Flag burnings at LSU (UPDATED)

Will sends us links to several articles referring to an unplanned and planned flag burning at Louisiana State university by a dual citizenship student by the name of Isaac Eslava, who by the sounds of it is pleased that his right to free speech is protected in the US, but less so in his other country, Colombia.

Eslava took down a flag at the University’s war memorial and burned it last week and another student plans to do so once again today in solidarity with the criminal Eslava (Boston Herald link);

LSU police said a university flag taken from the same pole, a piece of Eslava’s clothing, drug paraphernalia and red and black spray paint were found in a stolen car, and red and black graffiti was sprayed early Monday on apartments north of campus.

Drug paraphernalia in a stolen car? Whose rights did he violate to express his own?

From Fox News;

A student at Louisiana State University reportedly is planning to burn an American flag on campus Wednesday as part of a peaceful protest, the student newspaper reports.

LSU’s student government president Cody Wells told The Daily Reveille that he and others plan to hold their own counter ceremony an hour after the protest, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the national anthem.

From a Baton Rouge newspaper;

Benjamin Haas, communication studies graduate student, will burn an American flag tomorrow at noon on the Parade Ground as part of a peaceful protest, according to Cody Wells, Student Government president.

Wells said Haas is exercising his First Amendment right to burn the flag.

Just because you have a right, doesn’t make it proper to exercise it, Junior.

Isn’t school hard enough that these “students” don’t have more important things to do?

Crossposted at The Burn Pit

UPDATE: A link from Ponsdorf; “He Wimped Out”

Now we’re hearing that it went down this way – there was a huge crowd full of combative folks. Somebody in the crowd read an e-mail with the news above that Haas decided not to burn the flag. Big cheer went up.

But then Haas was spotted walking across the parade grounds, and he got rushed by some of the crowd. Water balloons were in full flight. Police were everywhere, and Haas was quickly escorted into a cruiser on Highland Road and spirited away.

You’ve got to appreciate the tactical skill of the crowd.

Category: Antiwar crowd, I hate hippies