Iowa man sentenced to 16 years for setting LGBTQ flag on fire

[livingston]

Iowa man sentenced to 16 years for setting LGBTQ flag on fire

Martinez was charged with hate crimes and other offenses after he lit fire to an LGBTQ flag outside a gentleman's club in Ames.

www.desmoinesregister.com

Iowa man sentenced to 16 years for setting LGBTQ flag on fire
An Ames man was sentenced Wednesday to about 16 years in prison after he set fire to a church's LGBTQ flag in June.

Adolfo Martinez, 30, of Ames, was found guilty last month of third-degree arson in violation of individual rights — hate crime, third-degree harassment, and reckless use of fire as a habitual offender.

He was arrested after stealing a pride banner hanging at Ames United Church of Christ, 217 6th St., and burning it early June 11 outside Dangerous Curves Gentleman’s Club, 111 5th St., police said.

Adolfo Martinez (Photo: Special to the Register)
Martinez admitted to police that he lit the banner on fire with lighter fluid and a lighter after stealing it from the church, according to court documents.

Iowa man who burned pride flag stolen from church sentenced to 16 years

An Iowa man will spend up to 16 years behind bars for stealing a pride flag from an Iowa church and setting it on fire — a sentence that even a local LGBTQ group says might be excessive, according …

nypost.com

 

[meketrefe]

Is it a hate crime to burn a flag, any flalg?

 

[Twogunwilly]

The sentence is the real crime

 

[Saltwater60]

You can kill someone and get less time.

 

[holdover]

He got off with a slap on the wrist . The nerve of that guy.

 

[SomeSoldier]

Hate crime is bullshit, sentence length is bullshit unless it based on habitual offender. Unless someone was in or near the church, what harassment or are we saying that builfings are people too? As far as arson goes, someone sets something on fire near my house, I am calling it arson.

 

[Tinman]

How come he goes to jail for burning a LGBTQ flag, but these assholes can burn an American flag and nothing happens to them?

 

[FrankenCub]

How come he goes to jail for burning a LGBTQ flag, but these assholes can burn an American flag and nothing happens to them?

This is where I have a problem with this. The left is protected when they burn the US flag and Confederate Battle flag. 16yrs for burning a fag flag? I see civil rights lawsuit coming.

 

[spat]

Let's hope people help him enough to get this to SCOTUS and get all the "hate crime" BS overturned.

 

[Curmudgeon]

We are tolerant of all, except the intolerant.

 

[Bananabandit]

Shoulda burned 2 at that price.

 

[CaseHardened]

https://nygunforum.com/threads/kill-3-children-at-a-school-bus-stop-get-4-years.34751/#post-639723

You can kill someone and get less time.

DREAMER murders Construction Worker with Illegal Handgun - except it's not murder, court says

https://nygunforum.com/threads/kill-3-children-at-a-school-bus-stop-get-4-years.34751/#post-639723

 

[CaseHardened]

And don't even think of burning a Koran.

Muslim Man In Norway Stops Racist Man From Burning The Quran!

 

[Darth]

Property rights. No matter what the flag said. You can't burn other people's shit.

Not a free speech issue.

People don't get arrested for burning American flags because they own them. You can do whatever you want with it if you own it.

The "hate crime" bit is pure nonsense though.

 

[Robin]

"cruel and unusual punishment" When the inmates run the asylum and the deviant's decide societies moral code this will be the end result, well, till that day of reckoning, which is inevitable.
Robin

 

[Toecutter]

The article states he is a habitual offender. While its fucked they turn this into a burning a gay flag thing, we dont know what other things he has set fire to or people he has attacked in the past.

 

[Carlos Hathcock]

Property rights. No matter what the flag said. You can't burn other people's shit.

Not a free speech issue.

People don't get arrested for burning American flags because they own them. You can do whatever you want with it if you own it.

The "hate crime" bit is pure nonsense though.

16 years for destruction of private property. Fucking come on.

 

[Marine Cpl]

I don’t think it should matter what he’s done in the past. The punishment should fit the crime. Whatever the penalty for theft and arson is in that state is what he should have been charged with.

When we look the other way because a person charged is a criminal, that same injustice can be done to us.

 

[Darth]

16 years for destruction of private property. Fucking come on.
View attachment 59863

It was long because of the tracked on hate crime. That part is BS, as stated.

 

[Darth]

I don’t think it should matter what he’s done in the past. The punishment should fit the crime. Whatever the penalty for theft and arson is in that state is what he should have been charged with.

When we look the other way because a person charged is a criminal, that same injustice can be done to us.

Completely disagree.

If you habitually break the laws, you absolutly should have harsher punishments.

The problem is what the laws are.

 

[Marine Cpl]

Completely disagree.

If you habitually break the laws, you absolutly should have harsher punishments.

The problem is what the laws are.

I completely disagree. Whatever the crime is, that’s what the punishment should be. That’s like saying that you would be okay with getting a 50 dollar parking ticket the first time you park illegally and the next time you get another one or commit some other infraction like speeding, it should be double or triple what everyone else is getting for parking illegally.

We are going through this where I work. It has turned into a selective punishment system when infractions like running red signals occur. Certain ass kissers are getting one punishment for that infraction that’s a slap on the wrist and others that don’t ass kiss are getting much more serious punishments for the same infraction. Both have something else not related on their records but if you are down with the good ole boys, you are taken cared of. And the good ole boys aren’t the Dukes of Hazard types.

 

[Darth]

I completely disagree. Whatever the crime is, that’s what the punishment should be. That’s like saying that you would be okay with getting a 50 dollar parking ticket the first time you park illegally and the next time you get another one or commit some other infraction like speeding, it should be double or triple what everyone else is getting for parking illegally.

We are going through this where I work. It has turned into a selective punishment system when infractions like running red signals occur. Certain ass kissers are getting one punishment for that infraction that’s a slap on the wrist and others that don’t ass kiss are getting much more serious punishments for the same infraction. Both have something else not related on their records but if you are down with the good ole boys, you are taken cared of. And the good ole boys aren’t the Dukes of Hazard types.

Parking tickets simply shouldn't be a thing. Like I said, bad laws.

But if you assault someone, get 7 years, get out and assault someone, you have a high propensity to do it again. You had your chance and fucked up yet again. You can't be trusted in society.

 

[Blimey]

Hate crime is bullshit, sentence length is bullshit unless it based on habitual offender. Unless someone was in or near the church, what harassment or are we saying that builfings are people too? As far as arson goes, someone sets something on fire near my house, I am calling it arson.

He was a repeat offender.

16 years for what he did is beyond stupid.

 

[gun_slinger_boy]

Maybe he was on probation. We never get the full story.

 

[LMS]

Completely disagree.

If you habitually break the laws, you absolutly should have harsher punishments.

The problem is what the laws are.

I completely agree.

 

[spat]

Property rights. No matter what the flag said. You can't burn other people's shit.

Not a free speech issue.

People don't get arrested for burning American flags because they own them. You can do whatever you want with it if you own it.

The "hate crime" bit is pure nonsense though.

Nobody is saying he shouldn't be charged for the vandalism. In fact he was. He got something like a year for burning the flag (which might be a bit excessive, but that's another debate). But then he got another 12 years because it was a "gay pride" flag. That last part is where the problem is.

 

[Marine Cpl]

Parking tickets simply shouldn't be a thing. Like I said, bad laws.

But if you assault someone, get 7 years, get out and assault someone, you have a high propensity to do it again. You had your chance and fucked up yet again. You can't be trusted in society.

Parking tickets was just an example. Insert whatever crime you see fit. I can see your point to an extent. If you got arrested for assault and got 1 year for example and got arrested again for the same thing, I can see a harsher sentence making sense. But it has to be set on paper and for the same exact crime and not at the whim of a judge on what the punishment should be. If the 1st offense is one year and the 2nd offense is two years, that makes sense.

But a harsher sentence for an unrelated crime previously, makes no sense. Once you allow that, then they can make your first assault sentence greater because you had a parking ticket in the past.

 

[LMS]

Parking tickets was just an example. Insert whatever crime you see fit. I can see your point to an extent. If you got arrested for assault and got 1 year for example and got arrested again for the same thing, I can see a harsher sentence making sense. But it has to be set on paper and for the same exact crime and not at the whim of a judge on what the punishment should be. If the 1st offense is one year and the 2nd offense is two years, that makes sense.

But a harsher sentence for an unrelated crime previously, makes no sense. Once you allow that, then they can make your first assault sentence greater because you had a parking ticket in the past.

So commit a series of a certain crime, then switch to another crime and the counter gets reset?

 

[Marine Cpl]

It should be just what’s put on paper. 1st offense equals X. Second offense equals Y. When you start adding arbitrary sentences because someone did something else unrelated years ago, it’s open to abuse and this example in the OP shows that.

 

[CaseHardened]

Property rights. No matter what the flag said. You can't burn other people's shit.

Not a free speech issue.

People don't get arrested for burning American flags because they own them. You can do whatever you want with it if you own it.

The "hate crime" bit is pure nonsense though.

Thank you for being entirely consistent.

You have also maintained your principles every time a Trump Sign or Pro-Life Banner is targeted.

As you say, it's the physical object, not free speech being attacked.

And as such, justice would entail the replacement cost and even brief incarceration. Not 16 years !!