It was pretty heated when I arrived at the corner of Myrtle Ave and Washington Park at the north east corner of Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn this evening. Maybe 150 people gathered for the event posted on Facebook of Burning the American Flags, Flags with an S including the Confederate flag that has gotten much attention recently brought to you by the mass shooting in South Carolina by Dylann Roof on June 17th. People were arguing and yelling at each other while mainstream media like Fox, PIX 11 and RT interviewed a few folks. A decent number of NYPD were on hand for the event.
One woman was telling the crowd, “My son was 10 years old and the police ran up on him and his friend and asked him what gang are you in but, I bet a kid would have to go through that in your neighborhood”, speaking to a white, female attendee, “that’s the problem in NYC, that’s the problem in America”, she said, “That’s Broken Windows policing that gets my people killed and not yours. That’s something that we need to address. Don’t tell me that coming here to burn no flag doesn’t hold any symbol, it holds a lot and it got everybody here and tomorrow everybody is going to be talking about it”, with tears streaming down her face from the emotion.
The next thing I knew a crowd of people made their way up the hill into the park. When I reached the top level I saw the smoke of the flag burning from a distance.
By the time I arrived a man by the name of John Carroll had rescued the American flag from the small grill that was set up to burn, I believe, the American and the Confederate flags. I saw no sign of the Confederate flag, however. The American was saved but not before it sustained some damages and was left in 2 pieces.
Photojournalist John Farina caught some Great shots of the actual burning of the flags. I never quite got a good look at whomever was trying to burn the flags but, there were plenty of people there to intervene and show what they considered to be American pride and patriotism.
A motorcycle group called the Hallowed Sons were there arguing and yelling with others who challenged their position.
From then on the evening consisted of both sides arguing their views. I heard a lot of “America Love it or Leave it” sentiment while others i spoke to openly acknowledged the fact that America is not the county it was.
I interviewed one girl who was waving the American flag chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A. while standing on the top part of the grill used to burn the flag. She remembered me from an END THE FED rally we attended a couple of years ago. I asked her to connect Ending the Fed with Flag waving and chanting U.S.A.
I asked her if she knew about the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act that was signed into law by Obama on News eve Jan 1, 2012 granting himself the power to indefinitely detain any American citizen without due process of law which is in violation of their Constitutional rights.
Also, the newly “passed” TPP which gives Corporations the right to sue Governments who try to impose environmental regulations that interfere with their Future Profits! She agreed with me about these issues and so did many other flag wavers I spoke to. They acknowledged the many problems of this country yet still held to their flag waving.
I asked a few people about the fact that no banker was ever jailed for the deliberate crash in 2008 and the PEOPLE are the ones who were sold out while the bankers got Bailed out and, again, they agreed.
I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if people could come together and have community debates without responding to a flag burning FB page. Why wait until things are breaking down?
On the way out of the park myself and a few photojournalist friends captured these amazing shots of the full moon framed by trees at the top of the steps.
A group called Disarm the Police was threatened by bikers for burning the flag, but the police came to their rescue. The group’s members were in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, New York, burning an American flag on a tiny barbecue grill. Forty members of the Hallowed Sons Motorcycle Club became enraged with their activity and…
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