Then the deputy arrived. Contrary to the official report (says Ms. Kuhn), he did NOT attempt to give them a citation, and AFTER they took the flag down he asked them for ID, but they asked him why he wanted it, and then they went back into their house. The deputy then began pounding on their door, and broke in the window with his bare hand to open the door. He then began chasing Mr. Kuhn through the house, back out the front door, and around their car. Ms. Kuhn called 911 to report that the deputy had broken into their house and was assaulting him. Mr. Kuhn surrendered when he was threatened with a TASERing. Ms. Kuhn was also threatened with a TASER.

It’s worth noting that the Kuhns have witnesses to their version of what happened, and that the neighbors who tried to intervene, asked why the Kuhns were being arrested, were told it wasn’t any of their business. (Unlike a lot of places, the neighbors said it was their business, because the Kuhns were their neighbors.) Also, Ms. Kuhn said that the deputy was a recently-returned Iraqi-war vet, and that the tactics he used on them were the same ones they use in Baghdad for search-and-seizures.

The official police report is so far opposite from the Kuhn’s account that it’s easy to say the Kuhns are the same as anyone saying “I’m innocent, I tell ya!” except, well, THEY HAVE WITNESSES. And they were just hanging a friggin’ flag upside down, not molesting kids!

I have a problem with the whole “flag desecration” argument anyway. “Desecration” means “to make unsacred by defilement.” Since when is the American Frikkin’ Flag a holy object, anyway? Isn’t that idolatry? Isn’t that breaking one of the Ten Commandments? And why aren’t the fundies complaining about “sacred flags,” instead of “desecrating” said flags, in the first place???

This is an Asheville music discussion board but in this case the commentor posted the Kuhn’s neighbor’s description of events…

Actually, the last controversial flag-usage related incident I can think of in the Australian political scene was when Cathy Freeman did a victory lap at one of the Commonwealth games, carrying both an Australian flag, and the Indigenous Australian flag, and even that controversy mainly came out of the reactions of some of the more conservative members of the Australian Commonwealth Games committee.

I know serious prosecution is probably unlikely under the current justice department, Or anywhere else with any other law enforcement agency, federal, state or municipal. Read Radley Balko’s ” new professionalism”* stories in The Agitator if you really want to be depressed about it.

* - The title is a nod to Justice Scalia’s opinion in the no-knock cases which said, in effect, Americans really don’t constitutional protections (ie: the exclusionary rule) any more because police departments are so well-trained and professional now.

The backstory: Brevard Road is near the National Guard armory, and it appears that a Freeperish NG type called up his buddy the county deputy to do a bit of freelance po-licing, even though the address is within the city limits.

If that’s accurate, the Kuhns’ lawyer should be sending a letter to the local FBI office, asking them to investigate the violation of 18USC, Section 242, which prohibits use of ostensible law-enforcement powers to prevent people from exercising their civil rights or punish them for doing so. If a weapon is involved (armed deputy) that’s 10 years in the Federal pen.

I know serious prosecution is probably unlikely under the current justice department, but the FBI tells citizens that they should report such crimes when they hear of them.

I see. So all the politicians wearing American flag lapel pins ought to be arrested?

The whole purpose of the Amercan flag is that it expresses a political point, although not always a partisan one. It was to express a political point that Amerian soliders raised the flag over Ft. McHenry . . .