Posted on 09/26/2009 10:12:55 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
VALLEY FALLS -- The young man was given three choices: get turned over to the police, go one-on-one in a fight with a seasoned war veteran, or be duct-taped to a flagpole for six hours with a sign around his neck identifying his alleged crime: flag burning.
It was the third option that would still have the small town buzzing a week after a 21-year-old was hunted down and forced to endure a public humiliation with its roots dating to the Middle Ages. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1938 were incensed enough to tie up the man last Sunday after they accused him of setting the flag in front of their building on fire.
Post Commander Nick Normile, a Vietnam War veteran, said the man came into the post's bar Sept. 18 on Poplar Avenue and was eventually turned away for not having a proper ID.
Apparently angered, the young man, who Normile did not want to name, cut the rope of the American flag flying overhead and used a cigarette lighter to set it on fire, Normile and others said.
The man sat pilloried as the village had its fall youth soccer picnic with a long parade of children passing in front of him.
"He'll never disrespect the flag again, I can tell you that," Normile said.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesunion.com ...
yes, despicable vigilantism
That is entirely up to the manufacturer.
Pissed off? U-Betcha!
You're thinking about the wild west as portrayed in the movies.
In the real west, a man's word was his bond, women were respected and if you could work you worked or died. Your country was sacrosanct and neighbors were neighbors. Everyone carried a gun and there was less crime per capita than in Boston or New York City.
The west was not settled by a bunch of brie eating Chablis drinking Long Island liberals.
Yes, “Law & Order” is just the name of a TV show. Decent people will need to be prepared to defend themselves and their homes and property all on their own. And probably sooner rather than later. It is indescribably sad that we have come to this, but it is fact. It is a long struggle back, if we can make it at all.
Which is why shooting a perp during the commission of a crime should be grounds for a reward, not persecution...
Neither.
Did passer’s by call him a p**** for not choosing option 2? I would have been unable to resist that.
True. All you have to do is watch "Cold Case Files" or "Forensic Files". I respect the sometimes superhuman efforts of the lab techs and officers but when the latter say that "justice" was served when a killer, nailed by strong DNA and forensic evidence, plea bargains a death sentence down to a "Life" (sometimes WITH parole) I have to wonder.
Rather than prosecuting the young man and giving him a permanent criminal record, they offered a reasonable solution which served everyone’s purpose. Very wise.
This is NOT vigilantism. This is settling a property destruction dispute between the parties. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, legally or morally.
He could have easily say “call the police.” He didn’t.
In my area, burning someone's flag is a good way to wind up in the hospital after being beaten by unknown assailants.
Bullshit. This is the sort of thuggish behavior we accuse the other side of. Flag burning isn’t illegal, and attempts to make it illegal just alienate people who might otherwise be sympathetic to the people who hate the little shits who burn our flag.
Why?
Fantastic.
“Unknown assailants” are cowards.
It’s not illegal to burn someone else’s flag?
The cop just chogied down the road, working on the see no evil principle I guess.
Be more clear, what was despicable, the fact he was given a choice, or the fact he chose not to go through the legal process?
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