Black Lives Matter Leader Arrested For Grabbing Protester's Confederate Flag
A Black Lives Matter activist attempted to take down a Confederate flag being waved by a protester in South Carolina.
As you can see in the video here, a news correspondent is discussing a protest that is going on outside of the College of Charleston, when Muhiyidin Moye runs towards another man waving a Confederate flag. Moye then jumps across the barricade and tries to snatch the flag away from the protester.
Another video, which you can view below, captures the incident from another angle, in which viewers can see a group of officers trying to capture Moye after his attempted flag grab.
Police ended up charging Moye with disorderly conduct, but the Showing Up For Racial Justice in Charleston organized an online donation site to raise Moye's bail (the site currently has raised over $6,500 for its goal of $8,000). Moye serves as the leader of Black Lives Matter in Charleston.
The pro-Confederate flag crowd was protesting in response to Bree Newsome speaking at the College of Charleston this past Wednesday night. Two years ago Newsome was arrested for climbing the flagpole outside of the South Carolina Capitol building in Columbia, and pulling down the Confederate flag (which has since been removed by the state).
"It's a soldier's flag and South Carolina lost a quarter of our male population, that's what that flag represents to us. Black, white, Hispanic, all colors served under that flag so to make it a racial thing is ingenuous," James Bessinger, a pro-Confederate flag supporter said during the protest.
Newsome was a part of a discussion titled "Tearing Hatred from the Sky," where she spoke about her State House Confederate flag protest and other demonstrations she's participated in.
"Bree's intention was to create a new image, a new symbol and a new consciousness of the power inherent in direct action," an event description on the College of Charleston website reads.
