Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Blair County, PA — A man from central Pennsylvania was kidnapped by police and deprived of his rights for doing nothing more than hanging an American flag upside down on his own property. Joshua Brubaker has since settled a civil rights lawsuit against the city for more than $55,000.
The Altoona Mirror reports Friday that supervisors in Allegheny Township, Blair County, have approved letting their insurance company pay the money to Joshua Brubaker.
In May of 2014, Brubaker said he was standing up for his American Indian heritage when he hung the upside down flag outside of his home with the letters AIM spray painted on it. AIM stands for American Indian Movement.
The flag was to protest the plans to route the proposed Keystone Pipeline through the site of the Wounded Knee confrontation in South Dakota.
Brubaker had harmed no one and was merely exercising his 1st Amendment right to free speech when the Allegheny Township police descended on his home.
“I was offended by it when I first saw it. I had an individual stop here at the station, a female, who was in the military and she was very offended by it.” said Allegheny Township police Assistant Chief L.J. Berg.
Berg took down the flag and charged Brubaker with desecration and insults to the American Flag.
According to WPXI, Brubaker defended his actions after his arrest, “I found that Wounded Knee is up for sale. Not only privately, but commercially. It’s just not right, and simply because I express myself in a way that somebody else doesn’t like or agree with doesn’t mean I should be persecuted for having beliefs.”
Luckily for Brubaker, a judge would later dismiss all the charges against him. The township has since advised its police to stop enforcing the state’s tyrannical and 1st Amendment-violating flag desecration laws.
“If I don’t have a right to fly that flag upside down, which means a sign of distress, which this country is in so much distress right now, then what’s the point of having it?” Brubaker asked
However, the 1st Amendment hating police department said that there were other ways he could’ve expressed himself, other than “Defacing a symbol so many have fought hard to protect.”
“People have made too many sacrifices to protect the flag and to have this happen in my community, I’m not happy with that,” Berg said.
Apparently, Chief Berg and the other oppressive neighbors, haven’t seen the many veterans and active duty military in this country flying their flags upside down.
To be offended is to take the first step in being a totalitarian megalomaniac. Acting on that offense with state force is the epitome of intolerance and tyranny.
To be offended by what someone else says is your own choice, as you don’t have to care about what other people think, and nothing has happened to you. Information merely passed from their mind to yours.
To state that you are offended means that you wish the person hadn’t said it and won’t say anything similar again. In other words, you actually want to stop certain information from being communicated.
You must believe that you have some sort of right to dictate not only what people can and can’t communicate, but what they can and can’t think.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/arrested-upside-down-flag/#svlyKWK5aTB8dsvU.99
*** “People have made too many sacrifices to protect the flag and to have this happen in my community, I’m not happy with that,” Berg said. ***
“To protect the flag”? Those flags can be bought by the dozen at stores around the country. If they were all burned to ashes today, more could be made tomorrow (in China, presumably). Flags don’t need protection.
Maybe people should be protecting the Bill of Rights instead?
As for the settlement, $55K is not nearly enough, and the pigs involved in his arrest should be held personally liable. In truth, they should be arrested themselves.
Once again, we see the need for Bill of Rights Enforcement. Those who violate citizens’ rights should be individually PUNISHED.
Well said
“However, the 1st Amendment hating police department said that there were other ways he could’ve expressed himself, other than “Defacing a symbol so many have fought hard to protect.”
“People have made too many sacrifices to protect the flag and to have this happen in my community, I’m not happy with that,” Berg said.”
Yea….fighting REAL hard to protect….such as killing innocent American Nationals and getting away with it….and making many sacrifices….such as giving up your Rights and everything We the People have fought for in order to save your own ass and please the corporations and a corrupt, treasonous, foreign government.
Yep. You guys work SOOO hard. You must be exhausted.
Unfrigginbelievable…………
“I was offended by it when I first saw it. I had an individual stop here at the station, a female, who was in the military and she was very offended by it.”
It’s funny how no one is ever offended by wetbacks burning the flag, or flying a Mexican flag above the American flag, but God forbid an American expresses his concerns over our national emergency; all of a sudden it’s too much for the police to tolerate.
“All of a sudden it’s too much for the police to tolerate.”
youtu.be/Iu63e7QD_5k
Then again, Befehl ist Befehl, and they don’t want the smartest people in the force.
Stupidity should be painful. $55,000 is not a significant settlement. A majority of the money should have come from the neo-nazi officers themselves.
Still have a magnetic flag upside down on my front door
Been that way since 9/11
Not going to take it down either
Upside down flag = distress
nothing more nothing less
free speech
remember that?
“You must believe that you have some sort of right to dictate not only what people can and can’t communicate, but what they can and can’t think.”
That would be the stinking jews.
The only flag we have here is a Confederate one.
“… kidnapped by police and deprived of his rights for doing nothing more than hanging an American flag upside down on his own property.”
Good thing it wasn’t the hammer & sickle.
They would have shot him for that.
Let’s not forget vets gave a lot, and some gave everything for the citizens to have those rights. Uniformed thugs doing what they did is worst then what the man was doing. Enjoy your 55k. That’s the least you can do for the forced taxpayers who are paying the settlement. I may not agree with the things you do but I served so you can have those rights.
I would also like to add that those rights is what makes the USA the greatest nation on earth. Without them we would be like a shitty third world country like Turkey infested with Muslims. Oh wait, isn’t that what our current pos potus is trying to do now? How ironic…