Confederate flag wavers caught yelling racist slurs at black kid's birthday party insist they're not hateful
Confederate flag wavers taunt black Georgia birthday party guests as they drive away (Screenshot/YouTube)
July 29, 2015
A group of white men said they were the ones victimized after being accused of disrupting a black child’s birthday party in Georgia while flying Confederate flags from their pickup trucks, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Two videos have emerged of the incident that occurred over the weekend. One shows several large pickups parked in a grassy area nearby, and at least one racial slur can be heard. Levi Bush, the leader of the truck caravan, admitted to AJC that a member of his group "likely" used the N-word.
A second video shows a handful of police officers on-scene while upset party goers can be heard saying, "This is a child's birthday party," and, "He the one who have the gun." One woman can be heard talking to an officer, saying, "That's a threat, officer." Meanwhile, the men in the trucks drive by slowly, honking and waving in apparent taunts.
According to Bush, his group was totally innocent.
"Basically about eight of us had to hold 15 to 20 of them back," Bush told AJC. He said the group threw rocks at the trucks. But police said neither side reported any physical contact.
He said his group is called "Protect the Flag," and they drive around selling flags and donating proceeds to veterans. They also provide new American flags for "those in need," according to AJC. He said the group is not hateful.
But the woman who posted the videos to Facebook, Melissa Alford, said she feels so terrorized by the incident that she has stopped staying at the house, according to AJC.
"One had a gun, saying he was gonna kill the [racial slur]," Alford told the paper. "Then one of them said gimme the gun, I'll shoot them [racial slur]."
Police said they're reviewing the videos to determine if anything criminal occurred. The incident took place in Douglasville, a small city just west of Atlanta.
In Tennessee, Sgt. Briscoe, a 17-year Army veteran and African-American woman, was harassed by two white men in a pickup truck similarly adorned with Confederate flags. While driving past her family at her home, the truck slowed down and the men called them "m*therf*cking n***ers."
Tensions have been high in the South since the shooting by an avowed racist of nine unarmed black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. The Confederate flag was removed from the statehouse, sparking a protest by the KKK that ended in racial slurs and chaos.
Watch the two videos of the incident below, posted to YouTube: