Trinity College in Connecticut forcibly removed two variations of the American flag from a dormitory window last week despite allowing other flags, like the pride flag, to remain for days after the incident.
Roommates Finn McCole and Lucas Turco spoke to Fox News Digital about the incident, which was caught on video and first reported by Libs of TikTok. McCole said the flags were put up on Wednesday night and by the next day the college administration came to take down the flags.
On Thursday, several university employees showed up outside their dorm room to take down the two flags, one of which was the American flag with the Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” graphic superimposed on it and the other was a “Thin Line” flag – a black and white American flag with blue, green and red stripes, representing police, military and federal agents, and firefighters, respectively.
The two students asked one woman in the video why she was taking the flags down and repeatedly told her not to touch their property. “Excuse me, why are you touching our property?” Turco asked the woman.
The woman responded by repeatedly telling the students they were asked to take down the flags. McCole and Turco asked why their flags were being targeted when other students had flags hanging from their window.
“No prior request was made for us to remove the flags,” McCole told Fox News Digital. “The two women from administration showed up at our dorm and said we have an official order from the dean to remove them immediately.”
“When we requested to speak to the dean, they responded by calling campus facilities to bring a ladder to our dorm. The woman then ripped the flags down, as seen on video,” McCole said.
Both McCole and Turco said that despite what the university official claimed in the video, they never received any notification to remove the flags.
“This occurrence was our only explicit warning. There are no emails requesting us to take down the flags,” McCole said.
who have commended us for our bravery and support the message we are fighting for. The only real backlash we have gotten has come from the anonymous social media app Yik Yak,” Turco said. “I suppose some students feel more confident speaking anonymously behind a screen.”
“Does Finn McCole, a rich straight white man, really think he’s oppressed???” one YikYak user wrote. “No [because] wtf why is he comparing his minor inconvenience with the suppression of the LGBT community [shaking my head].”
On Instagram, one of their fellow students called the flags “a disgusting display of white nationalist ideals”.
“[Y]our flags aren’t patriotism they are a symbol of fascism and systemic racism. symbols of hatred and violence. grow the [f*ck] up and try to learn something about the actual history of this country and the harm caused by those institutions,” the student commented.
* Article from: Fox News
