Maybe It Was the Gay Teabagging He Didn't Like?

Updated twice now, with all brilliant references to potential tea terrorists left intact because, frankly, without them this posting fizzles to little more than "oops." Lord knows I'm all about historical context, anyway. Anyway! Debbie informs me in the comments that this was indeed a separate protest not connected or adjacent to any idiotic Fox-ophile teabagging. I feel much better about the whole deal now, and will try to find time over the weekend to take a friendly look at CARE, the group behind the large-flag protest. Hat tip to Debbie, half of the "old straight couple" that turned out to support their LGBT friends.

Updated: It was indeed a protest against taxation without equal rights, according to azcentral.com, and the confrontation was spurred by a 911 call complaining that the gay protesters' flag was blocking the view of traffic at an intersection. The cop told the protesters they had to ditch the flag, they asked where they could move without the flag size being an issue, and the cop replied that they could not fly their flag anywhere within Casa Grande without being arrested; ergo, the kerfuffle and entry of the ACLU. The CGPD is investigating whether their officer acted inappropriately, and the chief will meet with the group staging the protest. The comments on azcentral, as always, are an entertaining ride.

And now, the original and now most irrelevant post:

Have you ever been to Casa Grande? The town, not the excellent ruins in nearby Coolidge? I have not, except to stop at the Wendy's at the outlet mall that one time coming home from Phoenix, so I don't know anything about the place. In any event, four gay people got busted for waving a rainbow flag in Casa Grande yesterday.

The incident happened Wednesday when four members of a gay rights group began waving the large flag as part of a tax protest.

Organizer Christopher Hall says he checked first with a city official who said as long as they stayed at least five feet from the sidewalk they would be fine.

But a police officer soon approached and told Hall his group would be arrested if they didn’t stop waving the flag.

This fails to compute on so many levels. Gay teabaggers? I mean, like Fox News-variety teabaggers? Waving their flag as part of the tax protest, or in protest of the protest, or adjacent to the protest? The fact that the group had an organizer who checked beforehand on city regs makes it sound like more of a counter-protest, considering the failure of genuine tea baggers in Washington to realize that dumping tea in a public park requires a permit they didn't have and throwing teabags over the fence onto the White House lawn gets you roughed up by the Secret Service and possibly charged with terrorism. Were they protesting taxation without equal civil rights? Does Casa Grande has a no-rainbows ordinance? I hope more details are forthcoming, because I am fascinated. Casa Grande suddenly became interesting!