It's not something you see in Bakersfield, and I'm glad we didn't show it.
In fact, I'm glad we didn't even talk about it on the news tonight.
No one was hurt.
No one was injured.
I'm talking about the idiot who raised a Nazi flag above the football field at West High on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King's annual celebration.
Was there a connection?
We'll never know unless the clown is caught and charged by police with trespassing.
Maybe a hate crime.
I'd throw in a misdemeanor of stupidity if it was possible.
As I scanned the news feeds on Monday night, I noticed several stories about MLK day that had a negative slant.
From a shooting in Las Vegas to a disturbance in New York, every year there tends to be a story from somewhere in the U.S. associated with some kind of negative act on MLK day.
I'm sick of it.
The media is constantly bashed for not reporting *good* news.
Well, I think leaving this flag raising fool out of the limelight is *good* news.
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It's now a day later and we're getting calls into the newsroom about the flag. Kids from West High are talking about the flag.
The story is now being prepared to run today, and I still believe this is NOT a story.
I think it's a newsworthy story. Anyone who saw it or who is talking about it deserves to hear more of what the fuss is all about.
Now I'm in between these comments; while I do feel it's "newsworthy", repeatedly showing the object rubs salt in the wounds. It can be reported w/o having the thing in picture the whole story. In fact, a single news cycle is all that is justified. Whereas a couple dozen people might have seen it before it was taken down at 12:30 AM, tens of thousands have seen it in the various news programs and probably over the Internet. Why do we want to go back to "redneck" reputation that Bakersfield used to have? I appreciate Mike Hart's sensitivity and Jay Jones quick attention in this matter.
Robert K.
I think even if a few people saw it, many people will have heard of it just by discussing, emails, etc.
So, 12, is a starting guess, but those numbers can spread like wildfire.
I believe it's the media's duty to then report on such a topic that can be so culturally sensitive.
On the positive side, this is a great opportunity for families to discuss how Nazi's weren't/aren't just bad guys in Indiana Jones movies.
Families now have a reason to discuss the sensitivities that cultures have to such terrible acts.
I saw your article online today, and wanted to share a thought. I still find it hard to conceive that we (country) are still raising children to grow up thinking that because they are white, they are better than anyone else. We are all the same HUMAN RACE--It doesn't matter what color/nation we are. The people that hung that flag are ignorant; back wooded; self seeking; no good and are void of humanity for others. May God have mercy on them, for no one else will. And yes I am white!!!
I think it's interesting, that since no one has been arrested or linked with this trespassing crime yet, everyone here has tainted this as a "white" crime.
Nazi = White?
What if it was a prank from a minority group?
Do you know?
Is this media spinning in motion?
Well, I hope for all of these spinner's, that they are White. What an embarassment that would be!
Maybe it's the same group of nightowl's, that walk onto private property and spray paint "BROWN PRIDE" on peoples fences!
Racism,sadly exists on both sides of those walls. Let's include every side in this debate of modern day/very much post civil rights movement prejudice.
A Nazi flag raised by a few, graffiti by another small group, will not destroy the leaps and bounds this country has made in civil rights and non-prejudice attitude. It might still take a little time, but it is definitely spreading positively. Not negative, as the media wants us to believe.
The bigger story is, with all the input of good and bad that the media COULD report on, what is it they ultimately decide to reel us in with every night?
Peace be with you all.
That's a great point. No one knows the ethnicity of the people who hoisted the flag, but chances are, it's people who believe in white supremacy, since that is what the flag symbolizes. It wouldn't make sense to me to fly a Nazi flag to promote brown pride ... but I see your point: we don't know who the perpetrators are.
I find it very hard to believe that someone of a different ethnicity raised the flag to *frame* a Nazi group. Talk about spinning. This is the problem.
If you don't remember history, you're doomed to repeat it.
If for no other reason, the flag on a high school campus should give history teachers a chance to discuss the Nazi's and give students (many of whom we talked to didn't know who the Nazi's were) a chance to learn something.
The lesson would do a lot more for the kids education than the "In God We Trust" logo on the wall.
As for the media discussing the issue simply because it's spreading like wildfire, it's time we put that fire out for good, instead of fueling it.
It's a joke, right? I mean not the flag...
I see hammer and sickles on carplates, I see Che on Tshirts, I see red flags, when the mexicans marching in California. Communism = 100million victims. Not only 1 flag, but MANY.
More communist parties in the USA, nobody protests against them.
Anarchy? People says that is "cool". How many victim the Anarchist ideology? Especially in Africa. 5millions? 10millions? More? But yeah, spray the Anarchist symbol on the walls, that makes you "cool". Who protesting against this? The news never speak against the anarchist groups.
And wow, you want to say that makes somebody "BADGUY", just because that somebody's views are different than yours! What a tolerance! Well, I think THIS is hateful. You can't accept the other people's views, and you just call them "haters".
You say the whites shouldn't be proud to be white? What is the black history month then? What is "black heritage"? You want to say the blacks can be proud but the whites can't? Shame on you.
"one race the human race" - Joke again? Then what is the word: "racist"?
I tell you what is HATEcrime. 2 days ago a white kid was beaten up by 5 gipsies and one of them made a video about it for fun. THIS is hatecrime. Not a symbol, or a flag. Do you think the media talked about it? NO, they didn't. This is hatecrime.
"It's a joke, right? I mean not the flag...
I see hammer and sickles on carplates, I see Che on Tshirts, I see red flags, when the mexicans marching in California. Communism = 100million victims. Not only 1 flag, but MANY.
More communist parties in the USA, nobody protests against them.
Anarchy? People says that is "cool". How many victim the Anarchist ideology? Especially in Africa. 5millions? 10millions? More? But yeah, spray the Anarchist symbol on the walls, that makes you "cool". Who protesting against this? The news never speak against the anarchist groups.
And wow, you want to say that makes somebody "BADGUY", just because that somebody's views are different than yours! What a tolerance! Well, I think THIS is hateful. You can't accept the other people's views, and you just call them "haters".
You say the whites shouldn't be proud to be white? What is the black history month then? What is "black heritage"? You want to say the blacks can be proud but the whites can't? Shame on you.
"one race the human race" - Joke again? Then what is the word: "racist"?
I tell you what is HATEcrime. 2 days ago a white kid was beaten up by 5 gipsies and one of them made a video about it for fun. THIS is hatecrime. Not a symbol, or a flag. Do you think the media talked about it? NO, they didn't. This is hatecrime."
I totally agree with those comments. This country is so backwards and full of double standards it is amazing. There is a teacher at our campus who gives each of her students on the first day of class a pamphlet supporting the Revolutionary Communist Party. If that teacher handed out a pamphlet supporting national pride, eurocentricism or even traditionalism, she would be hanged and her world view would be used as an example of what NOT to believe. Yet she can sympathize with communists and wholeheartedly support a violent revolution to strip the wealth from people whose families have worked generations for and redistribute it to a bunch of lazy people who have the free will to create their own better life? Something is not right. Seattle has a statue of freakin LENIN in a very popular neighbourhood. No one seems to complain to the city council or local politicians. Lenin, whose revolution caused somehwere between 100000 and 500000 deaths. I can bet you money if there was a statue of Mussalini, there would e outrage. Hell, if there was a statue of GWB (who I do NOT support) there would be outrage. Yet these ul;tra liberals who live in a state of subjective relativism can support Mao, Lenin, Stalin, and Che all they want and outsiders don' bat an eye. The communist influence in this country absolutely sickens me. I don't know how people can ignore the effects that communism has had on modern nations such as Cuba, N. Korea, Russia, Khmer, Germany among others. These American hypocrites bash fascism, yet they support dictatorships that have killed more people than the total WWII fatalities combined- then these fools call GWB a nazi!!!
It is bizarre and a huge double standard. I would like to see how these people would like growing up in N. Korea, Cuba or the Soviet Union under Stalin.
I bet they would be singing a different tune.
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