A jeering crowd swarmed after communication studies graduate student Benjamin Haas on the Parade Ground this afternoon after he outraged many students and community members with an announcement that he planned to burn an American flag.
Though Haas didn’t burn the flag as he originally announced yesterday on Facebook, the mob of people tore after Haas until he slipped into a police car and was escorted off campus by police.
Haas did not have the needed permit to burn a flag, which is why an actual flag burning did not take place, according to LSU Media Relations.
After chasing Haas off campus, the group of more than 1,000 straddled Highland Road, shouting a back-and-forth banter of “GO AMERICA” and “GO TIGERS.”
“I initially began this flag burning protest to define due process for students and suspected terrorists alike, to call on LSU and universities across the country to defend basic human rights and avoid putting students into the criminal justice system when it can be taken care of internally,” the pre-written text of Haas’s speech read. “In the name of peace, there will be no flag burning today. This country and the flag that flies over it stands for freedom, democracy, love, peace and the ability to question our government.”
Haas attempted to recite his speech a few times, but the crowd cut him off, chanting “U-S-A” as horse-mounted police worked their way through the maze of people, pushing them back and eventually escorting Haas off campus in a police cruiser.
Ryan Nuckolls, agricultural business sophomore, said Haas is one of his instructors, and he spoke to Haas about the burning yesterday. Nuckolls, adorned in American flag attire, said Haas said he was “protesting unfair persecution of Isaac Eslava” — the University student arrested last week for vandalizing and burning a University American flag — because Eslava should be innocent until proven guilty.
Burning an American flag is protected by the First Amendment under freedom of speech.
Nuckolls said Haas is an open-minded instructor, but he did not approve of Haas’s actions today.
“He’s a patriotic person and takes pride in his rights,” Nuckolls said, but reiterated that he did not approve of Haas’s activity and told him such when they talked yesterday.
Before Haas was scheduled to burn the flag, Shelby Taylor, communications studies student, spoke out for Haas’s right to burn the American flag, further enraging the crowd.
“Even if this is just publicity … I respect that he has the right do do this,” Taylor said, as Douglas Ducote, US Army Staff Sgt., thrust his Operation Iraqi Freedom hat in her face and yelled at her.
“It’s my flag too!” Taylor cried, as the crowd countered her yelling, “Go to hell, hippie, go to hell!”
Ducote, who said he served four combat tours in Iraq, said he felt like screaming at Taylor was a flashback, as he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“I watch my brothers and sisters die next to me and come home with this wrapped around their coffins,” he said, gripping an American flag.
Ducote and many others waved flags in the air throughout Haas’s chase, and one flag stood out as John Savoie, construction management sophomore, held a yellow flag with “Noli Me Calcare,” spanning it. Savoie said the Latin phrase translates to “don’t tread on me,” and he and his fraternity made the flag as a replica of the “original flag used in the Revolutionary War.”
A University student who called herself “Loko,” and a Daily Reveille employee identified as Jessica Seaman, national resource ecology and management major, walked with Haas as he left the Parade Ground said she “personally would never be engaged in burning a flag,” but she supports the “right to assemble,” which is a “beautiful part of being American.”
Following Haas being escorted out of the area, the crowd thinned, though many stayed for a “patriotic assembly” organized by Student Government President and Vice President Cody Wells and Kathleen Bordelon.
Wells said he “could not be more proud” of the reaction to Haas’s behavior and Bordelon said when she initially created the event yesterday, she expected around 80 people. Wells and Bordelon invited veterans to stand behind them as they recited the Pledge of Allegiance as the bell tower’s chimes rang through the Parade Ground.
A trumpet player then played the National Anthem as the crowd sang along.
Not only University students attended the protest, but several community members attended as well, including veterans and members of the Baton Rouge Tea Party.
Rebecca Favre Lipe, vice president of the Baton Rouge Tea Party, said she was “amazed” at the demonstration of patriotism from attendees.
“We have First Amendment rights, but there’s also respect,” Lipe said.
People began to gather in Free Speech Plaza around 11 a.m., where Sarah Kirksey and Hunter Hall, communications studies seniors, distributed 134 American flags they bought. As an incensed crowd snaked through Free Speech Plaza, a line of on-lookers watched from the terrace of the Union.
Two women who asked to remain unnamed brought signs reading “Benjamin Haas is a terrorist” and “You hate my flag but love my freedom.”
One of the women said she labeled Haas as a terrorist because “anybody that hates America is a terrorist.”
Though LSUPD rode through the protest on horseback before it began, LSU PD Lt. Jeff Metzger said their role was to “keep it peaceful.”
