The Liberty Papers

Now, while I wouldn’t call myself in any stretch of the imagination a supporter of flag-burning, it is one of those things that should not be illegal. But these guys, who have admitted the burning, need to pay some penalty.

Yale trio charged in city flag burning incident

When detained by police a few blocks away, they allegedly acknowledged it was a “dumb thing to do,” according to a police report on the incident.

Hyder Akbar Said, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and Farhad Anklesaria, also 19, were arrested on a range of charges including two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree arson, breach of peace, and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson.

Why should they be charged for doing something that I think is an acceptable, if distasteful, form of free speech? Because it wasn’t their flag, and it wasn’t their property.

Marc Suraci, 37, owner of the two-story house on Chapel Street where the flag was burned, was upset when informed of the incident by the Register.

He said he always puts flags out front of his rental properties.

“It makes me sick to my stomach to think that someone would burn the American flag,” said Suraci, who described himself as “very, very patriotic.”

Suraci said several of his relatives fought in American wars to defend the constitutional right to burn the flag as a protest.

“But, it gets to another level when it is somebody else’s flag on their own personal property,” Suraci said. He feels flag burning should be illegal.

You want to stand on your own property and burn whatever you want, that’s your right. You step on my land and burn my property, and we’ve got problems.

Now, being not so far removed from the stupidity of youth, I’m not going to advocate throwing the book at these “kids”. What they did was stupid, but I’m not going to jump out and call for actually convicting them of arson or throwing them in jail. But, having admitted their guilt, they should get enough punishment to learn a lesson. And I think it starts with financial restitution to Mr. Suraci, and a formal apology to him for damaging his property. Add some fines and maybe some community service, and we’re in business.