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."
That’s why I’m curious about what really went down. The language is very unclear.
“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.”
From that, it appears to be two separate acts, and that the flag was indeed torn.
Private location? Sure, completely agree.
Public governmental building, as this was? It is completely inappropriate to only fly the flag of a foreign power.
Damn if it don’t ..........my bad on the read !
I still would have taken the rag down. And I dont’ think I would have taken the rag to a campus office as he did. Ya’ll will have to think badly of me .....the nativist ~:o)
I also believe that the young man did not "steal" the flag, but took down an inapporporiate flag and took it to the ROTC building and that that was good. Although I can understand his desire to tear it, he should not have done that with someone else's property.
Then, I go back to Travis's comment. This is a continuing escalation in a broader issue, one that should never have been allowed to reach this point, and one that could, to this date, be arrested and set back if we had public officials willing to inact and enforce policy based on US interests. If they continue to not do so...then as Travis indicated, one day it will escalate to something different entirely.
Yep if we don’t wade into this PC mess now we will all be wading in blood later.........
Pro legal immigration Nativist ~
Flush Congress in 2008...........ALL OF EM !
I’m sorry but the whole private property thing is a side issue. I can’t even believe this conversation is taking place. This is about American sovereignty and the fact that we are being invaded. Take that Mexican flag and shove it, burn it or flush it down the toilet.
We’ve got certain Oregon schools with books & teachers supplied by Mexico.
Mexican flags flying where they have no business flying.
Spanish language taking over whole areas, towns and businesses.
Maybe we just need to have a gun shoved up our ass to understand what is really going on here.
Mexican Independence Day?
No, just hang it below the American flag, and you should be just fine :) Irish Catholic...recongize!
Those who want to be citizens of any other nation should remember that in the U.S. of A. the laws require the American flag be in the position of highest honor.
The admin of this crap school is racially motivated they need to be sued for their intimidation tactics.
“Student tears Mexican flag...”
BRAVO TO HIM!!!
If you look at the “Some Oregon schools adopting Mexican curriculum”, #14 - there is a U.S. map which shows by state/color (white to red)each shade indicating % of Mexicans in each state. New Mexico is totally some color of red so overall appearance = Mexico. Assume that people at UNM making day-to-day decisions are all Mexican. Haven’t been to Taos or Santa Fe for several years but I would imagine that it’s gone down the tubes. Wonder how local Indian tribes are dealing with their new residents. Did their ancesters teach them the art of scalping? About half of texas is some shade of red - the valley is totally gone to Mexico. Drove to South Padre this summer. Stopped for gas in small town - absolutely no one at gas station spoke English. How about a winter weather forecast for Colorado and Northern New Mexico of 6-8” of snow every day for about 4 months.
Saved! I got suckered into doing a myspace page, and guess where those pics are going? LOL, they’re gonna yank my damn account :-)
“UNMPD investigated the vandalism as a potential hate crime”
It IS a hate crime!
The boy obviously HATES the usurping of his country, and disrespect to same, shown by flying a foreign flag on public property — in place of the American flag.
That’s a “hate” I would hope most Americans would share.
The boy deserves a medal!
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In ten years, bullets will be flying over such acts.
This wasn't the flag of Tonga or Thailand. THis is the flag representing the forces of invasion and reconquest. Make no mistake about it, they are staking a claim on our territory, and if we don't fight for it now, we will lose it later.
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Finally, one who really gets the point.
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