AMES, IOWA- The day we all feared has come. You can now be convicted and harshly sentenced for what you think and believe. And, at least in Iowa, what is a protected 1st Amendment action with one flag is now a hate crime with another.

An Ames, Iowa man was sentenced to 16 years in prison after he set fire to a church “gay pride” flag in June.

I would like to reiterate, the Supreme Court has ruled that burning the American flag, while reprehensible, is protected as free speech.

But burning a rainbow flag is not. It is a felony that can land you in jail for 15 years.

Adolfo Martinez, 30, of Ames last month was found guilty of a hate crime – a class “D” felony – third-degree harassment and reckless use of fire. Police said he stole a pride banner hanging at Ames United Church of Christ and burned it early June 11th outside the Dangerous Curves Gentleman’s Club.

Martinez admitted to police that he lit the banner on fire using lighter fluid and a lighter after stealing it from the church, according to court documents.

Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds said hate crime charges were added because Martinez is suspected of criminal mischief against someone’s property because of “what it represents as far as sexual orientation.”

A jury convicted Martinez in November.

He faced a maximum of five years in prison for the “hate” crime and arson, and a maximum of a year and a month for the other two charges, according to Iowa sentencing guidelines. Court records list him as a habitual offender, allowing him to be sentenced to a longer prison term.

All three crimes were to be served concurrent as the habitual offender charge carries a 15-year sentence and hate crime two years. Martinez is not eligible for parole until the mandatory minimum of three years is met.

He is the first person to be convicted of a hate crime in Story County, Reynolds said.

“The hard reality is there are people who target individuals and commit crimes against individuals because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, and when that happens it’s so important that as a society we stand up and people have severe consequences for those actions,” Reynolds said.

Prior to his final sentencing Martinez gave his impact statement, and indicated that he would never stop, and was ‘living by God’s laws,’ Reynolds said.

So, burn the American flag…free speech, have a nice day. Move along, nothing to see here.

Burn a pride flag…hate speech, enjoy the next 15 years serving a sentence behind bars.

Seems a bit excessive, right?

The 8th Amendment says:

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

I dare say that 15 years is cruel and unusual.

Did he commit crimes? Yes.

But he was not convicted of those crimes. He was not charged or convicted with theft of property, or destruction of property. He was most heavily convicted of hating LGBTQ people.

I believe that most people would agree that discrimination against any protected class of people is wrong, thus I make the following argument:

If burning a pride flag is consider a hate crime because it is a criminal attack against a protected class of people, then burning the American flag should be a hate crime too.

Here is why. The rainbow is not exclusive to the LGBTQ community. The rainbow was also symbolic of God’s promise to Noah that he would never again destroy the world by flood.

After the initial invasion of US forces into Iraq in March of 2003, a million people took to the streets of Rome to protest that invasion. Many of them were carrying rainbow flags with the word PACE written on them…which translate in English…PEACE.

So, it stands to reason that if the rainbow is symbolic of different things to different people, then so too should the American flag.

The Stars and Stripes represents freedom.

It identifies the greatest nation ever.

It flies over the only country with the Bill of Rights like the one we have.

And it represents the men and women who have fought, bled and sacrificed for her.

And oh, by the way, veterans ARE a protected class.

As a disabled veteran, I am doubly protected. You cannot discriminate against me based on my disability, nor can you do so based on my status as a veteran. And there are millions like me out there that are classified as either veterans or service-connected, disabled veterans.

In fact, the most recent Gallup Poll estimates that there are 14.85 million people in the nation that fall in the LGBTQ classification.

The most recent numbers identifying veteran status looks like this:

Disabled veterans – 3.82 million.

Non-disabled veterans – 13.62 million.

Do the math. That is 17.44 million Americans that fall into a protected group of people.

So, today I proclaim, on behalf of the millions of disabled veterans, the America flag as the symbol of our protected class of people, American military veterans.

Author’s note: Actually, we have always claimed the American flag because we are Americans and patriots. And also, of the 17.44 million veterans mentioned…some of them are also in LGBTQ community.

Now, in accordance with the law, you burn an American flag, it is no longer protected free speech under the 1st Amendment. It is now a “hate” crime punishable by 15 years in prison.

I am going to copy and paste this article word for word and send it to Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn as well as to my Congressman, Kevin Brady.

I am going to offer to assist them in writing a bill that officially recognizes the Stars and Stripes as the flag of American military veterans, and as a protected class of people, deems its burning to be a hate crime, punishable by time in prison.

Would you do the same?

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