Man Leaps Over Barricade To Snatch Confederate Flag On Live TV

The Black Lives Matter activist is being hailed as a hero on Twitter.
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A Black Lives Matter activist has been arrested after making an incredible running leap through police tape to snatch away a Confederate flag at a demonstration in Charleston, South Carolina.

Muhiyidin d’Baha, 31, was charged with disorderly conduct for his feat on Wednesday, a Charleston Police Department spokesman told The Huffington Post. The act was caught on live television, and can be seen below.

D’Baha, whose real name is Muhiyidin Elamin Moye, attempted to snatch the flag from a member of the South Carolina Secessionist Party. The group was gathered outside of Sottile Theatre at the College of Charleston to protest an event featuring African-American activist and filmmaker Bree Newsome.

Newsome rose to prominence in June 2015, when she was arrested herself for climbing a South Carolina Statehouse flagpole to remove a Confederate flag, a symbol with strong ties to racial injustice. She was hailed as a hero for defying white supremacy weeks after gunman Dylann Roof murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston. The following month, South Carolina’s state government permanently removed the flag from the Capitol grounds.

D’Baha was counter-protesting the Secessionist Party demonstration when he made his dramatic dive through police tape. He is currently being held at Al Cannon Detention Center, where he’s awaiting a court hearing to determine his bail, a spokeswoman for the detention center told HuffPost.

The advocacy group Showing Up For Racial Justice Charleston has set up a crowdfunding page and already raised more than $5,000 for d’Baha’s bail.

Twitter erupted with praise for d’Baha’s act of resistance.

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