PA Man Arrested and Jailed for Flying a Flag Upside Down Gets $55,000By Matt Agorist The Altoona Mirror reports Friday that supervisors in Allegheny Township, Blair County, have approved letting their insurance company pay the money to Joshua Brubaker. In May of 2014, Brubaker said he was standing up for his American Indian heritage when he hung the upside down flag outside of his home with the letters AIM spray painted on it. AIM stands for American Indian Movement. The flag was to protest the plans to route the proposed Keystone Pipeline through the site of the Wounded Knee confrontation in South Dakota. Brubaker had harmed no one and was merely exercising his 1st Amendment right to free speech when the Allegheny Township police descended on his home. I was offended by it when I first saw it. I had an individual stop here at the station, a female, who was in the military and she was very offended by it, said Allegheny Township police Assistant Chief L.J. Berg. Berg took down the flag and charged Brubaker with desecration and insults to the American Flag. According to WPXI, Brubaker defended his actions after his arrest, I found that Wounded Knee is up for sale. Not only privately, but commercially. Its just not right, and simply because I express myself in a way that somebody else doesnt like or agree with doesnt mean I should be persecuted for having beliefs. Luckily for Brubaker, a judge would later dismiss all the charges against him. The township has since advised its police to stop enforcing the states tyrannical and 1st Amendment-violating flag desecration laws. If I dont have a right to fly that flag upside down, which means a sign of distress, which this country is in so much distress right now, then whats the point of having it? Brubaker asked. However, the 1st Amendment-hating police department said that there were other ways he couldve expressed himself, other than Defacing a symbol so many have fought hard to protect. People have made too many sacrifices to protect the flag and to have this happen in my community, Im not happy with that, Berg said. Apparently, Chief Berg and the other oppressive neighbors, havent seen the many veterans and active duty military in this country flying their flags upside down. To be offended is to take the first step in being a totalitarian megalomaniac. Acting on that offense with state force is the epitome of intolerance and tyranny. To be offended by what someone else says is your own choice, as you dont have to care about what other people think, and nothing has happened to you. Information merely passed from their mind to yours. To state that you are offended means that you wish the person hadnt said it and wont say anything similar again. In other words, you actually want to stop certain information from being communicated. You must believe that you have some sort of right to dictate not only what people can and cant communicate, but what they can and cant think. Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist. Ignorant, showing their low IQs that got them the job. Delusional servants. crazy power hungry and many victims of bullying whose entire life is sentered around the need for revenge and punishing people for their low selfesteem,others learn from experiense and become better humans. thats why they are twice as dangerous,im gkad the oathkeepers exist. there is atleast hope! Defacing a symbol so many have fought hard to protect. It is nothing wrong with defending your country from evil intruders, but the soldiers who go to war, whether they go to Iraq or any other place, are NOT fighting for their country, but for a Global society where they themselves will be slaves, therefore creating their own horrific future, by participating in the wars of the Globalists. The soldiers who go to war are unknowingly the Soldiers of the Globalists. Clinton, Bush, Obama and the other puppets couldnt care less if you live or if you die. As a matter of fact, they prefer that you die a dead soldier is a good soldier and one less worthless mouth to feed (useless eaters, as Henry Kissinger once called us all). By refusing to support our own misery, we have to refuse military service as long as the Globalists still pull the strings. And when they are not pulling the strings anymore, eventually we need no soldiers anyway. If the troops defended freedom, theyd attack the government reads a tee-shirt I own. Our nation is in dire distress on all levels this is a simple fact. This man should NOT have been fined. People are so complacent to what is going on around them it is sad. Go read the Flag Code what this man did IS ALLOWED by law yet he was fined. Our own government at all levels does not even follow its own laws any longer. Id wager that the $55,000 settlement is recognition that he was wrongly arrested for a completely legal act. Of course it was. If it had gone to court each of those people involved would have had to get their own attorneys!! Im quite certain it was our tax dollars that paid out the settlement. In the interest of accuracy, Im pretty sure he was arrested for spray painting the flag, not for displaying it upside down. I support his right to do either or both, however. the PTB dont want enforcers smart enough to question their orders. I feel the same way the Usurped States are in dire straights. Thanks to the no-name mousy potus. So, two gubmint so-called public servants became offended about the statement the guy was trying to make here. Both these idiots, if they knew anything at all, would know the flying of the flag upside down is an international distress signal. That he sprayed AIM on his own flag was just his way of making another point. Why is the US Flag diplayed Upside Down? The upside down U.S. flag is an official signal of distress. It is not meant to be, and is not officially recognized as any type of disrespect when so displayed for the right reasons. To the contrary, here is the relevant part of the US Code of Laws regarding how to fly the flag when in distress: 176. Respect for flag: No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor. The possible unseen irony here is staggering. and theres the irony that American soldiers fought for and died so that people HAVE the right to fly the American Flag how they see it!! Remember back in 2008 the Obammy US flags? Obammys socialistic image in place of the stars corner . WHERE WERE THE ARRESTS BACK THEN????? Thats just the thing. LEO and the courts dont follow their own laws they are empowered to uphold. Thats why I refer to them as road pirates, and we all know what happens to pirates when they are caught on shore, right?? No trials, no appeals, just a quick walk up the gallows steps to meet the man with the black hood on his head. 