• @lemmefixdat4u
    2•2 months ago

    Law says you can do anything to any flag - provided that it’s one you own. The moment that you vandalize someone else’s property (flag), that’s a crime. Then the “hate crime” enhancement can be added.

    Spray paint any logo you want on Israeli flags that you purchase yourself. Nothing illegal about it.

    • @jimmydoreisaleftyOPM
      -4•2 months ago

      Being labeled as a hate crime would not fit, IMO; it would just be destruction of property.

      Israel trains our police departments, so it is no surprise that they are much more of a police state.

      How Israel Trains U.S. Police [09:35 | JUL 03 2020 | AJ+] https://youtu.be/eOj_6-x6oNg

      Thousands of U.S. law enforcement officials have traveled to Israel on police exchange trips over the past two decades. There, they’ve learned and brought home tactics like racial profiling, crowd control and surveillance that Israel employs against the millions of Palestinians it controls under its illegal military occupation. AJ+’s Dena Takruri explains how American protesters exercising their constitutional rights are being treated as an occupied population.

      Those interested in law:

      Texas v. Johnson

      Legal case

      Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that burning the Flag of the United States was protected speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as doing so counts as symbolic speech and political speech. In the case, activist Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted for burning an American flag during a protest outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, and was fined $2,000 and sentenced to one year in jail in accordance with Texas law. Justice William Brennan wrote for the five-justice majority that Johnson’s flag burning was protected under the freedom of speech, and therefore the state could not censor Johnson nor punish him for his actions. The ruling invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag, which at the time were enforced in 48 of the 50 states.

      Full case name Texas v. Gregory L. Johnson

      Citations 491 U.S. 397 (more) 109 S. Ct. 2533, 105 L. Ed. 2d 342, 1989 U.S. LEXIS 3115, 57 U.S.L.W. 4770

      Prior history Defendant convicted, Dallas County Criminal Court, affirmed, 706 S.W.2d 120 (Tex. App. 1986), reversed and remanded for dismissal, 755 S.W.2d 92 (Tex. Crim. App. 1988), cert. granted, 488 U.S. 884 (1988).

      Majority joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Scalia, Kennedy

      Dissent joined by White, O’Connor

      • @lemmefixdat4u
        1•2 months ago

        In the US, the US flag is the only one that had any protection from desecration, and that was what the SCOTUS decision addressed, finding that desecrating the flag as a political statement is protected speech. No other country’s flag has ever had protection. OP’s statement is comparing apples to oranges. Vandalizing a US flag that is not yours is still a property crime. Vandalizing the Israeli flag at their embassy is also a property crime. But if you’re shouting Jewish slurs as you do it, that activates the hate crime enhancements.

        If you just stand outside the embassy and yell slurs, that’s not illegal. But when a crime is committed and the motivation involves race or religion - that’s when the penalty for the crime increases under the hate crime law.