Man Arrested For Desecrating American Flag Released (Florida Law Unconstitutional)

[matcom]

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TAMPA - The First Amendment gives people the freedom to desecrate the American flag.

That's why the state attorney's office decided to drop charges Thursday against a Tampa man police say stomped on the flag this week. The archaic Florida law holding him was unconstitutional, officials said.

The decision also has led Tampa police to advise officers to no longer charge people with violating Florida's flag desecration law, a police department spokeswoman said.

Tampa police arrested Donnie James White on Monday on a charge of public mutilation of a U.S. flag after several witnesses said they saw him dragging a flag behind his bicycle. White, a 45-year-old Tampa man, was released from Orient Road Jail on Thursday morning.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said the flag desecration law hit Florida's books in 1919 and was updated as recently as the 1970s.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that this type of statute is unconstitutional," Bondi said. "This defendant's conduct is protected under the First Amendment."

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBWY8X224F.html