Could this story go national? Not sure, but it’s definitely hot. Here’s what Carolyn Ryan had last night at 11:
Deborah and Mark Kuhn got into a fight with a Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department deputy on Wednesday over a big American flag they were flying upside on their porch on Wednesday and ended up in jail, Ryan told us.
The Kuhns have apparently had the flag flying on busy Brevard Road for awhile as a statement against the Iraq war, and that hasn’t been sitting well with a lot of people. The big flag had a picture of George Bush stuck to it, and a sign saying something about the country being in distress.
When someone in the military flies the U.S. flag upside down, it’s a distress signal. When peace-niks like Debbie and Mark Kuhn fly the flag upside down, it’s a sign of protest. Remember also that local anti-immigration forces have flown the American flag upside down beneath a Mexican flag.
We couldn’t tell from Ryan’s report if the deputy was driving by and got ticked off, or if he was responding to an official complaint, but he went to the Kuhns’ house to check it out. Here, the two stories diverge. The Kuhns said they told the officer they would take the flag down, but that he insisted on seeing their I.D. and they said no and shut their front door on him and locked it, and he started trying to kick the door down and broke the front window out to reach in and unlock the door. Ryan interviewed one neighbor who said he witnessed it all and he backed up the Kuhns’ version.
A sheriff’s department spokesman said the Kuhns slammed the door in the officer’s face as he was doing his investigation and then was attacked by the Kuhns. The deputy injured his hand and called for back-up and six or seven other patrol cars came screaming up to the house to help.
The couple ended up getting charged with assault and “flag desecration.” Maybe they should learn more about the backward flag.
8 Comments
The latest issue of Rolling Stone mentions this incident…it’s just a tiny blurb in a graphic, but I thought that was still a pretty big deal!
Pubcrawler…what were you watching? Becuase the news I saw went out of its way to give both sides their fair due.
Is News 13 being proffesional, and displaying amazing journalistic objectivity (which is rare enough as it is) somehow "paintnig them as criminals?????"
Sorry buddy. Your talking out your ass on this one.
Dishonor, desecrate, blah blah blah. Realize that it is LEGAL to desecrate a flag in the United States anyway according to the Constitution (despite state statutes) until the day comes that one of those "flag burning" amendments is actually passed by the Senate (which have turned it down every time since 1995).
The point being made was that our country under Bush’s leadership is in distress (put the pieces together folks).
You have the policeman’s version and you have the Kuhn’s version. Oh, but wait… you also have the neighbor’s version which backs up the Kuhns.
I think the officer is lucky they’re not going to pursue a lawsuit.
These two out of town assholes knew it would cause problems in the firs place and are lucky just the cops showed up instead of a carload full of veterans. You can say anything you want about bush but don’t dishonor the flag and the people who fought for it.
Are you kidding me? How were they made to look like criminals? I saw two versions of what happened in that news report…you weren’t there and neither was I. Each side was represented fairly. It seems like both the officer AND the people who were arrested were breaking the law in some way or another
If a member of law enforcement is alerted to an American flag flying upside down at a residence, I think it would be perfectly reasonable for them to pay a courtesy visit to see if the residents are truly in distress rather than violently barge in to someone’s private home and manhandle them into submission and captivity. That would be the American thing to do.
The arrogance of government and police power is staggering.
It saddens me to hear responses on the AC-T bulletin board calling for greater uses of force and violence against peaceful protests, greater restrictions on the speech of authentic patriots, greater losses of individual liberties to the reach and powers of an authoritarian state, and a greater inversion of the sovereignty of the individual in favor of the brute force of government control.
Pinto Kroger smirkingly wrote in the AC-T bulletin board: "Get this, the Kuhns must be fun-loving REPUBLICANS. The picture of them shows a Ron Paul for President sign!"
It is more likely that they are libertarians, like me, who would like to see Ron Paul in the White House, regardless of his party affiliation.
I agree with them that this country is in distress; severe distress. I don’t believe that the Kuhn’s method of communicating that fact is particularly effective, but this incident graphically demonstrates their point quite well.
I was assaulted by a sheriff’s deputy in Atlanta. He was off-duty, in uniform and commanded me to get on the ground with his ASP raised. I refused. He put me in the hospital.
I sued him, the county and the city. I won in two settlements. The officer was fired.
I don’t care if you have a uniform, a badge and George Bush’s signature on your ass, you cannot break the law and assault an innocent citizen engaged in a peaceful protest!
In this case, the deputy sheriff broke the law. He was there on a personal mission. He was a thug with a badge. Buncombe County should be sued and the officer brought up on charges.
I plan to have the Kuhn’s on my television show on URTV and I will be pressing this point.
They went too far when the cop came to the door however. I completely believe in their right of free speech but it hurts their cause when they physically fought back. None of stories match. Each side has two to three versions! I think there was wrongs on both sides.
More evidence that we are moving toward a police state. Flying the flag upside down to indicate that our democracy is in distress is part of a growing national movement. I’m sure Little Red was on top of this info. Right. Instead these two people are made to look like criminals.