Attorney: Man accused of burning gay pride flag was pulling drunken prank, not committing hate crime
Source: Omaha World Herald
By Maggie O'Brien
The man accused of stealing a lesbian couple's gay pride flag and setting it on fire was pulling a drunken prank, not committing a hate crime, his attorney said Wednesday.
Cameron Mayfield didn't know that the women who live about a block from his house are gay, Omaha attorney James Martin Davis said after his client's first court appearance.
Davis called the rainbow flag a windsock.
Mayfield, charged with felony arson with extenuating circumstances and misdemeanor resisting arrest, was released from jail on his own recognizance. A judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for March 27.
Stay on Omaha.com for more on this developing story.
Video: http://studio.omaha.com/?ndn.trackingGroup=91341&ndn.siteSection=omahawh_nws_loc_sty_pp&ndn.videoId=28680886&freewheel=91341&sitesection=omahawh_nws_loc_sty_pp&vid=28680886
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/attorney-man-accused-of-burning-gay-pride-flag-was-pulling/article_de5ad718-c283-11e4-a0f7-b3bdd29b9cb0.html
niyad
(113,625 posts)MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)the rest? mmmmmmm
Chipper Chat
(9,696 posts)who said ON THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE that Matthew Shepard's death was the result of a robbery not a hatecrime.
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)Which group does the American Taliban (TEAparTY) hate more?
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)bigwillq
(72,790 posts)Teaparty heads will roll.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)So they cooked up the new great FEAR, the LGBT Community. I would say that most Americans don't even know anyone gay but they now are SCARED of "them".
Haters like this clown trying to claim that he didn't even know they were gay...I call bullshit. And of all things in a neighborhood that this drunken asshole could have vandalized, why was it that Pride flag?
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)can we call this a defense fail? yep yep yep we can
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)They_Live
(3,241 posts)BOTH qualify in this instance.
Paladin
(28,277 posts)Getting drunk caused Mayfield to act out his basest, most cherished hatreds and prejudices. I hope he gets nailed for this.
Coventina
(27,215 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)olddad56
(5,732 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Yes, you would!
shenmue
(38,506 posts)Sure he set stuff on fire, but that's because he was so happy!
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)And I don't think "drunken prank" and "hate crime" are mutually exclusive, necessarily.
Judi Lynn
(160,649 posts)without invitation, and burn up their property.
What kind of clowns were his parents, anyway, to have raised such a beast?
[center]
Cameron Mayfield
Who would want this thing even driving through his/her town? [/center]
Aerows
(39,961 posts)rainbow sticker on my car got pulled off in the parking lot at work.
You can't help it - it scares you.
My *girlfriend* pulled it off because she didn't like the way it was getting crispy in the sun and when she washed the car and tried to wax it, it fell off.
She laughed at me because I assumed the worst and hadn't noticed it until the next day, but she also realize that it was kind of scary.