Air Force Pilot Beaten for Confederate Flag on Motorcycle

Air Force pilot beaten by masked ‘anarchists’ after displaying Confederate flag
The Washington Post
By Dan Lamothe
Published: September 9, 2015

An Air Force pilot was assaulted with a bat in Washington state Saturday by masked “anarchists” after they noticed he was displaying two Confederate flags on his motorcycle, police said.

The incident occurred in Olympia, Wash., a few miles west of where the man is stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The pilot was stopped because protesters were marching in the street. Then they surrounded him as they attempted to knock his motorcycle over, according to a police report.

“They sprayed the victim in the face with mace, and struck him in the back with a baseball bat and a glass bottle filled with red paint,” the report said. “The victim suffered severe eye irritation and a bruised shoulder and back. One of the witnesses attempting to assist the victim was also sprayed in the face with mace.”

The attack comes following a summer in which the use of the Confederate flag was hotly contested, following the June 17 attack on a historic black church in South Carolina that killed nine people. The suspect in that case, Dylann Roof, 21, faces the death penalty, and was photographed displaying the Confederate flag before the attack.
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