this country, Then he should be ignored until he sets blaze to the flag then he should be shot by firing squad for treason.
Take a look at This guy on his soapbox doing what you advocate as "liberty".. There exercising their 1st amendment rights "libertarian style"
The Constitution defines treason, in Article III, Section III, as follows:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."
Desecrating a flag is not an act of war against the country. Nor is it willfully giving aid and comfort to the enemy, unless your terms are defined so loosely that expressing any displeasure with the country would also be considered giving aid and comfort. Flag desecration is not treason.
No, I think he should be informed this is a free country and he's free to move to france if he doesn't like this country, Then he should be ignored until he sets blaze to the flag then he should be shot by firing squad for treason.
Burning a symbol for this country is somehow WORSE than giving a detailed critique of everything this country does and forcefully condemning all of its core values? That doesn't make any sense.
I couldn't think of a better way to give aid and comfort to the enemy than burn the flag. Its a blatant statement that you are not loyal to this country or the Constitution, Its a declaration of war, treason.
How does some bozo stepping on a flag in Missouri help the Taliban or Al Qaeda? I doubt those cretins even know about this story.
Its a blatant statement that you are not loyal to this country or the Constitution, Its a declaration of war, treason.
Sorry, I just don't see it. Flag burning means different things to different people. For some it's a way of saying "I hate American foreign policy". For others it means "I don't like the President." The guy in the article desecrated the flag because he thought it was Uncle Sam's fault he couldn't get a job.
Even if flag desecration is someone's way of saying they aren't loyal to the country, that by itself doesn't give any aid or comfort to the enemy. Again, if someone directly declared "I feel no loyalty to this country or its Constitution" should they still be lined up against the wall and shot?
even if??
You’re hopeless.
Someone should be abel per the constitution to “peaceably assemble and address their grievances to the government” (paraphrased)
However, when they start desecrating flags and stating they have no loyalty to this country and the constitution they’ve declared themselves domestic enemies and should be arrested and tried for treason.
I'm not sure what else it could be. When someone desecrates a flag it normally doesn't put anyone in any serious physical or financial danger. (Open flames are another matter and should be treated the same whether a political message is involved or not). If I encounter someone desecrating a flag it really doesn't affect me in any way aside from provoking certain thoughts or emotions. It's just a much less sophisticated form of someone standing at a podium reciting their "100 Reasons Why America Stinks".
If there's no actual victim from an activity and no significant danger created by an activity than I see no justification for criminalizing that activity.
Am I missing something?
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