Mext time you post, inform yourself first. The ACLU’s position on religious freedom is very clearly stated on their website, and exemplified by the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause cases they take. (For the record, I disagree with a few of their positions, like efforts to remove symbolicl references to religiously-based history in municipal seals and such.)
And it’s a non-controversial fact that the death penalty has been applied unfairly, in a manner that discriminates against blacks, in North Carolina – liberals and conservatives, pro- and anti-death penalty, joined together to call for a state moratorium on executions. It is a demonstrable fact that blacks convicted of capital murder get the death penalty at a much higher rate than whites, apparently even crimes with the same level of heinousness.
Well, ignorance fought and all…does that death penalty rate for blacks versus whites apply in every state in the Union that has the DP, or just in North Carolina?
To quote Rudolf Rocker, “Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are rather forced upon them from without. They do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace.”
You can set all the criminal penalties you like and it won’t mean a tinker’s damn out on the streets where you can get shot 41 times with impunity by the police for the “crime” of existing while black. It’s about taking back our own streets. We need more copwatch programs, more people willing to step forward and question the police when they’re actually engaged in the criminal activity, not weeks later when the damage is already done. Giving police free rein to do as they please is the one sure-fire recipe for a police state.
What does the constitution have to do with anything I described? I was writing about the behaviour of police, a psychological phenomenon irrespective of any constitution. I was affirming that I had personally witnessed such behaviour by police – and the respondent likewise affirmed that she or he had also witnessed such behaviour.
Cite that this has happened? And even if it has, WalMart is a PRIVATELY OWNED CORPORATION. The ACLU has no jurisdiction over WalMart’s so-called “War on Christmas.” (Hell, if they wanted to, WM could instruct their employees to say, “Fuck you!” if they so wished, and the ACLU couldn’t do jack)
As long as Phelps and Co. stays on private property, and isn’t making too much of a scene (screaming, yelling, throwing things), then too bad. You do NOT have a right “not to be offended.” I don’t like them, and I wish they’d go away as well. BUT, if the law doesn’t protect them, how can I ask it to protect me as well?
If I were driving through a neighborhood and saw a flag upside down I’d assume that the person was being held captive in their home (or something equally bizarre*) and trying to signal for help.
Isn’t an upside down flag a universal signal for distress?
I don’t think the police were justified in what they did, but I’d have asked to remove it because it would worry people unecessarily and possibly waste 911’s time answering calls.
*It’s really quite difficult to think of a scenario that would fit, but I have heard of elderly folks being held captive and their neighbors not knowing for weeks.
That’s NOT what is meant by “distress signal.” Basically, an “upside-down flag” symbolizes that the NATION is in jeopardy. Not, “HELP!!! I’M BEING HELD HOSTAGE!!!”
That’s why said moronic neighbor of mine is flying her’s upside-down. She had all these hard-core, “NObama!!!” “Obama is a Socialist!” signs up during the election, (nothing wrong to those who voted for McCain, peeps, just this person in particular), and then a few days after the election – BAM!!! Her flag is flying upside down. Weird. I mean, I loathed Bush, but I don’t think I’d have flown an upside-down flag when HE was in office.
Because I’ve always been told that you only fly the flag upside down at times when our nation is in jeopardy, and such. Not when you need to signal someone to call the police.
Would you really think that’s what was going on if you saw a flag flying upside down? I’d probably think it was some loonball protesting Obama. I’m having a hard time imagining someone in distress who wouldn’t be able to signal for help in any other way except digging through their closet to find the flag, going outside, and hooking it up so it flew upside down. I don’t think there would really be a flood of 911 calls by worried neighbors.
It was originally a distress symbol for ships at sea. It’s never had any official meaning that “the country is in jeopardy.” It means the same as “SOS.” People who say they fly it because “the country is in jeopardy” are just being figurative.
Or not. You don’t know what they believe; and in this case, the dude seems to think that this is an example of some greater malady. The inverted flag is a sign of duress in the Army, where it can’t be rightly argued it means “save our ship”.
