Playboy Model Detained and Banned From Valdosta State College For Taking American Flag From Protestors Who Were Stomping On It
AJC - An Air Force veteran with a controversial past has been banned from Valdosta State University after taking an American flag from demonstrators walking on it in protest.
The veteran, Michelle Manhart, was detained — but not arrested — following the Friday incident in front of a library at the south Georgia college. She told the Valdosta Daily Times that she was upset not with the group’s protest, but with the way they were protesting.
“I did not want anything like this, but I got a call from a student who told me that the flag was on the ground, and they were walking on it,” Manhart, also a former Playboy model, told the paper. “I was just going over there to pick up the flag off the ground. I don’t know what their cause is, but I went to pick it up because it doesn’t deserve to be on the ground.”
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Fox - An Air Force veteran was hauled away in handcuffs and detained by campus security at Valdosta State University in Georgia after she stopped protesters from desecrating an American flag. Michelle Manhart admits that she snatched Old Glory from a group of demonstrators who put the flag on the ground and were walking on it.
One member of the unnamed group told the Valdosta Daily Times they were desecrating the flag as “a symbol of our protest.”
“When a slave understands his situation and understands he doesn’t want to be in slavery, he does not respect or revere anything his slave master has put in front of him, a VSU student told the newspaper.
Manhart was issued a criminal trespass warning and was slapped with a lifetime ban from the public university campus.
“The flag is an iconic symbol for freedom,” Manhart told me in a telephone interview. “If you are going to fight for a cause and use the First Amendment – how are you going to stomp and trample the icon that gives you that right?”
Valdosta State University, which is funded by tax dollars, issued two statements defending the desecration of the American flag.
“We respect the rights of people to peacefully assemble and voice their opinions,” the statement read. “Our primary concern is the safety of our students, faculty and staff and our ability to carry out our responsibilities to all our students on campus. We are monitoring the situation.”
On Saturday, the president of Valdosta State, sent me this statement:
“The American flag represents everything that is best about our country,” Dr. William McKinney said. “As the Supreme Court has held, one of those things is the right to free speech, which includes the right to disrespect even the symbol of our country. While I firmly disagree with the actions of the protesters, I understand their right to protest.”
Manhart, whose husband is a 21-year airman deployed overseas, admitted that she took the flag.
“It was tattered and torn, covered with mud and dirt,” she said. “I told the demonstrators that it needed to be properly disposed of.”
Manhart learned about the flag desecration last week. A family acquaintance told her the demonstrators had been trampling on the flag for three days. So Manhart called the university to complain. She said she was told the matter would be investigated.
On April 17th Manhart learned the demonstrators had once again desecrated the flag – so she drove to the campus and eventually took matters into her own hands. She brought along her 19-year-old daughter who filmed the entire incident.
“I walked up, picked up the flag and walked away,” she said.
The video shows Manhart being surrounded by angry screaming protesters. An unidentified demonstrator grabs the flag – but Manhart refused to let go.
Campus police ordered Manhart to drop the flag. She disobeyed their orders. It took three police officers to subdue the Air Force veteran.
She was detained for several hours and initially the campus police officers threatened to file federal charges. However, she was eventually set free and banished from the public university campus. Manhart told me she could just not allow those demonstrators to desecrate the nation’s flag.
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I just don’t get protestors like this at all. You hate America that much? Leave. I mean is there a lock on your passports or something? Does Valdosta State have you locked in there? Is the military forcing you to stay here at gunpoint and that’s why you hate them so much? I don’t think so right? Seriously we get it, you hate it here, so much so that you spent all week stomping out an American flag. That’s a shame, you’re entitled to your opinion and the rights given to you by that very flag, now just do us all a favor and get the fuck out and go somewhere else.
Would love to give a big ass fist pound to Michelle Manhart. Military service, Playboy spreads and defending the flag, a true American hero. And yeah, she was demoted and eventually forced out of the Air Force for what I guess you could technically consider some “desecration” charges..
Reference to Manhart’s case appears in an academic article authored by Major Kelly L. McGovern in the March 2008 issue of The Army Lawyer. To quote, “Former Air Force Training Instructor Sergeant Michelle Manhart posed in and out of uniform for the February 2007 edition of Playboy magazine. Photos included Manhart in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline, ‘Tough Love’. On the subsequent pages, Manhart appeared ‘partially clothed, wearing her dog tags while working out, as well as completely nude.’ The pictures hit the stands in January 2007, and the Air Force immediately relieved her of her duties pending an investigation. The Air Force then took administrative action against Manhart. She received a letter of reprimand for violating the uniform regulation and discrediting the armed forces. The Air Force also administratively demoted Manhart from staff sergeant to senior airman.
[Wiki]
…but I’ll take a beautiful woman shrouding herself in the flag for some tasteful nudes over a bunch of scumbags kicking dirt all over it and trampling it any day.
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PS – NSFW Michelle Manhart Playboy video for anyone interested.