Three Yale students were arrested Tuesday 3 April for allegedly setting fire to an American flag flying from a New Haven house.
According to court records, Hyder Akbar '07, Nikolaos Angelopoulos '09 and Farhad Anklesaria '09 were charged with multiple counts of second degree arson, first degree reckless endangerment, third degree criminal mischief and second degree breach of peace. There is no indication in the police report that the fire caused damage to the house itself.
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According to New Haven Police Department spokeswoman Bonnie Posick, the students said lighting the flag on fire “was a stupid thing to do” when they admitted it to the arresting officers.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/20561#
In a droll aside, Charlotte Martin, Yale Daily News staff reporter, notes
Contrary to a rumor floating around campus, the building involved is not the home of Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Akbar, a Silliman College senior, was born in Pakistan but is an American citizen raised in California. Akbar worked as an informal translator for U.S. forces during the invasion of Afghanistan and later published a memoir, “Come Back to Afghanistan,” based on his experiences there. His father is the former governor of an Afghan province.
Saybrook College freshmen Angelopoulos and Anklesaria are Greek and British citizens, respectively.
The incident appears to have been a crime of opportunity, rather than any kind of planned statement or other provocation.
The students told the officers they had been visiting a friend and had gotten lost while returning home, she said.
Later, when the officers were driving back down Chapel Street to see if the students had found their way back, they saw that a flag hanging off of 512 Chapel St. was engulfed in flames, Posick said.
Several young people might have acted irresponsibly, and LLE responded appropriately; questions regarding flag burning/free speech do not seem to have entered into the arraignment.
According to court reports, the charges against the students initially included two counts of reckless burning, which were later changed to two counts of second degree arson at yesterday's arraignment.
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The students are next set to appear in court at a plea hearing on April 10.
Whether or not there are substantial "rumors" that Chez Lieberman was specifically targeted, the fact that his alma mater's student paper printed this quip certainly doesn't reflect well on him.
**UPDATE: in 'comments' thereisnospoon posted CT-related question: "what is ned lamont doing these days?"
Scarce and doinaheckuvanutjob respond that he's speaking out and teaching out (see below).
Thanks for the info: Nomentum is easy to snark, but we shouldn't neglect those like Ned that are really making a positive difference.