These two topics are inextricable. What a tangled web is being woven in plain sight, and yet somehow woven in what feels like total darkness.A couple in Asheville North Carolina were arrested in the early dawn hours and taken away to the Buncombe County Jail. Why? For flying the U.S. flag upside down.
It's common knowledge that to display the flag upside down is an indication of distress. So common is this knowledge in fact, on July 18th an Asheville police officer stopped at the Kuhn residence to do a welfare check. At that time the Kuhns told the officer they had hung the flag upside down "...as a show of desperation-our country is in distress and we just don't know what to do.
We asked if we had violated any ordinance." The Kuhn's were told at that time by the officer 'no, you have every right.'
To avoid any confusion regarding the disposition of the flag Mark and Deborah then posted a picture of GW Bush with an explanation of their reasons for displaying the flag in it's 'distress' position.
The 'plot' thickens when we find out that a couple of days after the 'welfare' check a man dressed in fatigues, driving a car with federal license plates knocked at the Kuhn's residence. They were told by this man to either take down the flag or hang it right side up.
Several of the Kuhn's neighbors witnessed the same man driving in past the Kuhn's several times. Neighbor accounts also reveled, men dressed in fatigues came and took pictures of the flag in the night.
As the Kuhns were being arrested, days later, a man dressed in fatigues drove by and
shouted from his vehicle "go to jail, baby!".
The story only gets more bizarre from here. One deputy Brian Scarborough turned up at the Kuhn home Wednesday morning. Deputy Scarborough presented the Kuhns with a document containing a copy of a State Statute covering 'flag desecration' at that
time Mark and Deborah took the flag down.
Living in this 'nation of laws' as the President continues to remind us, the Kuhn's were well within their rights to take the flag down, as they did, and return to their bed. They could then have investigated the 'statute' later and determined if they were within their rights to fly the flag upside down. The deputy too, in this 'nation of laws' could have obtained a legal arrest warrant if it was determined by the District Attorney that the Kuhn's were in violation of any laws.
But, that isn't the way the story played out. Now we need to get with the real program here.
The Kuhn's live in the city of Asheville, where a jurisdiction would be Asheville police as noted by the original visit paid to the Kuhn's home by the Asheville Police on July 18. But, deputy Scarborough is with the Buncombe County sheriffs department.
According to Lt. Randy Sorrell even though the address was in the city of Ashville, "when we receive a complaint that a law is being broken, we have to respond."
In the most bizarre turn of events, what would compel a county sheriff to approach
law abiding citizens residing inside the city limits regarding a statute. A State
Statute which if the Kuhn's were found in violation of is still only a misdemeanor.
In a case like this if as Lt. Randy Sorrell states they received a complaint that a
law was being broken, from whom did they receive the complaint and who determined that indeed a misdemeanor State Statute was being broken?
Would not the correct action, if the sheriff had indeed received a complaint, had
been to first determine if the law had been broken? Was deputy Scarborough acting as State Attorney, Judge, and Jury? Shouldn't this 'complaint' been referred back to the State for a 'legal determination'?
It appears that at best a warning, if the Kuhn's had broken the law and removal or proper display of the flag would have been in order. Which the Kuhns were more than willing to do, if they were in violation. The State could have even issued a fine, as would have been proper.
Removing the flag wasn't enough for Deputy Scarborough because even after the Kuhns took the flag down, and explained themselves Scarborough then demanded their 'indetificaion'.
In a scene that could only hearken back to WWII's Nazi Germany "I need to see your 'papers' the Kuhns must have been seeing the handwriting on the wall.
The Kuhns wanted to know why the Deputy kept asking for their I.D.'s. They asked
if they were going to be arrested.
In an account Deborah Kuhn gave to Air America Radio the couple went back inside their home, Deborah calling 911 in an attempt to bring more police, not to evade the single deputy on her front porch.
Deputy Scarborough with his bare fist broke the window on their front door after several attempts to kick the door in failed.
She said the deputy chased her husband Mark with his billy club to the back of the
house.
After calling 911 Deborah then ran outside into the street and began screaming
for help waking neighbor Sam York who came out to find a surreal scene.
According to Deborah, the Deputy provided no warrant, nor did he ask for permission to enter the Kuhn's home. The flag was taken as evidence, though now there is no record of that and the flag is missing.
An eyewitness account by an early morning worker in the neighborhood backs up the Kuhn's account of what happened.
As neighbors became aware of what was happening to the Kuhn's they began to
come into the street and ask with what crime the Kuhn's were being charged. Their questions were met with it's 'none of your business' by the deputies. Shawn Brady and several of his roommates told the deputies, it was their business because the Kuhn's were their neighbors.
The Kuhn's were taken to the Buncombe County Detention Facility where they were charged with two counts of assaulting a government official, and one count each of resisting arrest and desecrating an American Flag. Their son bailed them out.
Now, with Executive Order 13438, issued by GW Bush, on July 17, 2007 the Kuhn's and people like them could face having their property seized for political dissent.
This 'nation of laws' was indeed created upon the back of 'political dissent'.
Executive Order 13438 essentially dissolves our right to disagree with this administration. It evaporates our right to a judicial or legislative action or review by a court.
These are dark days and becoming darker. Though just as it's common knowledge hanging the flag upside down is a sign of distress, it's also know that 'it's always darkest before the dawn'.
Beth Hammer, a 65 year old retired bank employee in Wheat Ridge,Colorado and her husband could certainly face the same end. Since March the couple has been displaying their flag upside down as a symbol of distress and silent, peaceful protest against the war in Iraq.
Cambridge Park Homeowners Association and their policies on Political expression be damned, at issue here is the 'Bush Association' and their policies on political expression we need to worry about.
