Most people were out shooting fireworks and grilling to celebrate Independence Day. One woman from Harahan was out stealing Confederate flags.

The New Orleans Advocate:

A Harahan woman has been arrested and accused of desecrating a flag after allegedly stealing and tearing a Confederate battle flag on the Fourth of July.

Harahan police said Madelyn Christina, 18, was caught on surveillance video stealing the rebel banner from a flag pole in front of a neighbor’s residence on Colonial Club Drive.

Responding police interviewed Christina, who “freely admitted stealing the flag because it was racist,” according to a department news release.

Police said that when they tried to retrieve the flag from Christina’s vehicle, they found marijuana, cocaine and alprazolam.

The flag was torn because Christina had ripped it off the pole, according to Harahan Police Chief Tim Walker.

Christina was booked on three counts of drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, theft under $100 and flag desecration, police said.

Five states have laws making desecration of the Confederate flag illegal, according to the National Constitution Center. Louisiana is one of them, making desecration of the Confederate banner just as forbidden as that of the United States flag.

The ACLU says the flag desecration laws are illegal due to the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down similar laws banning the burning of the U.S. flag. They’re probably right. All the other charges should stick.

It doesn’t matter if the person flying the Confederate flag was the local head of the KKK, that flag was their property. This little girl did not have the right to steal it. The homeowner has the right to fly whatever flag they want on their property.

The judge needs to throw the book at this special snowflake. Not because the Confederate flag is good, but because property rights and free speech always outweigh your feelings. This girl needs to learn that now.