Burn and desecrate all the American flags you want, but don’t you dare mar the “Pride Flag”!
In Spokane, Washington, police arrested three people for using their cycles to put skid marks on the large “Pride” flag painted on a street. Then Lime, the ostentatiously woke e-bike distributor, resolved to punish anyone who used one of its vehicles for a similar activity, announcing,
Lime condemns and takes action on the vandalism of the Spokane Pride mural, with scooters from the company being used to create skid marks on the mural.
The newly painted pride mural in Downtown Spokane was vandalized just a few hours after being painted, with multiple individuals using Lime scooters to create skid marks on the mural.
In response, Lime is working to ban the suspects from using their vehicles and immediately made the area of the mural a ‘no-ride zone.’ Lime is a sponsor of Spokane Pride and strongly condemned the vandalism on Thursday.
“All of us at Lime condemn these vile acts in no uncertain terms. At a time when our teams at Lime are beginning pride celebrations around the globe, it is disturbing to see the hate taking place in Spokane,” said Hayden Harvey, the Director of Government Relations at Lime.
“Lime is taking immediate action against the perpetrators and doubling down on our support of Spokane Pride and Spokane Arts.”
Oh, brother. Rueful ethics observations:
1. As John Hinderaker sagely put it, “If you don’t want people driving on your religious symbol, don’t put it on a street.”
2. What else will get you punished in Spokane for not bowing down to the altar of divergent, eccentric, or non-traditional sexual practices? Walking on the flag? Making faces at it? Dropping an ice cream cone on it “accidentally”? letting your dog poop on it even if you immediately clean it up?
3. In what respect is is doing “donuts” on a symbol painted on the street “hate”? I would happily protest the practice (as in D.C., where the city’s racist Mayor plopped a “Black Lives Matter” promotion on a city thoroughfare) of the government placing any political statement whatsoever on a street. Yeah, I hate that, and it doesn’t make any difference what the object of enforced reverence is if it involves religion, ideology or politics (and a Pride flag involves all three). Would a symbolic show of disrespect for the disrespectful act of plastering such a symbol on a public street be a”hate crime” in Spokane?
I generally disapprove of boycotts, but Lime is a bully, and the practice of discriminating against customers based on their opinions and beliefs is un-American, unethical, intolerable, and endangers societal stability.
Ethics Alarms 
Are Lime’s scooters lemons? Where is Lime on the vandalism that took place this past weekend in Lafayette Park? I would like to ask them is some vandalism appropriate while there iconography is sacrosanct?
dammit – their not there
Is burning the American flag protected by the First Amendment? If so, then I have zero issues with anyone defacing or even burning any flag. And those who committed this “atrocity” are certainly protected by that same Amendment. If that community is THIS insecure…wow.
And as for Lime…I’m so scared of a scooter company that would prevent me from giving them money to ride one of their bikes or scooters. Does anyone else feel the terror like I do?
Let’s not draw false equivalences. You burning *your* American flag is protected speech, but you burning mine is not.
Spraypainting “slaveholder” across a George Washington portrait at the town square isn’t free speech, but commission the same and hang it on your home or picket with it at a protest and your golden.
Ethically, the same Washington portrait painted on the street should be treated the same as any other commissioned street surface “public art”, but the person who spent tax dollars for such not expecting the guaranteed skidmark mustache is signature significance of an idiot.
I appreciate the clarification on what I wrote…you made a good point that I missed. Thanks!
Smashing statues and burning flags is perfectly okay, but scuffing up a rainbow flag, or god forbid, doing a code brown on it, that’s a major sin.
Code brown? The imagination is running wild
Yup. Drop a stink pickle, break porcelain, blow mud, float a sea pickle, fire the brown torpedo, pinch a loaf, fire the aft torpedo tube, back the brown Cadillac out of the garage, pass the crayon, etc.
Oh, and let’s not forget “send the Nautilus out to sea.”
The tearing down statues thing is only OK if it’s a Confederate… or Thomas Jefferson, of course… or George Washington …or Columbus, sure… or Juan de Oate, well, why not?
A streak of paint on St. Floyd, though, and it’s the hate-crime gulag for you!
The Babylon Bee has a suggestion:
Kids Avoid Felony By Defacing Pride Mural With ‘Free Gaza’ Skid Marks | Babylon Bee
E bikes and E scooters are not going to end well. They are way too fast and driven all over the place by kids who are way too young, particularly on sidewalks. And they’re silent. Good for plaintiff lawyers’ business.
“It’s an ill wind that blows no man good”….. said somebody long ago.
Not being a lawyer, I would think there’s a lawsuit in this somewhere.
Drones carrying balloons full of paint. Bombs away. F**k the stool pushers.
The stinky brown tide? 😀
You’re incorrigible.
But funny.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Steve-O’s preferred descriptor is “deplorable”, thank you very much!
This seems unsafe.
And it will only force the scooter riders to become more creative.
So the thin blue line flag was not raised for a fallen trooper and the pride flag left flying at half staff because the LGBT and its allies in Spokane(?) decided that some saw it as a symbol of hate yet both typically hate hate conservatives, western values and deride their Christian views regarding sexuality and family. They spew hate every time they march in protest of Israel in favor of a terrorist organization. So why is their hate permissible and any disagreement with them be labeled as hate speech.
The left has been reduced to a parody of itself, acting like Yosemite Sam shooting both his pistols at someone’s feet and shouting, “Dance, pardner!”