The special snowflakes were protesting to protest.
An Air Force veteran and former Playboy model who was banned from Valdosta State University last week after taking an American flag from a group of demonstrators is now organizing her own demonstration that she said is to show support for the military and the flag.
Michelle Manhart was detained but not arrested by VSU police after she took the flag from a group of protesters. She said she was not planning to take the flag from the protestors, but she had heard about the group’s recent campus demonstrations and wanted to take action.
“I did not want anything like this, but I got a call from a student who told me that the flag was on the ground, and they were walking on it,” said Manhart. “I was just going over there to pick up the flag off the ground. I don’t know what their cause is, but I went to pick it up because it doesn’t deserve to be on the ground.”
The group reportedly elected not to press charges against Manhart, and campus police issued her a criminal trespass warning, effectively banning her from the school. She told The Valdosta Daily Times that she resisted arrest after seeing the flag being returned to the group.[…]
The group gathered in front of Odum Library declined to identify themselves to the The Valdosta Daily Times or speak with a reporter about their cause.
Protesters did engage with VSU students about using the flag as “a symbol of our protest. When a slave understands his situation and understands he doesn’t want to be in slavery, he does not respect or revere anything his slavemaster has put in front of him.”
Manhart said she would like a letter of apology from the group and to take possession of the flag so she could dispose of it properly.
Manhart also said she understands that the 1989 Supreme Court decision Texas v. Johnson trumps federal and state statutes concerning flag desecration and protects demonstrators’ free speech rights to do what they want with the flag, but she still feels that it should be illegal.