Posted on 09/20/2007 8:15:13 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Student tears Mexican flag; suspect remains at large
9/19/07
by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
A student took down a Mexican flag from a flagpole outside Scholes Hall Monday, tore it and took it to the Air Force ROTC office, police said.
A summons was issued for Peter Lynch, 30, by the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court for criminal damage to property, said Lt. Pat Davis, spokesman for UNM Police.
Davis said Lynch is not a member of ROTC, and it is unclear why he took the flag to that office.
Lynch has not been charged because UNMPD cannot find him, Davis said.
UNMPD investigated the vandalism as a potential hate crime, but witnesses from the ROTC office told police it was not a racially motivated crime, Davis said.
"He was frustrated a foreign flag was flown without an American flag nearby," he said. "We're basically investigating it on witness statements."
The Mexican Student Association raised the flag outside Scholes Hall on Friday for Mexican Independence Day, said Cheo Torres, vice president for academic affairs.
Mabel Gonzales, president of the Mexican Student Association, declined to comment.
Torres and interim vice president for institutional diversity Rita Martinez-Purson issued an apology Tuesday from the University for the incident.
"This sort of incident hurts everyone," Torres said. "It's something that you don't expect to see at a place like the University of New Mexico where we celebrate diversity."
Martinez-Purson said the incident caught her off-guard, as well.
"I don't think anything really prepares you for this type of vindictive behavior," she said. "Obviously, we need to have strong dialog across campus about respect for other people and their cultures."
Whether the vandalism was racially motivated or not, it was offensive, especially to the Hispanic community, Martinez-Purson said.
"There's still an impact that has to be dealt with," she said. "He did insult them. His thoughtless behavior had consequences."
The University won't tolerate that kind of behavior, President David Schmidly said.
"It's inexcusable to desecrate a flag," he said. "I'm not going to be very pleasant to deal with on this issue."
What makes the situation worse is that it was a Mexican flag, Schmidly said.
"For God's sake, New Mexico was part of Mexico at one time," he said. "There's tremendous ties, and we have a large population of Hispanics that live in our state and many of them have relatives and connections to Mexico."
ping
I understand your point..... (RME)
It wasn’t his flag.
Any other questions?
“Come on over. We have blonde chicks and beer.”
To the cognesceti, it also has this sane tagline:
“And if you mis-behave, be advised most of us have a machine gun
in our homes!”
Don't make it so easy.
“UNMPD investigated the vandalism as a potential hate crime,”
No it’s a hate crime :-)
If you have questions about the UNM Regents, please contact:
Ellen Wenzel - (505) 277 7639
Special Assistant to the Board of Regents
Email: ewenzel@unm.edu
I haven't asked any.
Been delusional long? (that's a question)
I limit my questions exclusively to people who appear to know what they're talking about.
“racially” motivated?
and what race are Mexicans? ROFLMAO
“The U.S. Supreme Court has settled the question, that burning or abusing the U.S. Flag is “freedom of speech” and Constitutionally protected.
But doing the identical thing to the mexican flag is a hate crime.
Do I have that right?
Can someone explain that to me?”
No.
I predict before the weekend is out there will be an American flag burning on campus and the putz chancellor will plead for calm - and nothing will be done to the flag burning perps.
Ah the memories . . . of the blonde girl at Zürich International in the blue-grey Army jumpsuit. Pigtail, and H&K 93. I would’ve married her ON THE SPOT.
Thank you!
Thank you!
"It's inexcusable to desecrate a flag," he said. "I'm not going to be very pleasant to deal with on this issue."
On the other hand, if it was just an American Flag and it was defaced or destroyed rather than just taken down, I'm reasonably certain the idiot Schmidly would just be applauding it as a "freedome of expression" issue. Why do I think so?
Post #90: Do I have that right?
Can someone explain that to me?
When I was in school, those were questions.
I limit my questions exclusively to people who appear to know what they're talking about.
Well, you ay be clueless, but at least you're snotty about it. Gotta give you credit for that.
Nowadays, if you're a patriot they call you a suspect.
Torres and interim vice president for institutional diversity Rita Martinez-Purson issued an apology Tuesday from the University for the incident.
"This sort of incident hurts everyone," Torres said. "It's something that you don't expect to see at a place like the University of New Mexico where we celebrate diversity."
Martinez-Purson said the incident caught her off-guard, as well.
"I don't think anything really prepares you for this type of vindictive behavior," she said. "Obviously, we need to have strong dialog across campus about respect for other people and their cultures."
And THIS is a major part of the problem. What kind of gobbeldigook is this...interim VP for institutional diversity. Your tax dollars hard at work paying for a useful idiot.
And as to the "vindictive" comment. Absolute Bravo Sierra. The "vindictiveness" is displayed by those who raise a foreign flag over our soveriegn shores without the Stars and Stripes, larger, and sitting right on top of it. That would be proper decorum and respect for OUR culture and nation. To not do so displays the real vindictiveness.
But these people are either too illeiterate to understand it (the useful idiots), or they do not care and understand full well the insult they are projecting and daring us to do anything about it.
God bless the kid that took it down.
“For God’s sake, New Mexico was part of Mexico at one time,”
What a moron!
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