It’s been nearly two years since activist Bree Newsome was arrested for climbing the flagpole outside of the South Carolina Capitol building in Columbia and pulling down the Confederate flag, and although the flag has since been removed by the state, tensions are clearly still running high. On Wednesday evening Newsome was invited to speak at the College of Charleston on the subject of direct action in protests, and members of the South Carolina Secessionists Party responded by “flagging” parts of the city with Confederate flags.
The pro-Confederate flag crowd was quickly outnumbered by hundreds of activists that showed up to the event, however, and around 6 p.m. one lone protester who stood with a flag outside of the venue where Newsome was to speak ran afoul of Black Lives Matter leader Muhiyidin d’Baha, who jumped through the barricade and attempted to snatch the flag away from him — which was captured by an onlooker in the above video.
Unfortunately d’Baha only succeeded in busting the flagpole, and he was subsequently arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Showing Up For Racial Justice in Charleston has since organized an online donation site to raise money for d’Baha’s bail, and they’ve already collected over $5,500 of the $6,000 goal at the time of this writing.
Here’s another angle of the flag-napping, and honestly, with moves like these they should have at least let him off with a warning, because — damn, that’s impressive.
The way my man jumped for the Confederate flag like Neo and Trinity jumping between buildings has me absolutely weak tho. 😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/qwmiLLAnIa
— kyle alex brett (@kyalbr) February 23, 2017
(Via Post and Courier, NBC 4)