A New York case will surely challenge the left’s commitment to its ideology. At times over the past two years, for example, liberals in South Florida have gone apoplectic when drivers, usually found in pickup trucks, have defaced gay pride flags painted onto the streets in places like Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach.
Cops were called, and demands went up from the left that they not rest until the do-badders, usually white men who may be Trump supporters, were rounded up and jailed.
Up in New York City on Wednesday, however, the left got a test.
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The New York Post reported that 45-year-old Fred Innocent was arrested and charged with a hate crime for defecating on a pride flag.
As the Post noted, Innocent “allegedly relieved himself on a pride flag outside Buceo 95’s dining shed at West 95th Street and Amsterdam Avenue around 10 a.m. on April 15, according to authorities. The alleged defecator then took another nearby pride flag and used it to wipe his backside, a stomach-churning video shows.”
“Workers at the eatery, many of whom identify as ‘largely LGBTQ+’ were horrified by the gross incident.”
But, it turns out that Innocent is black and homeless.
As PJ Media noted on Thursday, the case presents “a conflict between one of the Left’s favorite kinds of city dweller — a deranged homeless person of color — and one of the Left’s most revered symbols: their beloved flag of Pride in one’s exotic sexual behaviors.”
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For nearly two weeks, leftists in New York City have defended a violent, homeless black man who died after being restrained by a passenger on a subway train who didn’t want to wait to see if Jordan Neely would carry out the threats he allegedly made against other passengers.
That passenger, Daniel Penny, a U.S. Marine, was charged with manslaughter on Thursday.
But it remains to be seen if District Attorney Alvin Bragg will be tough on Innocent.
As PJ Media also noted, while his case is mockable on its face, it does present important constitutional questions.
“Behind the obvious conflict between two of the Left’s most cherished things is a more consequential collision of two legal provisions: freedom of speech and hate crime laws,” PJ Media columnist Athena Thorne wrote.
“You see, Mr. Innocent has now been charged with committing a ‘hate crime’ related to the incident. But were the stripes with which he buffed his backside red, white, and blue rather than the gaudy clown colors of ‘Pride,’ Mr. Innocent would face no such charge.”
In fact, as she added, among liberals “it is not only permitted but indeed celebrated to wipe one’s rear with an American flag.”
“For in the humble act of relieving and cleansing himself on a pair of LGB flags,” Thorne continued, “Mr. Innocent may well have provided an oppressed nation with the catalyst it needs to strike down one of the Left’s most powerful tools to censor speech it doesn’t like.”
“How wondrous it would be if Innocent v. Buceo 95 were the case that restores Americans’ freedom to think, say, and act as they please.”
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What a dilemma the aptly named Fred Innocent presents to left-wingers.
Will the “defund the police” crowd seek to stop the crackdown on a homeless black man, named Innocent no less, by a white supremacist, structurally racist legal system? Will Rev. Al Sharpton gather a mob outside the restaurant and lead it in chants of “No justice, no peace. When you gotta go, you gotta go”?
Or will they label Innocent a homophobe and lump him in with those gay-hating white supremacist rednecks who smeared their tire rubber all over South Florida intersections in protest of an ideology and bad public art in the same way Innocent smeared his output on not one but two pride flags?
Innocent’s case will say much about which group of alleged victims holds the most power on the left.
Over at Twitchy.com, they’re betting against Innocent.
Innocent and Neely “sound pretty similar. Both have extensive criminal records and were arrested in the past for violent crimes. Both men are black and homeless. … So presumably AOC [Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] et al. will be tweeting about Innocent being persecuted for the crime of being black and homeless in New York any minute now, right?”
Not quite. After all, Twitchy noted, “Thou shalt not besmirch the Pride flag and getteth away with it.”
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