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A North Carolina couple who were terrorized by a police officer who had recently
returned from Iraq are now fighting back, after sheriff's deputy Brian Scarborough
broke into their house, assaulted them and then arrested the Kuhns for the crime
of flying an upside down U.S. flag.
Mark and Deborah Kuhn of Asheville, North Carolina made headlines last week
when they were arrested for flying an upside down U.S. flag, a commonly recognized
sign of distress, in their backyard, after police claimed they were violating
a statute for "desecration of the flag".
As is supported by the United States Flag Code as well as a similar incident
in 2001 , flying the flag upside down is not a mark of disrespect, and in fact
is considered by many to be the highest form of patriotism.
However, since 9/11 there have been several cases where individuals have been
harassed, intimidated and even arrested for inverting the flag, by those who
confuse a love of government with a love of country.
Buncombe County Sheriff's deputy Brian Scarborough had just returned from Iraq
and according to the Deborah Kuhn, was sent by his staff Sergeant from the local
National Guard to "deal with" the Kuhns after a local resident complained
about the flag, a fact that was later admitted on TV news. A National Guard
soldier in military fatigues had also previously visited the Kuhn's to harass
them about the flag.
"This is a distress signal, we're not trying to desecrate the flag,"
Kuhn told Scarborough when he told the couple they were violating a statute.
Police claimed the messages attached to the flag were the problem, but the notes
merely pointed out that the upside down flag represented a distress signal and
a warning that the country was in danger.
Even though Kuhn took the flag down, the officer immediately demanded that
the couple show their ID's and when they refused told them to put their hands
behind their back and was about to arrest them before the couple shut and locked
the door.
Scarborough then proceeded to kick the door in, "And the next thing we
know, the glass is flying, he unlocks the deadbolt and he comes into our house
after us," Kuhn told The Alex Jones Show.
The officer then pursued Mark Kuhn through the house before intercepting him
in the kitchen and putting him in a choke hold.
Deborah Kuhn called 911 to report that the officer had broken into the home
and was assaulting her husband.
The officer then pulled out pepper spray to which Mark Kuhn responded, "Are
you going to spray me in my house?" before Scarborough whipped out his
billy club and the Kuhn's ran out of the house into the street, pleading for
help from their neighbors.
"Nine police cars showed up, they whipped out the Tasers, they said 'get
down we're gonna Taser you' added Kuhn.
The couple were handcuffed, arrested and bundled into a squad car, to the protests
of numerous neighbors who demanded to know why the Kuhns were being incarcerated,
but were told to leave by police.
Contradicting the police's account of the incident, that Buncombe County Sheriff's
deputy Brian Scarborough was injured when the Kuhn's slammed the door on his
hand, Deborah Kuhn vehemently maintains that Scarborough smashed the glass of
their door with his bare fist before breaking in, a description which is backed
up by three other eyewitnesses, one of which appeared on TV later that day.
The Kuhn's are now also being charged with "assault on a government employee"
- meaning that the new definition of assault is if a police officer cuts his
hand by breaking into your house and putting you in a choke hold - you have
assaulted him.
Scarborough claims that Deborah Kuhn slapped him while she was on the phone
to the police, but the audio file of the call (listen here ) clearly contradicts
this.
They each face over a year in prison.
The Kuhn's case is similar in many ways to that of Kelly Rushing , a man from
Lyon County Kentucky, who was arrested and charged for handing out videotapes
of Ron Paul videos to police officers. Rushing was later found not guilty of
the offence of "terroristic threats" but continues to be harassed
by police.
It also mirrors the case of an Alabama man, who was arrested in 2004 for displaying
a sign in his yard that read "Our Courts System is a Joke," under
the pretext that it was illegal to criticize the authorities.
We are encouraging our listeners and readers to call the following number and
remind the officials concerned that this is not Russia or Nazi Germany, and
that officer Scarborough's conduct was shameful and an insult to everything
America is supposed to stand for.
Scarborough's experience in Iraq of kicking down doors and taking innocent
people to camps is not something that should be brought back to America, and
the charges against the Kuhns should be dropped immediately along with a formal
apology issued.