from a group of peaceful, African American protestors. Watch what happens next:
The woman in the video is Michelle Manhart. A student informed her that a protest was occurring where the protestors were standing on an American flag. She went to the scene of that protest on the campus of Valdosta State University in Georgia. A few African American young people were demonstrating (media reports suggest the protest regarded racism). When she saw them standing on an American flag in a symbolic act of protest, a flag that they owned, she took the opportunity to steal their flag and attempted to leave.
The video above begins when Ms. Manhart a military veteran is confronted by one of the protestors asking for their flag back. Campus police arrive shortly thereafter and Ms. Manhart attempts to leave with the flag. The police show remarkable restraint as Ms. Manghart refuses to hand back the flag. She struggles with the officers, refusing to give the flag back. After the protestors point out she is resisting the police eventually wrestle her to the ground and handcuff her. No tasers, batons or other means of excessive force (firearms, choke holds, etc.) are employed by the campus police. Here’s how the local newspaper described the incident:
Manhart said she was taken into custody by VSU police officers who then returned the flag to the demonstrators. She admitted to The Valdosta Daily Times that she resisted arrest after seeing the flag being returned.
The group reportedly declined to press charges against Manhart. The officers attempting to detain her also declined to press charges for resisting.
Instead, Manhart was given a criminal trespass warning which effectively bans her from any university activity, including graduation and football games, said Andy Clark, vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications.
[…]
One member of the group who declined to speak with The Valdosta Daily Times or identify himself told a VSU student that putting the American flag on the ground and walking on it was “a symbol of our protest. When a slave understands his situation and understands he doesn’t want to be in slavery, he does not respect or revere anything his slavemaster has put in front of him.”
I can understand a military veteran being upset about this protest. I can understand that in the passion of the moment she got carried away and decided to “defend the flag.” I certainly respect the professionalism the police displayed in attempting to calm her and the demonstrators down and have her return the flag to its rightful owners. I do wonder, though, what would have happened had she not been a middle-aged white woman, but someone of color who behaved in this fashion. Theft is a crime. And, clearly she resisted arrest. Yet in the end, she is nor prosecuted or charged with those crimes.
By the way, the right wing media are going crazy over this story. Here is one example from a site called Freedom Outpost (find the link yourself if you wish):
In a valiant display of patriotism, Michelle Manhart picked up an American flag that was being trampled on by a bunch of young university punks. Keep in mind that this had been going on for three days at Valdosta State University. When Michelle stood up and did what the campus and no one else was willing to do, she resisted turning the flag over to police and stood her ground, guarding the flag until she was overpowered by police and arrested.
Here’s Manhart’s own version of what happened from her Face Book page:
This first picture is what was going on at Valdosta “State” University for 3 days…The campus refused to do anything about it … So we decided to get the flag and give it the respect it deserved…We just wanted to remove it and dispose of it properly…The American flag represents our Freedom why would you want to walk on that??? Please repost as much as possible make this go viral people need to see the truth…I wonder if “Donors” of VSU are ok with this blatant disrespect of the flag.
I guess the First Amendment doesn’t apply to African Americans peacefully demonstrating in a public place where they had every right to be present. Patriotism means respecting everyone’s freedom to speak out in the public square, including the views of those with whom we disagree. The demonstrators were peaceful. They have the right to use the flag as they choose as part of their free speech rights, one which the University’s Board of Regents recognizes:
The school’s Board of Regents issued a statement that said, “We respect the rights of people to peacefully assemble and voice their opinions. Our primary concern is the safety of our students, faculty and staff and our ability to carry out our responsibilities to all our students on campus. We are monitoring the situation.”
About the demonstrators, a university official noted that “They were exercising their right to symbolic speech. As long as they don’t disrupt the operations of the university, we let people engage in protest and debate.”
Ms. Manhart doesn’t get to be the “decider” on whose freedoms should be protected and whose freedoms can be violated. She also has no right under the law to steal other people’s property. She sure resisted arrest far more violently than I’ve seen other people charged with that same crime by police in incidents where excessive force was used against them.
Ms. Manhart got off easy for her provocative and criminal actions. Far easier than many other people we’ve seen on video lately being beaten, pepper sprayed, tased or even killed by police. Instead of attempting to glorify her actions and receive adulation for them, she should be ashamed of herself.
Again, kudos to the campus police for treating her with the minimum amount of force necessary to arrest her. Too bad not everyone in our society is given that same treatment when they encounter law enforcement officials.
