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."
Someone should change her name to "blindboy". I agreed with you way back in post #110.
Do I need to use smaller words?
“If we are going to start banning other nation’s flags or battle flags in the United States the Stars & Bars will also have to be banned.”
There is a protocol for flying a foreign flag in the U.S.
Wise up and Google it.
If you go onto your neighbor’s lawn to put up those American flags, you are trespassing, and may end up looking down the barrel of his shotgun for your trouble.
While I respect your patriotism, I suggest that you let your neighbor fly any damned flag he wants on his own property. Minding one’s own business — that’s the American way.
He should have set that POS flag on fire and asked the ACLU to protect his act of Free Speech!
In fact that is an excellent idea in any community, city, county or state where burning an American Flag is considered Free Speech.
And you later called my property-argument a “red herring.” Idiot.
May be waste but it is the very least I could do and it does help relieve my blood pressure. Pls share email addresses.
I refer you to post 118.
May be waste but it is the very least I could do and it does help relieve my blood pressure. Pls share email addresses.
May be waste but it is the very least I could do and it does help relieve my blood pressure. Pls share email addresses.
You totally ignored both my agreement that he did not own the flag he abused (post #110), and post #79 (citing a US Code Section).
Because... ?
You’ve greater prollems than can be fixed on this thread.
I realized that about twenty minutes ago.
Yes, I did.
I know what a red herring is.
Your entire argument was that it was not his flag to abuse; however, the substance of the discussion was the abuse itself; hence, the derailment of the important issue the thread is about.
Genius.
I only read the first pages of reply to this post but hasn’t anyone else noted that the student org is called the “Mexican Student Association” rather than the “Mexican-American Student Association”? I think that says it all.
Apparently the UNM has an independent Board of Regents.
Totally agree with you.
It will not be the only thing(s) taken down if the illegals and their supporters keep pushing the envelope and keep talking about their "lost" Mexican lands.
They don't know that they are pinching the sleeping giant who'll turn around and take them down. .
Should I call the Waaaaaaaahmbulance?
This ain’t Mexland hefy.
The only flag that should fly on any governmental property is an American flag.
Raising another flag indicates conquest by the other country.
That cannot be tolerated.
Yeah, and the key word here is "was!"
New Mexico is part of the United States and we should have NO flag over ANY public buildings in America except the AMERICAN FLAG!
My impression was from decorum in relation to state or city flags. Again, thanks for the clarification.
Though I do not particularly like it, according to decorum, the US Flag and a foreign national flag, even on US soil, should be flown on seperate staffs at equal heights.
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