According to a media reports .....
.... a man in the US has been sentenced to at least 16 years imprisonment, for a series of crimes which included stealing an LGBT pride flag from a church, and burning it outside a strip club in June 2019.
To be exact, Adolfo Martinez also had been evicted earlier from the Dangerous Curves strip club in down-town Ames, in Story County, Iowa, after he was making threats to employees and staff. Police arrived, but he had left the scene, and headed to the church and ripped down its LGBT pride flag.
He then returned to the strip club, where he used lighter fluid to burn the flag in the street. He also threatened to burn down the bar, and was finally arrested. He happily admitted to burning the flag because he "opposed homosexuality" and was "guilty as charged" ... "I burned down their pride, plain and simple. I am living by God’s laws."
He was found guilty in November of hate crime harassment, reckless use of fire, and being a habitual offender, when the extraordinarily long prison sentence was handed down, and there was little Christian forgiveness, or turning of the other cheek from Church pastor Eileen Gebbie, who identifies as gay woman. She rebuked the local community saying "I often experienced Ames as not being as progressive as many people believe it is, and there still is a very large closeted queer community here. But 12 people that I don't know, who have no investment in me or this congregation, said this man committed a crime, and it was a crime borne of bigotry and hatred."
The conviction was the first in the county's history for a hate crime. The Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds said "... it's so important that as a society we stand up and people have severe consequences for those actions."
The full sentence was in fact, 15 years for the hate crime of arson, and a year for reckless use of explosives or fire, and a further 30 days for harassment. All the sentences are to be served consecutively, but whether he appeals these sentences is not clear ... according to Iowa sentencing guidelines, he should have faced a maximum of five years in prison for the hate crime and arson charges, and a maximum of a year and month for the other two charges.
But as court records listed him as a habitual offender, this allowed him to be sentenced to a longer ... much much longer prison term. Frankly, whilst 'hate crime' is an imprisonable offence, I cant help thinking as he didn't attack anyone physically, but just burnt a multi-coloured flag, 15 years is more than just excessive, its vindictive. It also appears to infringe on the US First Amendment, which has ruled that flag burning constitutes symbolic free speech, that is protected by that part of the constitution (Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 -1989: reaffirmed in United States v. Eichman).
But we now truly live in politically correct times, and they can be very harsh on those who break the new behaviour codes ... So its still apparently legal to burn the US flag (whether hatefully or not), but not the LGBT flag ... strange times indeed.
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| Don't Mess With The Pride Flag .... Or Else (At Least In Iowa) |
.... a man in the US has been sentenced to at least 16 years imprisonment, for a series of crimes which included stealing an LGBT pride flag from a church, and burning it outside a strip club in June 2019.
To be exact, Adolfo Martinez also had been evicted earlier from the Dangerous Curves strip club in down-town Ames, in Story County, Iowa, after he was making threats to employees and staff. Police arrived, but he had left the scene, and headed to the church and ripped down its LGBT pride flag.
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| Adolfo Martinez Faces Hard Times Ahead ... |
He then returned to the strip club, where he used lighter fluid to burn the flag in the street. He also threatened to burn down the bar, and was finally arrested. He happily admitted to burning the flag because he "opposed homosexuality" and was "guilty as charged" ... "I burned down their pride, plain and simple. I am living by God’s laws."
He was found guilty in November of hate crime harassment, reckless use of fire, and being a habitual offender, when the extraordinarily long prison sentence was handed down, and there was little Christian forgiveness, or turning of the other cheek from Church pastor Eileen Gebbie, who identifies as gay woman. She rebuked the local community saying "I often experienced Ames as not being as progressive as many people believe it is, and there still is a very large closeted queer community here. But 12 people that I don't know, who have no investment in me or this congregation, said this man committed a crime, and it was a crime borne of bigotry and hatred."
The conviction was the first in the county's history for a hate crime. The Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds said "... it's so important that as a society we stand up and people have severe consequences for those actions."
The full sentence was in fact, 15 years for the hate crime of arson, and a year for reckless use of explosives or fire, and a further 30 days for harassment. All the sentences are to be served consecutively, but whether he appeals these sentences is not clear ... according to Iowa sentencing guidelines, he should have faced a maximum of five years in prison for the hate crime and arson charges, and a maximum of a year and month for the other two charges.
But as court records listed him as a habitual offender, this allowed him to be sentenced to a longer ... much much longer prison term. Frankly, whilst 'hate crime' is an imprisonable offence, I cant help thinking as he didn't attack anyone physically, but just burnt a multi-coloured flag, 15 years is more than just excessive, its vindictive. It also appears to infringe on the US First Amendment, which has ruled that flag burning constitutes symbolic free speech, that is protected by that part of the constitution (Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 -1989: reaffirmed in United States v. Eichman).
But we now truly live in politically correct times, and they can be very harsh on those who break the new behaviour codes ... So its still apparently legal to burn the US flag (whether hatefully or not), but not the LGBT flag ... strange times indeed.
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