A brewing battle between auditors and Leon Valley police erupted today when cops arrested several protesters and seized several cameras after one of them desecrated the Thin Blue Line flag in front of city hall.
Police claimed they were making the arrests because the protesters were “obstructing the passageway” to walk inside Leon Valley City Hall, but they almost bowled over a woman trying to enter the station who had nothing to do with the protest.
In fact, it was that same woman that police are basing their arrest on because she was entering the building as the protesters stood inside a passageway that leads outsides inside city hall.
The Thin Blue Line flag, often worn on police uniforms along with the American flag, happens to be a desecration of the American flag, according to U.S. Flag Code , which states the following:
The flag of the United States shall be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; and the union of the flag shall be forty-eight stars, white in a blue field.
The U.S. Code also states that altering the American flag for advertising purposes within Washington D.C. is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail, according to the ridiculously long passage below where the relevant parts are in bold.
§3. Use of flag for advertising purposes; mutilation of flag
Any person who, within the District of Columbia, in any manner, for exhibition or display, shall place or cause to be placed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, or any advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America; or shall expose or cause to be exposed to public view any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign upon which shall have been printed, painted, or otherwise placed, or to which shall be attached, appended, affixed, or annexed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, or drawing, or any advertisement of any nature; or who, within the District of Columbia, shall manufacture, sell, expose for sale, or to public view, or give away or have in possession for sale, or to be given away or for use for any purpose, any article or substance being an article of merchandise, or a receptacle for merchandise or article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise, upon which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed a representation of any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign, to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or distinguish the article or substance on which so placed shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court. The words “flag, standard, colors, or ensign”, as used herein, shall include any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of America.
But police don’t seem to see it as flag desecration even though the design of the current Thin Blue Line flag is just nothing more than the American flag blended in with the previous thin blue line flag, which was just a black flag with a blue line across the middle, but those are largely a thing of the past.
But how can we expect cops to honor the U.S. Flag Code when they can’t even honor their oath to the Constitution?
One of the protesters who was arrested said a cop told him that they were following orders to “go grab cameras,” which is a huge Constitutional violation, especially since they already have security cameras that should have recorded the protester’s actions.
This is a breaking story, so we will be updating it throughout the evening.
The video of the arrests is above.
Below is a video from the activists where they provide an update.
