Milena Rhodes
Prof. Brown
English 306
May 6, 2016
English Final
In the early
morning of May 2, 2011, the LSU War Memorial was destroyed by an unidentifiable
person. The damage included the burning and cutting of a stolen American flag
along with other minor damages to the site. Specifically, the rope of the flag mast was destroyed, the
Louisiana State University Flag was stolen, and the American flag was in
flames. It is suspected that the burning occurred because of the death of Osama
Bin Laden just a few hours before.The suspect, Isaac Eslava, was spotted near
the crime scene but could not be detained by police due to lack of evidence. He
later turned himself in and admitted his performance of the act.
(Friedman) He was later charged with one count of theft and resisting an
officer and two counts of simple damage to property.
After
hearing the story of Eslava’s arrest, LSU grad student Benjamin Haas decided to
protest against incident. Haas felt his arrest was unjust because of the Fifth
Amendment Due Process Clause. The Fifth
Amendment states that no one shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law.”(US Const. amend IV) In Haas’ perspective,
Louisiana State University police were violating this clause. He then created a Facebook
announcement stating that he would be performing an act of burning the American
flag on campus at the University parade grounds in the defense of Eslava.
(Associated Press) This sparked controversy throughout the university and
ultimately created a counter protest to the flag burning.
Initially
when Benjamin Haas arrived on the scene of what he thought would be a small
protest, he saw more students than what he expected. According to The Daily
Reveille, “ an estimated 1500 to 2500 students and community members” gathered for
the protest. To Haas’ disappointment,
he was unable to perform the act of the flag burning because he did obtain the
proper burn permit. He decided to say a speech instead explaining the reason
for his initial action and his speech. He started off his speech with, “ Funny
Facebook said that there were only going to be 64 of you. I initially began
this flag burning protest to define due process for students and suspected
terrorist 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” (Benjamin Haas). His audience was not
pleased with his appearance
and his original plan of burning the flag, so his speech was barely heard.
Chants like “U-S-A” and “go to hell hippie” drowned out the speech of Haas. A
senior Communication
studies major Sarah Kirksey stated, “We chased him out.. He didn’t burn the
flag, so it was a success” (Sarah Kirksey). Not only was Haas not able to
perform his speech, but he was also subjected to the throwing of water balloons
from the angry crowd. He was then escorted by campus police away from the
protest.
The
Louisiana State University burning of the flag protest failed in two ways.
First, Benjamin Haas did not take the necessary precautions before conducting
his protest. Without the burn permit, he was not able to burn the flag, which
was his original plan. His purpose behind the flag burning was to show his
rights as an American
and as a person in general. Unfortunately for Haas, his true intentions could not be
revealed due to the legalities of the matter. Secondly, the crowd was
completely against Haas’ acts. Thousands of people chanted over him, forcing
his voice to get lost in the crowd. LSU student body president at the time Cody
Wells stated, “Haas did not have the right to burn the flag, but it was not an
honorable thing for him to do and our student body and fellow Louisianans made that
very clear today as they rallied on campus to show support for our community”
(Cody Wells).Therefore, only few that were near him were able to hearing what
he was saying. The fact that the crowd was angry, did not help the situation any more. As
their chants got louder, the acts worsened causing the police to intervene. As
a result, nothing was accomplished and Haas’ point was never made.
In my
opinion, this protest failed because of the lack of supporters behind Haas. He
was protesting his issue against thousand of students. One person simply cannot be heard over that
many people. I feel like Haas should have rallied up people who had the same
feelings towards the protest before carrying it out. This would have created a
larger impact against the protestors. I also think that Haas’ intimidation had a lot to
do with the failure as well. When protesting against that many people and in
general, you have to have a strong mindset and the ability to stick to your
passion that caused you to stand up for what you believe in. Also, I feel that
the initial research was not properly carried. Benjamin Haas would have been
able to conduct his initial plan of burning the American flag and probably
would have created a larger impact and reaction for the protestors.
If I was
Benjamin Haas, I would have conducted the protest completely different. First,
I personally would not have burned the American flag. I would have figured out
a different way to get my point across. I would have made a campaign on social
media to get the attention of mainly LSU students, but also people nationwide.
After I promoted this issue and I saw reactions to it, I would have performed a
speech in front of the student body just like Haas. My speech would include the
Due Process Clause and the explanation of our rights as Americans. It would not
be a violent or aggressive protest at all. Say I wanted to burn the American
flag, I would have gotten the necessary burn permit to do so.
The legal
aspect of this protest played a major role in how it was carried out. The
legalities put a damper on Haas’ initial plan because of absence of the permit.
Also, the necessary police involvement
played a part in the legal aspect as well. Without the police involving
themselves, Haas would have most likely tried to finish his speech, but would
have been interrupted by the violence of the crowd. The ethical aspect of the
protest played a big part as well. The whole reason behind Haas’ action was
because he did not feel the arrest of Eslava was not ethically right. On the
other hand, protesters did not feel that the burning of the American flag was
ethical as well. This was the cause of their chants and the throwing of the
water balloons. Overall I do not believe Haas’ protest was effective. He did
not succeed with his original plan and ended up having his protest cancelled by
police. Benjamin Haas was not able to achieve his original goal of protesting
the constitutional
rights of Americans and the human rights for all.
In
conclusion, the Louisiana State University burning of the American flag protest
was not successful. However, I believe that if the necessary precautions and
research were done, this protest could have been successful. Although it was
not carried out properly, that does make it less important than one that has
been successful. The emotional
aspect (pathos) was still present and caused a controversial reaction that
brought national attention. Although it did not work out for Haas, the
protesters fighting for patriotism ultimately met their goal.*
Main characters- The main character of the protest is
Benjamin Haas being as though he is the one who decided to protest the issue.
His role in this protest is essential because of his initial idea to create the
protest and his attempted actions towards it. The protesters also play a big
part in the protest because without them there would be no rebuttal to Haas and
the protest would have been carried out smoothly. I used mixed topic strings
because I mainly focused on one character (Haas) but also mentioned the
protesters frequently as well.
Conclusion explanation*- The main focus of my conclusion was to
reiterate that the protest was unsuccessful and could have been conducted
differently. I also wanted to mention that even though it was not a successful
protest, it is still important. Also, I wanted to mention that there was an
emotional appeal.
Works Cited
Press,
Associated. “Lsu Protestors Stop Planned Flag Burning.” Nola Media Group, 12
May 2011
Cohn, Ari. “LSU
Chancelor Speaks Out On Flag Burning Protest.” FIRE, 17 May 2011
Graham, Ben. “Flashback:
Remember When LSU Students Overwhelmed An American Flag Protest?” MRCTV, 15 May
2015
Friedman,
Maria. “LSU Student Decides Against Burning Flag As Thousands Stage Counter
Demonstration.” Fox News Network,11 May
2011
No comments:
Post a Comment