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."
I do not think believing the following makes me a libertarian..
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
He didn’t steal it. He took it down from a place where it was being inappropriately flown, and turned it in at a reasonable place (the ROTC building).
That doesn’t appear to be stealing, in my book.
It is also a case of private property rights.
Who owned the Mexican flag and who had a right to take that property.
“... “Obviously, we need to have strong dialog across campus about respect for other people and their cultures.” ...”
What a crock of ca-ca! THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The only flags that should fly over a public school in this country should be the flage of the United States, the state flag, the schools own flag, and possibly a religious affiliation flag(if appropriate). Beyond that, nothing else.
Do you have problems with hotels that fly foreign flags (many in NYC)? What about the Puerto Rican, St. Pat's and Isreal day parades?
This fool committed trespassing and vandalism. WHY DIDN"T HE BUY HIS OWN MEXICAN FLAG AND THEN DESECRATE IT? In that case, he would be in the right, from a legal standpoint at least.
The other way to look at this is one more degree of heat on the CW meter. This is not a narrow, legal issue. It's a burning issue of nationalism and who owns the Southwest. In ten year, guns will be drawn over such events as the "wrong" flag being taken down or put up.
It's a mile marker on the road to CW2: "Back in 2007, people got angry but didn't shoot each other.....yet."
Technically, this man most likely committed a crime. However, we have better things to do then search him out and punish him. Other flags have always flown on our soil, but think about WHY illegal immigrants are flying the Mexican flag here. This man has done something the rest of this country yearns to do. We are disgusted and appalled that our nation allows this invasion. As such, it is symbolic to many of us. We secretly, or proudly, claim him as a hero.
And NO foreign flag should be flown without the U.S. flag being placed above it. That act does mean something and we should protect our flag’s image and it’s meaning.
Had it been flown on private property, that would be so.
It wasn’t, and it changes the entire complexion of this situation.
This is not a pure private property rights situation, no matter how much you’d like to spin it that way.
Can’t speak for Jeff, but it was a poor sentiment for those to fly a foreign flag in the US without understanding nor anticipating the implications that not flying this country’s flag in unison would generate.
Common decency and respect would warrant those raising another country’s banner within these borders do so beside the Stars and Stripes as it is considered the host of the other.
Flags are to be treated as “living” and as such, the host of a guest wouldn’t leave that “invited” guest unattended at any event.
Likewise, an unattended or improper guest could be considered uninvited and, therefore, hostile.
I did mention common decency and respect - characters of which those raising the Mexican banner in this instance were apparently lacking.
That sounds about right. Unfortunately.
Who owned the Mexican Flag?
And let's note that it wasn't in front of just any building.
From here, we have this: Scholes Hall
The administrative building for the University of New Mexico. The President of UNM, the Regents, and Provost, as well as many other top administrative positions have their offices here.
If you go to the link, there's what appears to be a nice Google maps satellite shot of the area. As you would guess from the description above, it's an extremely prominent public building.
Vindictive? You want vindictive little girl, show up in my neck of the woods waving the Mexican vulture!!!
I cannot for the life of me understand this crap. This is America, we wave the stars and stripes, you little idjit.
Palmdale is full of gangbangers, and my little one kicked the crap out one of them. Now I'm sitting here chewing my nails.
DEPORT NOW!!!!!
WELL SAID! And that includes the Mexican flag, the Iraqi flag, the confederate flag, and the gay flag.
For me, there is only ONE flag, and she's red, white, and blue, with 50 stars.
My main concern is that there are better, more legal ways of making a statement on this issue. I admire his thinking, but am concerned that he could be in trouble with the law.
So therefore, he should be charged with theft of state property.
I’d do as this kid did........take it down, and take it to an administration office. He didn’t steal it . He took it too a facilitator on the campus in broad daylight.
He took it down, he didn’t set it on fire, he didn’t desecrate it, he didn’t destroy it...........
He gave that flag a lot more respect than it was due IMHO. The seditious SOB’s that put it up illegally are the ones that should be hung from that same pole.
The student didn’t do a damn thing wrong..........he saw a illegal flag flying and removed it, took it too the first authority figures he found per my read.......
I will respectfully disagree with ya on the theft thing....;o)
Stay safe ~
The report says he tore it.
I’m curious on that.
Other than that, I completely agree.
But our flag is free to fly in THOUSANDS of places around the world from homes to cemeteries?
There is nothing wrong with flying flags from other nations in the U.S.
I collect flags and fly them next to Old Glory all the time. Historic, national, state, rare ones too. I’m EXTREMELY careful of my choices though, out of respect for others, but the ones I have always fascinates people and they want to know more about them.
It’s all about how and why you do it.
No, he would not have been in the news. His action was effective because it was more than the usual protest.
I am reading the text posted above.....is the fact he tore it at the link to the school paper or just the title he “tore” it down ?
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