The Black Lives Matters movement has generated a White man's protest against police brutality.
This man's pissed that the officer in fatal shooting of John Crawford III walked free and the many other high profile shootings that happened across the nation.
For that he steps on the American flag. And set off a firestorm of controversy.
On top of that, he's gotten death threats and attracted the local junk food media. Once it goes viral, expect Loserville, the conservative agitators and the clown car to talk about it.
Wright State University will have some flack from the conservative agitators. Especially the ones who serve in military. Wright State University is located close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Both are located six miles from Dayton, Ohio.
"My first thought was no he is not standing on an American flag," said Sarah Weaver, a WSU student with a husband who served in the military, "There was a group of veterans standing across from him and I was waiting for things to get ugly."
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| Man stands on the American flag. The protest is against police brutality |
The protester's sign read:
"I stand...
-With Eric Shappard and the preservation of 1st Amendment rights
-For all men and woman in service to this country
-For the accountability of media and other social institutions
-Justice, equity, tolerance, and diversity
-Upon the belief higher learning should provoke students to question social norms, mainstream values, and power structures
-The 'American" spirit, is a revolutionary spirit
-On the American flag because there's nothing more American than that!
"You have that initial emotional outburst, I was like hey, you know, a couple bad words, I was really upset," said Nick Cassel, a Navy Corpsman who served in Afghanistan but now attends the university.
"I agree with a lot of issues he had," Cassel said, "I'm all about free-speech, I'm all about the right to assemble, I think that's the most important thing we have and that's the thing I thought for over there, but the way he was doing it was not the proper way to do it on a veteran campus right next to the Air Force Base."
"I guess for him to disrespect the very simple that gives him the right to his free speech was very disrespectful to me," said veteran Brian Chriswell, who witnessed the protest during a lunch break with his wife and Wright State student Emily.
Campus police came during the protest to prevent a fight but did not make any arrests.
"I remembered what we learned in class people are allowed to stand on the American flag it's technically protected freedom of speech," said Sarah Weaver.
Cassel said he engaged in what he called a healthy debate with the protestor, and was thankful it remained mostly peaceful except for the verbal disagreements.
"The symbolism I attach to the flag is you know my dead friends," Cassel said, "He didn't associate the flag that way he associated it with a corrupt government, things like that and that's when he was stepping on it and that's when we bashed heads."
When the protest was over, Cassel recovered the flag and said he planned to keep it through the weekend before turning it in to the campus Veteran's Center, "Just to let it know that someone cares about it," he explained.
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