The leader of a Boy Scout troop in San Diego’s El Cajon community said it felt like a kick to the gut after someone vandalized more than a dozen American flags his troop had placed in the street in honor of U.S. military veterans.
Scoutmaster Laurence Ashbacher, who helps lead Troop 362, said the troop placed 170 American flags in drilled holes in sidewalk along Main Street Friday in honor of Veterans Day.
“[It] didn’t have anything to do with the election, it didn’t have anything to do with politics, didn’t have anything to do with anything except, yesterday, we were trying to honor the veterans of the country,” Ashbacher told NBC 7.
Ashbacher said the display of flags is a show of patriotism his troop typically does on holidays like Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day. He said they have never had a problem, but Friday was different.
Shortly after 8 a.m., Ashbacher said a man went down Main Street kicking the 12-foot-tall wooden flag poles, snapping 13 of them at the base. Many of the flags ended up in the road, where cars ran over them.
“[Someone] just went by and mowed them down,” he explained.
Officers with the El Cajon Police Department (ECPD) responded to the area of the vandalism, picking up some of the flags in the roadway. Witnesses pointed out the suspect, who was still in the area.
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The suspect was, Jarred Jefferson, 22, was arrested for felony vandalism charges and two counts of obstructing an officer. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
After hearing about the vandalism, Ashbacher said the news felt “like getting kicked in the stomach.”
“This display of flags is just a display of patriotism by the boys [in Troop 362],” Ashbacher explained. “And they’re very proud that of the fact that every national holiday, they put the flags up and down on Main Street.”
The Scoutmaster sent a note to parents of the boys in the troop that read, in part: “I am saddened to think that someone felt so much anger and hostility towards our display to attempt to mar it.”
Ashbacher said the troop plans to replace the flags and continue the display, hoping the incident is a one-time act of vandalism.
