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."
Agreed.
Do you fly it above the American flag?
Do you fly it above the American flag?
If the dollar continues to decline, we may have the mexican flag flying above the stars and stripes. they will own us.
-the vatican is not a “country”. Mexicans have invaded and are planting their flags and their anchor babies. Not quite the same thing at all.
If you want to celebrate Mexico’s independence day. go to friggin’ Mexico!
I complained to a local Mexican restaurant about flying a Mexican flag and not a US and the reason why it was wrong, three days later it came down and was moved to the wall behind the cash register. That I can live with.
You go boy!!!
A man remains with courage. God bless and protect him.
Happy days are here again! My house is a safe haven for hunted victims of the illegals! :-D
Amen to that.
Tearing Mexican flag = hate crime.
My guess is that if he had stolen an American Flag he would also be in trouble with the police. And if he had brought a Mexican Flag that he owned to the ROTC office that he would not be sought by the police.
Thus, the issue is not that the American Flag is not protected while the Mexican Flag is but instead an issue of him taking property that does not belong to him.
It is a simple issue of Property Rights which I hope every Freeper would recognize and support.
Unless you fly an American flag above it, you may not like my answer.
Of course not, and I am familiar with all the requirements of the U.S. Flag Code. I will also note that there is no Flag Code violation if I choose to fly the Vatican (or the Confederate Naval Jack) in the absence of the Stars & Stripes.
“Thus the offense taken by foreign nationals trumps the court given free speech “rights” to descecrate a flag.”
It is all part of the giving away of America. Do I hear a Congressman or Bush make any comment on this incident?
“Mexican” is not a race!
I guess France was just being racist when Germany invaded France?
Just exercising his 1st Ammendment rights.
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