Woman climbs pole, removes Confederate flag


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2015-06-27T183358Z_1_LYNXMPEB5Q0EX_RTROP

 

Dressed in climbing gear and a helmet, Brittany "Bree" Newsome shimmied up a 30-foot flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina state Capitol early Saturday and removed the Confederate battle flag that has reignited national debate over the emblem's place in modern America.

 

Newsome removed the banner hours before a pro-flag rally was scheduled to take place at the monument in Columbia. By the time the flag was raised again, the moment had made its mark in the ongoing debate over the Confederate banner on the State House grounds -- and its value in American society 150 years after the end of the Civil War.

 

Newsome was arrested after she returned to ground with flag in hand. Video shows fellow activist James Tyson waiting at the flagpole's base inside the wrought-iron fence to help her out of her climbing gear. She posted bond and was released from jail Saturday afternoon, spokesman Mervyn Marcano said. Calls to her attorney have not been returned.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-mt1P94cQ

 

Newsome and Tyson, both 30, were charged with defacing a monument, a misdemeanor, and a new flag went up within about an hour, according to the S.C. Department of Public Safety. Not long after they were led away in handcuffs, Newsome became an online hero, a trending topic on social media and the subject of an online fundraiser.

 

Opponents of the flag, including celebrities, politicians and civil rights activists, used #FreeBree to applaud Newsome for doing what many thought lawmakers should have done sooner. While filmmaker Michael Moore offered to pay Newsome's legal fees, advocacy group ColorofChange launched an online petition calling for the charge to be dropped and an online fundraiser was set up pay Newsome's legal fees.

 

"Her actions represent a nation that is saying NO MORE of letting this symbol of white supremacy fly," first lady of New York Chirlane McCray said in a tweet.

 

http://twitter.com/JoshThicklin53/status/614843113656463360/photo/1

 

http://twitter.com/RevJJackson/status/614789669260148736/photo/1

 

http://twitter.com/EdgeofSports/status/614777337700327424/photo/1

 

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also came out in support of Newsome, likening her actions to those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

"As well as supporting the permanent removal of the flag legislatively, we commend the courage and moral impulse of Ms. Newsome as she stands for justice like many NAACP activists including Henry David Thoreau, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and numerous Americans who have engaged in civil disobedience,"

 

"The NAACP calls on state prosecutors to consider the moral inspiration behind the civil disobedience of this young practitioner of democracy," NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said in a statement. "Prosecutors should treat Ms. Newsome with the same large-hearted measure of justice that inspired her actions."

 

The Charlotte, North Carolina, branch of the NAACP posted a statement Saturday on Newsome's behalf asking supporters to host nonviolent demonstrations in their own communities instead of visiting Columbia.

 

https://www.facebook.com/v2.3/plugins/post.php?app_id=&channel=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F1ldYU13brY_.js%3Fversion%3D41%23cb%3Df1aed5e9b4d1bf5%26domain%3Dwww.cnn.com%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.cnn.com%252Ff2322dc6200d90c%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=780&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FCharlotteMecklenburgNAACP%2Fposts%2F834212443299336&locale=en_US&sdk=joey

 

'We can't continue like this another day'

 

South Carolina lawmakers raised the universally known Confederate emblem over the State House in 1961, officially in honor of the war's centennial. But it was also a time of growing momentum in the civil rights movement, and white leaders in the South were digging their heels in against efforts to end segregation. For nearly 40 years it flew under the U.S. and state flag, above the seat of government, until a compromise moved it to a flagpole next to a soldiers' monument.

 

That move didn't satisfy opponents, who maintained that the flag's display on the grounds amounted to tacit state endorsement of white supremacy.

 

But efforts to remove it had gone nowhere in the years before the awful night of June 17 -- when nine people who had gathered for Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston were massacred. All nine victims were African-American, including the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who also was a state senator.

 

The motivations of the shooter, 21-year-old Dylan Roof, became clear after his arrest the next day in North Carolina. A website surfaced showing a racist manifesto and 60 photos of Roof, some of them showing him waving Confederate flags while armed.

 

The revelations spurred politicians around the South to re-examine the placement of the Confederate flags on everything from government property to state-issued license plates amid national debate over its meaning. South Carolina's Republican governor, Nikki Haley, on Monday called for the removal of the flag, saying that while it is "an integral part of our past, [it] does not represent the future of our great state." Among the politicians joining her at the announcement were U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both Republicans, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.

 

State representatives on Tuesday resoundingly voted to allow debate on a bill to bring it down. Until such a bill passes, the flag continues to fly -- except for a brief time around dawn Saturday.

 

In a statement through activist group #BlackLivesMatter, Newsome explained her actions, saying, "we can't wait any longer."

 

"We can't continue like this another day," Newsome said. "It's time for a new chapter where we are sincere about dismantling white supremacy and building toward true racial justice and equality."

 

About 60 people attended the pro-flag rally, according to the Charleston Post and Courier. Those in attendance said they hope Newsome is punished for her actions.

 

"We consider this flag as a flag of heritage not hate," 75-year-old Greenville resident Leland Browder told the newspaper. "I don't hate anybody. We feel like it's a part of our history. It's a part of the South."

 

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/27/politics/south-carolina-confederate-flag/

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There are pro-Confederate flag rally in the South, including South Carolina and Alabama.

 

Oh look, it's grandma in the Yellowhammer State!

 

Okay, I am joking; I haven't seen her in any pictures (yet).

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3141960/We-exterminated-Hundreds-rally-favor-Confederate-flag-guns-hand-activist-arrested-pulling-outside-South-Carolina-state-building.html

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Hope she likes her short lived fame and long jail time, trespass and vandalism will look great on her Radical Liberal resume 

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This whole issue is just petty to me.  It shows how much power, unfortunately, the media has these days that they can just whip people up in a furor over something so stupid.    The fact that the church shooter had a picture with this flag in it doesn't mean anything to me.  People act like the flag itself told him to do the killings.  It's a symbol and if the flag didn't exist he would have just had something else to center his anger or "love" around.  While I don't think any government (state or local) should still be flying it as part of their official flag, just like they wouldn't even think to fly a flag with any swastika (no matter how tiny), it shouldn't be removed completely.

 

 

If you remove it completely from existence like you are white washing history, you forget what it stood for and exactly why you hated it in the first place.  Separately part of freedom of speech is respecting everybody's freedom of speech or expression, even if you disagree with it.  If they move to ban every image of the confederate flag then they should also ban every pan Africa image as the New Black panthers and other groups use that as a symbol of hate against white people

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(...) It's a symbol (...)

 

Exactly. Symbols and ideas are the most resilient, since unlike people, can't be taken down easily. The confederate flag is reminiscent of a old, intolerant period of America. It doesn't have a place now days.

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This whole issue is just petty to me.  It shows how much power, unfortunately, the media has these days that they can just whip people up in a furor over something so stupid.    The fact that the church shooter had a picture with this flag in it doesn't mean anything to me.  People act like the flag itself told him to do the killings.  It's a symbol and if the flag didn't exist he would have just had something else to center his anger or "love" around.  While I don't think any government (state or local) should still be flying it as part of their official flag, just like they wouldn't even think to fly a flag with any swastika (no matter how tiny), it shouldn't be removed completely.

 

 

If you remove it completely from existence like you are white washing history, you forget what it stood for and exactly why you hated it in the first place.  Separately part of freedom of speech is respecting everybody's freedom of speech or expression, even if you disagree with it.  If they move to ban every image of the confederate flag then they should also ban every pan Africa image as the New Black panthers and other groups use that as a symbol of hate against white people

 

Good thing he wasn't holding up a picture of Jesus. However we both know that such a picture would not have been displayed in the media and even if so it would have gone ignored. Kind of funny how things work like that isn't it?

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Hope she likes her short lived fame and long jail time, trespass and vandalism will look great on her Radical Liberal resume 

Yeah, I'm sure she'll be in jail a "long time". LOL

 

As for her resume, I'm sure Henry David Thoreau would be proud.

Is the Confederate flag considered racist in the US?

Yes, except by racists.

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i would of shot her end of story

Seriously ?

Please tell me you are not a gun owner.  If so, its people like you that give other gun owners a bad rap.

I know you are just playing keyboard commando but, there are better ways to play tough from behind the safety of mommy's Compaq.

You can still be Mr Badass and not look like a moron.  (Oh BTW - its "would have shot" not "would of shot")

Maybe you should get off the internet, and pay more attention in school...

and this is coming from someone who was born and raised in the south.... jus sayin

ON TOPIC -

Which flagpoles, if any, still put the certain items inside the ball @ the top ?

Had someone tell me they do it for historical purposes because back in the day, it had:

1 single match to burn the flag (so the invaders wouldn't get it)

1 single round of .45 so the officer of the fort/base would take his own life and not be captured and tortured.

Any truth to this ?

 

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Well, to the uneducated - it represents a time when southern states upheld slavery.

 

To me, a college student who is not black, that flag represents intolerance to someone who is just a little bit different.

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Well, to me, a college student who is not black, that flag represents intolerance to someone who is just a little bit different.

What I meant was most dont know the difference between a battle flag, a state flag, a confederate flag - thats what I meant -

I think its stands for the General Lee

post-508501-0-25386700-1435541156.jpg

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What I meant was most dont know the difference between a battle flag, a state flag, a confederate flag - thats what I meant -

I think its stands for the General Lee

attachicon.gifCapture.JPG

Duuuude.

 

I just came in here to say something similar.

 

BRAVO!

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What I meant was most dont know the difference between a battle flag, a state flag, a confederate flag - thats what I meant -

I think its stands for the General Lee

attachicon.gifCapture.JPG

 

Time to replace that obsolete vehicle.

 

 

Note that the new General Lee has no flag. LOL

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Is the Confederate flag considered racist in the US?

 

Depends.  For those who view it correctly, it is considered a form of pride for their state/heritage.  And then you have those who use it in a negative way to support racism or their negative views towards the black population.   Still don't think it is right to fly the battle flag as the first confederate flag was way different and should be used as a sign of pride for the southern states.

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Is the Confederate flag considered racist in the US?

 

"Such displays have been made for a variety of reasons, with Southern culture, conservative politics, and historical recreation among the stated reasons for particular uses. Displaying the flag has long been controversial, due to the flag's historical association with racism, slavery, and white supremacism."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_display_of_the_Confederate_flag

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