We live in the weirdest times. Times when you can get arrested for driving in the street but not for trashing schools, libraries, national monuments, or even attacking the police. 

The pride flag crosswalk in Spokane, Washington, has now been designated a "no-go zone" by Lime scooters following the arrest of multiple teens for leaving "skid marks" on the mural.

The scooters will now shut down if they are driven over the pride flag.https://t.co/wNDvgLi1f8

— ThePublica (@ThePublicaNow) June 9, 2024

Over the past few years, cities across America have been painting flags, slogans, symbols, and suchlike on their streets in order to declare their allegiance to various causes, declaring them sacred spaces that cannot be defiled. 

These sacred spaces have nothing to do with the history of our country, our shared heritage, or anything so tied to America or our culture. In fact, they are usually intended to be in-your-face rejections of the majority culture and to enforce leftist pieties. 

They literally put teenagers in jail for riding with their scooters on the pride painted road.

In JAIL!!! 🚨🚨🚨

If the alphabet mafia does not want wheel marks or tire marks on their flag, then DON'T paint the roads with it!

This is clownery!!!pic.twitter.com/iHaTcs3bJf

— Kat Kanada (@KatKanada_TM) June 8, 2024

Painting the streets seems to be an odd flex. On the one hand, streets are very public and thus perfect for offending anybody who disagrees; on the other, streets are streets, which naturally get beat us by multi-ton vehicles with rubber tires and are subject to abuse. 

Old Town Alexandria has painted trans pride flags symbols on the streets in place of crosswalks, effectively forcing citizens to walk across state sponsored gender ideology symbols.

The Alexandria city council quietly voted to *permanently* install them a year ago. pic.twitter.com/HBzsSswg3E

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 9, 2024

One reason the streets have been chosen is that they are vulnerable to abuse. Paint on the streets invites frustrated drivers to leave their own marks, which in turn allows the powers that be to harshly punish dissenters. 

Dissenters such as the teens who left skid marks on a rainbow flag, the religious symbol for all things left. 

FREE SPEECH: Why do rainbow murals on cities streets receive more protection than monuments in our nation's capital? Teenagers riding their scooters charged with felonies? Pro-Palestinian terrorists not stopped or arrested? Why? pic.twitter.com/8qvpZJlfsg

— @amuse (@amuse) June 9, 2024

We have entered a realm where Lime, a scooter rental service, has created a no-go zone for its products. Rainbow colors are now so revered and untouchable that the company has determined that its products will no longer work on...the street. 

Scooters can't cross a crosswalk because it has rainbow paint. The street is so sacred that it must not be defiled. 

A pride mural, left with tire marks less than 48 hours after its initial repainting, will need additional restoration to celebrate LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion. This incident occurs following its unveiling by Delray Beach. pic.twitter.com/jbjHGz2W00

— Calay News (@CalayNewsOnX) June 10, 2024

Pride streets and crosswalks are everywhere these days, and it is about as in your face as you can get. If you want to get from point A to point B, you must not only be confronted everywhere you go by this ideological message, you must treat it with respect lest you be put in jail or fined. 

It is a hate crime to dissent, quite literally. 

You can carjack a woman, kidnap, and kill her, and the charges will be dropped, but leave a skid mark on a street painted with a “pride mural,” and you get slapped with a felony.

This is your government. https://t.co/pWqvLxPdEI

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 10, 2024

This standard doesn't apply to anything ordinary Americans respect--quite the opposite, in fact, as protesters are invited to defile traditional American symbols. Deface a public monument, burn an American flag, or even shout kill the Jews and you are exercising your First Amendment rights. 

Pride, though, is now a sacred, religious symbol. 

This pride crosswalk just went up in Huntington, WV. If you dare drive or scooter on this public road and leave marks you can be arrested and face felony charges.

But you’re allowed to vandalize American Monuments and nothing will happen to you. pic.twitter.com/cmrmv8bR2w

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 10, 2024

It's a bizarre ritual, and one designed to literally walk on tiptoes. Painting streets, or even displaying flags on sidewalks or stairs, seems odd. In Iran they paint American and Israeli flags on stairs to force people to walk on them as a display of disdain. Here we do the opposite: punish you for not walking on metaphorical eggshells. 

The steps of Huntington Beach City Hall are adorned with a giant Pride flag tonight. pic.twitter.com/YN4wGwb4cD

— Matt Szabo (@mjszabo) September 6, 2023

Those of us trying to stand up to this invasion of public spaces are attacked as culture warriors, but the obvious fact is that the left is engaged in an "occupation" of all our public spaces and demanding obeisance lest we be punished. 

It is not aggression on our part; it is self-defense.