Yeah, that's just how you go about getting 'respect'

This wasn't just folks riding around flying Confederate flags. That's pretty commonplace, and if that's all there had been to it there would be no story.

It appears there was considerably more to it than that, hence the issue and the story.

Back in July, members of a group calling itself "Respect the Flag" were driving around the Douglasville area displaying Confederate Battle flags and like symbols on their vehicles. Whatever one's view of the appropriateness or taste of such a display, it is and forever should be First Amendment-protected free expression.

The freedom of expression stopped, according to Douglas County District Attorney Brian Fortner, when the group drove up to a private residence where black families were holding a child's birthday party. According to witnesses, the group stopped near the party, got out of their vehicles with crowbars and other weapons, and began hurling racial slurs, obscenities and threats at the group. Witnesses told police and grand jurors that when somebody from the party told members of the group, "There are kids here," one replied, "We'll shoot those b-----ds too."

Evidence against the group was apparently convincing enough for a Douglas County grand jury to indict 15 of them for terroristic threats and violation of Georgia's Street Gang Terrorism Prevention Act. As of Monday night, four had been arrested.

Whatever "Respect the Flag" claims as its purpose, this prosecution cannot and must not be about symbols. It has to be about conduct. If that conduct is anything close to what it is alleged to have been, "respect" is the last thing anybody in this outfit deserves.

Council OKs agenda

As expected, Columbus Council on Tuesday approved a legislative agenda that includes a request for the General Assembly to put the mayor's "Thaw the Freeze" referendum on the November 2016 ballot. That part of the legislative "wish list" wasn't a unanimous decision, but it was the right one.

The rest of the list breezed through without a dissenting vote. Among the most interesting requests is for the state to require a 48-hour "vetting period" for any significant amendments to pending legislation. The opportunity for lawmakers, and local communities, to scrutinize changes to important bills before they become law sounds like not just a reasonable condition, but a necessary one.

The city also is seeking repeal of a hotel fee the legislature added to a transportation funding bill passed after voters in most areas of the state (but not this one) rejected the T-SPLOST funding formula of a few years ago. The reason for objection to that fee in this community should be self-evident.

The "freeze" issue, along with the rest of the agenda, now heads up the road to Atlanta.

This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Yeah, that's just how you go about getting 'respect'."