Please Email or call the Reno Police and report this man.

[TheUniverse]

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7156726

Click this link and click "Mexican Flag Flown Illegally Over Local Business." on the upper left hand side. Its a video of a man stealing an American Flag from a Mexican restaurant. Then he said his name is Jim Brauser, or at least I assume that is how he spells his name.


Here is the email address for the chief of police.

[e-mail]


or if you are braver here is the phone number for the reno police.

[phone]


If enough of us call or email, we should be able to get the police to take action. I already emailed the chief. He committed an obvious crime in front of a camera, and he should be held accountable. We can not allow the far right wingers to go around vandalizing.

[Uben]

1. only restaurant owner can file charges

It was his property.

[RB TexLa]

2. So if the police see someone stealing my car, they can do nothing until

I file charges? What if I am out of town?

[TheUniverse]

3. Not in this case

It is the police who file charges, not the victims. He did this in front of a camera and said his name. That should be enough evidence for the police.

[RebelOne]

12. And if the restaurant owner files charges, he should also

be charged with breaking the flag law.

[TheUniverse]

15. That flag law is unconstitutional.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._Johnson

[Raejeanowl]

29. No, It's Not

You misunderstand what "desecration" means. Flying another flag above it, or improperly alongside it, isn't an act of desecration.

[onenote]

30. it probably would be if anyone ever bothered to challenge it

But its not really a binding obligation. There is no provision made for enforcement or penalties for violations. As a result its so toothless that its meaningless. If it actually did restrict behavior, it almost certainly would fail to withstand constitutional scrutiny.

My favorite flag provision actually is, in theory, enforceable. If you violate it, its a 100 dollar fine. Here's what it says. THink about how often it gets violated...

4 USC Sec 3:

Any person who, within the District of Columbia, in any manner, for exhibition or display, shall place or cause to be placed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, or any advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America; or shall expose or cause to be exposed to public view any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign upon which shall have been printed, painted, or otherwise placed, or to which shall be attached, appended, affixed, or annexed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, or drawing, or any advertisement of any nature; or who, within the District of Columbia, shall manufacture, sell, expose for sale, or to public view, or give away or have in possession for sale, or to be given away or for use for any purpose, any article or substance being an article of merchandise, or a receptacle for merchandise or article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise, upon which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed a representation of any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign, to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or distinguish the article or substance on which so placed shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court. The words “flag, standard, colors, or ensign”, as used herein, shall include any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of America.

[Raejeanowl]

33. You May Be Right

It could all be struck down if it ever went before the Supreme Court again, although I shudder to think about the possibilities nowadays. But I do respect my flag and love the original concept of my country; there are people misrepresenting both that I would happily urinate or defecate upon before I did that to the symbol.

This will date me - I remember back when "the pigs" used to "hassle" us about American flags as window coverings.

[razorman]

25. The restaurant owner would probably be wise to let the matter drop.

If he presses charges, it would most likely cause more bad feelings in the area and hurt his business. Most people there are probably on the side of the vet, in spite of the fact that he handled the situation wrong.

[cali]

4. No. Sorry.

I live in Vermont. I'll leave this up to the local authorities. I'm sure they have all the info they need.

[TheUniverse]

5. Sometimes police need encouragement to do the right thing.

[ret5hd]

6. edit (for not reading carefully!)

[RB TexLa]

7. I think every state has a law against stealing someone's property

[razorman]

28. I think this would not just be simple theft, though.

If he restaurant owner decides to press charges, it might be considered armed robbery, considering he was using a knife. That would be for a DA to decide, I expect.

[TheUniverse]

8. I can't cite the law in reno.

But Im sure in every city there is a law against grabbing a knife, cutting the rope of the flag pole, and taking off with a flag that does not belong to you. Its called stealing.



edit: sorry, must have been a mistake.

[Raejeanowl]

31. The Owner Was Right There To Fix It

Agreed. All that was needed was a word to the owner that this was not the accepted way to display them, and could be misinterpreted. That might have done the trick. That might have satisfied the conscience and patriotism of a reasonable person.

If the owner then brushed him off, well, he could complain to the Mayor's Office or police authority to enforce it if he wanted, and if they thought it important or dangerous or criminal enough, they'd deal with it.

No, he suddenly got big cojones because he saw the TV camera running. Taking the flags down, cutting the rope, wadding up the American flag like dirty laundry (disrespectful and prohibited in and of itself) and stealing it were the acts of a cretin.

[RebelOne]

9. How do you know that he is a right-winger?

[TheUniverse]

10. I would assume that anyone who goes around intimidating minorities with a knife...

is a loony right winger. Hell, he even had the loony right wing beard.

[RebelOne]

11. You are good at stereotyping. Right wing beard?

[TheUniverse]

14. LOL, it was a damn joke.

[RebelOne]

20. OK, I'm laughing.

[TheUniverse]

21. Talk about PC...

[Vanje]

13. Boy those Renocans sure do hate Mexicans

I got rabid foam flecks on me just from reading the comments.

I wonder how the story would have played if the Mexican flag had been a Rebel flag?

[Bluebear]

18. You said it!

I could see Skoal and spit flying all over the monitor as they typed their little comments.

[Marrah_G]

16. Nope sorry, not calling. n/t

[Bluebear]

17. "The way the hispanic community disgraces our flag is horrible."

:puke:

From the comments to the editor. I think I will pass on entering this fray from out here in New Hampshire!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. I thought somebody had shot a man to watch him die.

(I can't believe I'm the first one to post that!)

[Raejeanowl]

22. Bad Link?

The story has apparently already been removed.

[TheUniverse]

23. They changed the link

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7162515


Heres the new link. Its too late to change my original post though.

[alfredo]

24. The guy should be charged with numerous crimes including destroying

private property. The owner of the restaurant needs to learn a bit about flag protocol and laws concerning flags. If he was trying to be provocative then he should have been fined .

[TheUniverse]

40. Any Laws concerning flags are unconstitutional.

See Texas V Johnson.

[alfredo]

44. Illegal or not the whole situation was not handled well. The

shop owner should have been aware of the sensitivities of the community. That just good business. The perp should not have destroyed private property.

[King Coal]

26. I called Reno 911 and told Trudy. She and the guy in the short pants

are on their way.

[madmom]

27. this site is currently down.

[babylonsister]

32. Per MSNBC, the American flag has to be on top, so the vet was

within his rights.

[onenote]

34. how exactly does that make the vet's actions "within his rights"?

Assuming that the statutory provision suggesting that the US flag not be flown below another flag (but providing no penalty for violation or means of enforcement) could withstand constitutional scrutiny, how does that justify stealing the other flag. At most it would justify taking the flags down, rearranging their order, and then raising them again. Or taking down the Mexican flag and leaving it in place. Its not a license to convert someone's property to your own.

[babylonsister]

35. According to them, he was within his rights to take the American flag

down because the flags together were not displayed under federal guidelines. I don't know what he did with the flag, all I saw was an angry vet. And PS, I'm just the messenger.

[onenote]

37. didn't mean to seem to be attacking you. But the fact the display wasn't within the guidelines

doesn't give someone the right to mess with someone else's private property. The flag 'guidelines' are just that -- guidelines for voluntary behavior.

Any attempt to enforce them would fail under the Constitution: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/spence.html

Again, sorry, I should've made clear I was disagreeing with MSNBC.

[TheUniverse]

42. Then MSNBC is wrong.

The first amendment gives you the right to fly the American Flag the way you want to. The Supreme Court said so. Any laws that go against it are unconstitutional.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._Johnson

[VP505]

36. I'll pass on the

calling and Emailing. The Veteran probably could have handled that better but I will leave it to the folks in Reno to act accordingly. If the business owner had done his homework he would have known better than to DISRESPECT the Flag in that manner.

[TheUniverse]

43. Even people who disrespect the flag deserve their constitutional rights.

[VenusRising]

38. I will in no way report a vet for this.

Maybe he was a unreasonable in his action, but it's still his country and his flag that he is defending.

[Pastiche423]

39. Unreasonable?

No, he was wrong! He's a thief that got on camera. He should be arrested.

[Bentcorner]

41. Nobody likes a tattle-tale.