American Flag Wars Take Place In New York And On Social Media Ahead Of Fourth Of July

An activist group is planning an American flag-burning event ahead of the Fourth of July. The anti-NYPD group first announced the “Burning the American Flags” rally on their Facebook fan page.

The activist group created the event on the popular social networking site, asking people to “set fire to this symbol of oppression,” which will take place at Fort Green Park at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 1. Burning the American flag is legal, but the event still isn’t allows by the Parks Department because open fires aren’t allows on the park’s property. The group didn’t even bother to ask the Parks Department for permission, knowing they would get denied.

Organizers of the American flag-burning event is a response to the Charleston shooter Dylan Roof because he is a “product of a consistent pattern of state-sponsored terrorism and radicalized dehumanization in America.” The activist group intended to just burn the Confederate flag, but now they’re deciding to burn just the American flag since they believe it represents the same thing, according to the group’s Facebook post.

“The Confederate flag has long been a symbol of white supremacy, slavery, and Jim Crow. However, the Confederacy lost the war, but the American flag has unceasingly, from the first day it was ever hung, represented the exact same thing.”

The group is also encouraging invitees to bring their own American flags to burn.

“We think these flags symbolize white supremacy and racism that is embedded into the American society and culture,” says “Disarm” member Carlos Cabeza.

What else is the reason behind the American-flag burning event? The group’s mission is to “take away power from the powers that be,” which means the NYPD. The group also calls for disarmament of the NYPD and demands the “demobilization of the police from our neighborhoods,” according to The Blaze.

Meanwhile, there appears to an American flag battle on Facebook itself. People are combating Facebook’s Gay Pride avatars with American flag avatars. It all started when Facebook released a tool allowing users to add rainbow flags to their profile pics. Now conservative groups are using a similar tool found on Right Wing News.

Rainbow flags are showed to support same-sex marriage, while the American flags are being used to oppose same-sex marriage. Conservative groups also think that the American flag should be the country’s symbol, not the Gay Pride flag. The Independent noted that being American and supporting LGBT rights are not mutually exclusive, an argument that clashes with the views of conservative groups and religious groups. There are some users who mashed both the American and Gay pride flags.

Because of this, some users have turned the American flag into an anti-rainbow symbol while others are showing that they’re proud be Americans. What are your thoughts on all this arguing over the American flag on social media?

[Image: Amos Aikman/Getty Images]