According to Michigan Live, MAGA supporters have been surrounding a high school in Michigan in their pick-up trucks, bearing Confederate flags, in an effort to deliberately intimidate the few black children that attend this high school.
Bay City Western High School is 95% white and located at 500 W. Midland Road in Auburn, Michigan.
School administrators and the city, of course, are “claiming” that there is nothing that they can do about it.
They’re incorrect.
Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham said deputies took notice of the incidents, but did not intervene citing typical excuses like “freedom of expression” and “freedom of speech”, and what not.
While, police and local officials, who don’t have legal licenses, love to improperly and incorrectly cite to this provision of the First Amendment, no one—I repeat: NO ONE— has the right to incite violence or use fighting words in order to intimidate people.
In fact, Sheriff Cunningham went on to tell Michigan Live:
Deputies are monitoring the situation in case violence erupts.
So the Sheriff’s statement here would directly contradict any First Amendment protections that the Sheriff or anyone else living in Auburn, Michigan, claim that these MAGA folks supposedly have because the Sheriff is literally contemplating and anticipating violence.
Specifically targeting black children, at a high school, with Confederate relics, generally, would fit squarely into the categories of inciting violence or using fighting words…on top of being historically inaccurate as these MAGA supporters are demonstrating in Michigan.
To all the residents of Auburn: if you’re reading this, take down Sheriff Cunningham’s badge number for good measure.
Cameron Myers, who is a misguided student from Bay City Western High School (and pictured here in the feature image), actually agreed to let Michigan Live quote him:
Waving the Confederate flag is not motivated by racism. It’s a country boy thing…If we were going over there and saying racist slurs and cussing them out, that would be another thing.
Two things here Cam.
First, unfortunately for Mr. Myers, his high school teachers have failed him because the haven’t taught him that in courts of law, we examine conduct through objective intent, as opposed to the subjective intent of the performer.
So Cameron, before you go and do something stupid…if you were to, let say, bring an un-loaded gun into a bank, and even go as far as to leave all of your bullets at home, and the police caught you during the robbery, you couldn’t just say to the police: “Hey, I never actually intended to shoot anybody! I didn’t have any bullets in my gun!”
All that matters is what “an ordinary person” of “competent intelligence” would think about the situation.
So, an ordinary person of competent intelligence would reasonably know that the Confederate flag is symbolic to things like slavery, and plantations, and the KKK, and racism, and discrimination, and prejudices, etc….
So, it doesn’t even matter if you really, truly, believe in your heart-of-hearts that you, waiving a confederate flag, specifically directed in the faces of black people (???) is NOT about racism broski.
Read a book.
Ooo, and there actually ARE people saying racist slurs and cussing “them” out in your high school too, Cam.
According to the Raw Story, one of your white classmates asked one of your fellow black classmates:
Do slaves has feelings?
That, in addition to being called the N-word over and over again…
So that argument fails too.
Nonetheless, our President, whether he’ll ever admit to it or not, has embolden this type of behavior by his conduct, and these adults that took an oath to educate these children are making statements that would lead any reasonable person to believe that they’re just not going to do anything about it.
Pray for these kids.
Flip the pages to see videos of the MAGA supporters carrying their Confederate Flags, and a video of a demonstrator somehow try to explain how this Confederate demonstration is supporting Flint’s water crisis.