
Mexican flag flies above U.S. banner at Reno business in
footage from local KRNV-TV |
After hearing a Reno bar was flying a Mexican
flag above a U.S. flag, an angered U.S. Army veteran took
matters into his own hands, drove to the site and cut down the
banners in front of a stunned group of Hispanic patrons.
Reno television station KRNV,
which was
there to document Jim Broussard's act of defiance,
noted the
U.S. code
prohibits
raising the flag of any other nations above Old Glory.
Broussard pulled up in his truck to the
Cantina El Jaripeo near downtown Reno yesterday, cut the rope
that anchored the flags and pulled them down from a makeshift
flagpole.
He left the Mexican flag on the ground and,
with the U.S. flag in hand, turned to the KRNV cameraman:
"I'm Jim Broussard," he said,
"and I took this flag down in honor of my country with … a
knife from the United States Army. I'm a veteran, I'm not
going to see this done to my country. If they want to fight
us, then they need to be men, and they need to come and fight
us. But I want somebody to fight me for this flag. They're not
going to get it back."

U.S. military vet, with
U.S. flag in hand, displays knife he used to cut it down |
The KRNV footage shows a Hispanic man,
possibly the bar owner, picking up the Mexican flag after
Broussard briskly walks past him down the street to his truck.
Later, Broussard, told nationally syndicated
talk-radio host
Mike
Gallagher he
took action after hearing on a local talk station that the
flags had been flying all day.
"I was immediately infuriated and felt a duty to do something
about it," Broussard said. "I feel there's a lot of this
turning-our-heads-on-things in concern with the Hispanic
community and the things they do. They seem impervious to our
laws in a lot of situations."
Broussard, pointing out the bar was committing a federal
offense, said local authorities weren't sure what to do about
it.
He affirmed Gallagher's comment that many Americans are afraid
to speak out on the problem of illegal immigration and lack of
assimilation because they are afraid of being called bigots.

U.S. military veteran cuts American flag from rope after
it was flown below a Mexican flag |
Broussard said he had no idea a TV camera
would be there until he arrived on the scene.
About a dozen Hispanic men came pouring out of
the building when he showed up, according to Broussard.
The men said, Broussard recounted, "What do
you think you're doing?"
"I said, well, watch me."
Broussard said he talked to local police after
the incident, and they have not taken any action. But Hispanic
leaders, he said, "are trying to coerce the bar owner to file
charges against me."
The veteran affirmed to
Gallagher there are many Hispanics who are equally upset about
illegal immigration and the resistance to assimilation.
"We have many cultures who've
come here, and they've learned our language, and they respect
our culture, because they know America is a great country, and
they simply want to be a part of it," he said.

Mexican flag displayed
illegally at Reno business |
KRNV said it sent a cameraman to the scene
after a viewer called to say "a business near downtown Reno
was flying a Mexican flag above an American flag ... which is,
in fact, illegal."