[Shadow_Group] Fw: Flag desecration charge against veteran is dismissed

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Grand Island Independent.

Flag desecration charge against veteran is dismissed


By Kevin O'Hanlon
The Associated Press

 
LINCOLN -- Charges against a Vietnam-era veteran who flew an American
flag upside down to protest the war in Iraq have been dismissed.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that Loup County
authorities agreed to drop the charges against 64-year-old Larry Lentz.

The case began last month when Loup County Sheriff Dan Kling warned Lentz
that he could be ticketed for flying the upside-down flag in his yard.

Kling returned later, took the flag down and had Lentz ticketed for
violating a 1977 state law that prohibits "mutilation of a flag."

Nebraska's flag law says "A person commits the offense of mutilating a
flag if such person intentionally casts contempt or ridicule upon a flag
by mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning, or trampling upon such flag."

Violating the law is a misdemeanor punishable by three months in jail and
a $500 fine.

Lentz then bought another flag, but this time flew it upside down on his
backyard flagpole.

When the sheriff returned a third time and threatened to issue another
ticket, Lentz called the ACLU for help.

ACLU lawyer Amy Miller said Lentz has a right to fly the flag upside down
to express himself, "especially because he's paid the price more than
most of us by serving in our military."

Lentz served in the Navy from 1959 to 1967 and later in both the Navy and
Army reserves.

Lentz says while he supports U.S. troops, he feels the war is wrong.

"My opinion is this country is in upside down mode right now," Lentz said
in a statement released by the ACLU. "I decided to fly my flag upside
down to show someone needs to make a change for the better. This doesn't
mean anything against the boys or girls in the war right now. They're
doing their job. I just wanted to express myself on my own land."

The ACLU's Tim Butz said Loup County Attorney Jason White agreed to drop
the charges after both sides met.

White said Thursday that he and Kling would not comment on the case.

Butz said several U.S. Supreme Court decisions have overturned laws
similar to Nebraska's flag statute.

In 1990, the high court struck down a federal law that outlawed burning
the American flag.

"Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes
this emblem so revered," the court said.

The justices said the Flag Protection Act of 1989 violated freedom of
expression guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Writing
for the majority, Justice William J. Brennan called it a "bedrock"
constitutional guarantee.

"We are aware that desecration of the flag is deeply offensive to many,"
Brennan wrote.

But, quoting from an earlier ruling, he said, "If there is a bedrock
principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may
not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the
idea itself offensive or disagreeable."

Earlier, the court ruled in favor of a Washington college student who
hung an American flag upside down and with a peace symbol taped to it
from his apartment balcony to protest the 1970 killings of four anti-war
protesters at Kent State University by Ohio National Guardsmen.

The state argued it had an interest in preserving the "unalloyed symbol
of our country."

The high court said the student had a right to display the flag as he saw
fit.

----

On The Net:

American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org/<http://www.aclu.org/>

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