Santa Fe resident Rosie Yanas was recently arrested after trying to remove a Confederate flag from her parent’s property. The flag was owned by her neighbor and hung on the fence line between their two properties. Yanas claims that her neighbor has been harassing her for years, and flying the flag intentionally on the weekends to make sure they all see it.
On Jan. 28, Yanas decided to take matters into her own hands and remove the flag from the fence. She says she did not go onto her neighbor’s property, but instead removed the flag that was hanging over the fence. Santa Fe police were called about the dispute and Yanas was arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting arrest.
Yanas’ civil rights attorney, Randall Kallinen, says that the flag should not have been hanging on the fence line in the first place. He believes that Yanas was wrongfully arrested and that the police department should have handled the situation differently.
Yanas is the mother of Chris Stone, a student who was killed in the 2018 Santa Fe High School mass shooting while trying to save others in the tragedy. The flag owner’s brother, Ronny Turrentine, says that the family had nothing to do with her being arrested and that anyone has the right to fly any kind of flag they want to fly.
The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office is still reviewing the facts of the case and have not yet made a decision about whether to proceed with any charges. However, many are questioning why the flag was allowed to hang on the fence line in the first place, and why the police department did not handle the situation more appropriately.