Iowa Man Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison For Setting LGBTQ Flag on Fire

Gateway Pundit ^ | 12/19/19 | Cristina Laila

[Roman_War_Criminal]

An Iowa man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for setting an LGBTQ flag on fire.

Adolfo Martinez, 30, stole a rainbow-colored pride banner that was hanging from the side of a church and lit it on fire in June of this year.

The County Attorney said “hate crimes” were added to the charges because Martinez is suspected of criminal mischief against someone’s property because of “what it represents as far as sexual orientation.”

This is outrageous! Murderers and rapists serve less time!

The Des Moines Register reported:

An Ames man was sentenced Wednesday to about 16 years in prison after he set fire to a church LGBTQ flag in June.

Adolfo Martinez, 30, of Ames, last month was found guilty of a hate crime — a class “D” felony — third-degree harassment and reckless use of fire. Police said he stole a pride banner hanging at Ames United Church of Christ, 217 6th St., and burned it early June 11 outside Dangerous Curves Gentleman’s Club, 111 5th St.

Martinez admitted to police that he lit the banner on fire with lighter fluid and a lighter after stealing it from the church, according to court documents.

Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds said hate crime charges were added because Martinez is suspected of criminal mischief against someone’s property because of “what it represents as far as sexual orientation.”

[rovenstinez]

Calling President Trump. We have a clean up on aisle 11, and need a Presidential Pardon for someone accused of exercising his right to expression, his Free Speech rights were grossly violated.. HELP. Blue Light.. Alert.

[bray]

Should have burned an American flag.

[teeman8r]

he needs a better lawyer...

[NorthMountain]

Amber Guyger only got 10 years for murdering an innocent man.

Justice is dead.

[chuckee]

There has to be more to this story than just burning a gay flag to get sentenced to 16 years. Was a gay guy wearing the flag when he burned it?

[tbw2]

If he burned his own rainbow flag, akin to bringing your own American flag to a protest and burning it, would he have been charged?

[thefactor]

Please see reply #15.

[Track9]

And the homos are so hateful, they celebrate the decision. So who is actually doing the hate crime.

[wastedyears]

Alphabet people mafia and black-robed tyrants.

[a fool in paradise]

>>No this is not America. This is America under siege.

Thanks Obama.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2066829/posts

No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives (Obama friend, William Ayers - 9-11-2001)

NYTimes ^ | 9-11-01 | Dinitia Smith

"He [Bill Ayers] also writes about the Weathermen's sexual experimentation as they tried to 'smash monogamy.' The Weathermen were 'an army of lovers,' he says, and describes having had different sexual partners, including his best male friend."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2078975/posts

Wm Ayers Has Been the Mastermind Behind the Rise of Barack Obama

Contrarian Commentary | Sept 9 | Andy Martin

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2098056/posts

Ayers Was on Woods Fund Board with Obama When He Stepped on Flag

Little Green Footballs ^ | 10/5/2008 | Charles Johnson

(note: He didn't just do it once and definitely wanted to dominate it.)

Undercover agent Larry Grathwohl discusses the Weather Underground's post-revolution governing plans for the United States:

"I asked, 'well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?' and the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. And when I say 'eliminate,' I mean 'kill.' Twenty-five million people. I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people. And they were dead serious."

[HighSierra5]

The judge should have reduced the crime to vandalism. Period. Had to be a commie judge.

[Track9]

Bttt

[a fool in paradise]

Yes because there would still be the reckless use of fire charge. And you can’t even burn a cross on your own property (not that I would encourage such action).

[sanjuanbob]

What constitutes a flag? Does a piece of cloth mean a flag? Does a tiny segment of America have authority over rainbows? If my 3y old daughter uses crayons to make a rainbow, and I burn it in front of a sexual deviant, am I breaking a law? This shits gotten out of hand.

[Wuli]

It must be clearly understood what actually happens with a “hate crime”.

It is a THOUGHT CRIME, a “crime” for someone’s thoughts.

It is one thing to use what a person was thinking in demonstrating their MOTIVE, but it is another thing, and offesnsive to FREEDOM OF SPEECH, for making a motive a crime on its own.

If someone’s property is stolen and destroyed, by burning it the motive may tell you why, but the motive itself, their thoughts, must not be called a “crime”.

We are already seeing the law slide down the slippery slope from “hate crimes” when some attack takes place on persons or property under a motive of “hate” into legally punishable “hate speech”. I tell you now that the real agenda all along has been to move to the acceptance of thought crimes directly. In some cases in some places we are already there.

[The Antiyuppie]

Dickens said it best: The law is an ass.

[foreverfree]

A very inconvenient fact left out of this article: This guy has two previous felony convictions.

Source?

ff

[Engedi]

The Anitfa/Professor beat Trump supporter over the head with a bike lock. Got probation.

[CommerceComet]

Seems very trivial to qualify as the guy’s third strike. It would seem that a good defense counsel would have lobbied hard and a responsible prosecutor (perhaps pressured by a fair-minded judge) would have reduced the charges so as to not trigger the third-strike statute.

[CommerceComet]

If the guy would have grabbed a pro-life banner and burned it in similar fashion, the pro-life community would have been appalled at the level of the sentence and would have said so. I doubt the alphabet people will step up to complain about a seemingly unreasonable sentence.