The problem isn't that they burned it, its that they STOLE it!

There are people here who seem to want to just gloss right over the origin of the flag that got burned this past weekend in Oakland; it was stolen during an act of trespass and vandalism. I don't think anybody on this forum in this day and age really has THAT much of a problem with the fact that people have the right to burn the flag as a form of self expression. They might not think it was an exactly BRILLIANT thing to do in this instance, but they get that you have the right to burn a flag...AS LONG AS IT IS YOURS. You don't have the right to go and steal your neighbor's flag and burn it. Or break into an unused house in your neighborhood to hang out there. Or to head over to somebody's house that you don't like and tear their stuff up. See, those things you DON'T have a Constitutionally protected right to do.

And if you support the OWS actions of this past weekend, would you also support the Tea Party if they did something similar? If the Tea Party comes to Charlotte this summer and takes over an abandoned building downtown, then breaks into DNC headquarters and steals some Obama memorabilia, knocks things over and breaks them up in the process, then burns said memorabilia...are we all OK with that because they are just passionately trying to get their message across? Cause they believe in what they believe in just as thoroughly as we believe in what we believe in.