Woman Defends Her Home and Family with Flagstaff
John Hartvigsen
The headline, “Woman defended family with American flag” catches attention in a time when debates about 2nd Amendment rights revolve around more lethal weapons. Mi “pikes.” Infantry men carried long thrusting spears called pikes from the late Middle Ages until the early 18th century. Attached to a pike, a military flag (called a color) is sometime called a flagstaff, but its relation to the pike weapon shows on military colors topped by a spearhead finial.
Mel Gibson using the Stars & Stripes as weapon in 2000’s film, The Patriot.
In Mel Gibson’s movie The Patriot, Benjamin Martin—the title character played by Gibson—uses a pike with flag attached as a weapon to dispatch the villainous redcoat Colonel William Tavington.
When a would be burglar recently attached a family in their front yard, a woman grabbed a flagstaff with flag attached breaking the pole as she defended her family by beating the intruder until the family could seek refuge in their house and call the police. Although they locked the front door, the intruder kicked in the door resuming his attacks upon family members until the police arrived.
The woman’s flag staff was not a true pike and had no spearhead finial. However, the woman pulled the flag and pole from its mounting bracket from the front porch and defended her family. After the police arrived, she worried that the flag fell to the ground when the pole broke. She had no reason to think she dishonored the flag since the Stars & Stripes symbolizes our defense against tyranny. Mel Gibson’s flag also touched the ground as he fought in battle. It is not that a flag falls to the ground that dishonors it, rather the brave deeds done by Americans defending their rights honors the flag. It was the intruder who dishonored the flag and not the woman attacked.
Utah’s South Salt Lake police honored the flag as they took the intruder into custody. Taking up a collection, the officers replaced the flag and flagstaff in a gesture that also honored the flag.
Utah’s South Salt Lake police officer pose after replacing woman’s flag broken during home invasion.