A female activist threatened park rangers in a profanity-laced fury as they took her into custody for allegedly tearing down an American flag and replacing it with a Mexican one at a California park, body cam footage shows.
Crystal Aguilar, 24, was arrested on Thursday for slashing a chain that secured a flagpole located at Hart Park in Bakersfield before throwing the US flag in the mud and raising Mexico’s national banner in its place, according to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.
“You’re not going to tell me what to do, this is Mexican land, motherf—ker!” Aguilar screamed as three park rangers approached her, the footage shows.
She allegedly resisted arrest – with the rangers holding her down – as she repeatedly threatened to have them and their families killed.
“Touch me, motherf—ker, and when your kids die…I’m Mexican. I’m Aztec, motherf—ker, and you’re going to pay,” Aguilar yelled, according to the footage.
“My dad is going to kill you and all your family. You think this is a joke. It’s not.”
Aguilar demanded the deputies turn off her car before telling them to get off her land, the footage shows.
“I’m going to let my father kill you,’ she hollered twice.
Deputies responded to the park around 9:36 a.m. after receiving multiple reports of someone trying to steal the stars and stripes, the sheriff’s office said. Park rangers then found the woman’s white sedan sitting in the muddy grass at the park’s entrance as she futzed with the flags.
Aguilar, who is known as an immigrant rights activist in Kern County, recently protested the ICE raids in her community, citing her Mexican parents were deported when she was a child, according to KBAK.
She was booked at Ledro jail and charged with threatening a peace officer, vandalism, resisting arrest, trespassing and marijuana possession, the sheriff’s office said.
She is due back in court on Monday.
