On April 30, a mob of pro-Hamas protesters gathered in the University of North Carolina Quad after having been booted from their tent encampment earlier in the day. They ripped down the American flag and hoisted Palestinian colors in its place.
At that point, UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts led police to the flagpole where the cops raised Old Glory once again. But the pro-Hamas protesters were not to be denied. After the cops left a few minutes later, the protesters once again began to pull down the U.S. flag.
But they never finished the job. A group of UNC fraternity brothers stepped in to protect the flag from hitting the ground.
Students at UNC Chapel Hill protecting the American Flag from being torn down amid protests pic.twitter.com/A5i4Bif5SP
— Americana Aesthetic (@AmericanaAesth) May 1, 2024
Saving Old Glory 🇺🇸
— TheRealCherokeeOwl (@RealCherokeeOwl) May 2, 2024
Frat boys at UNC Chapel Hill surround American flag in protection as pro Palestine mob runs wild
A GoFundMe page for the fraternity house that defended the American flag during pro-Palestinian protests has raised over $160,000 in one day. pic.twitter.com/GZqiZZQIRa
That GoFundMe page eventually raised more than $500,000. The fraternities decided to throw a "rager" to celebrate the spirit of patriotism that animated the frat brothers to protect the flag/ They planned to donate whatever was left over to charities the Greek community chose.
Susan Ralston, a Flagstock organizer who was formerly a special assistant to President George W. Bush, told reporters last week that organizers had identified 10 “core” fraternities as having members at the flagpole on April 30. A June update to the GoFundMe originally identified six fraternities as part of that group: Pi Kappa Phi, AEPi, Delta Upsilon, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Gamma Delta and Zeta Beta Tau.
Members of those fraternities will be VIP guests at the event, Ralston said, but all of the university’s fraternities and sororities, as well as the campus ROTC, were invited. Organizers distributed between 6,000 to 7,000 tickets, with 2,500 to 3,000 expected to attend, she said.
Not everyone on the UNC campus was thrilled with the idea of a "rager." The UNC chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, believed the money should have gone to Jewish organizations that support relief efforts in Gaza.
“The use of our actions to promote a narrative that we were some right-wing, MAGA heroes has been a gross misrepresentation and a disservice to many of those who were actually there,” said Oliver Levine, a junior at the university and the president of its Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter.
But as Flagstock organizer John Rich of Big & Rich pointed out, the event wasn't political at all. Rich wanted to host a "protest to support patriotism" — hence the name "Flagstock" — and "make sure students and people in general feel it's OK to be patriotic," Rich's manager Marc Oswald told reporters on Monday when asked about the name of the concert.
There were several hundred people in attendance instead of the 2-3,000 organizers were expecting. One student explained that other fraternities and sororities thought the rager was a "bad look."
"There's a lot of people who are in huge favor of this. They love this. And then there's a lot of people who think this is a really bad idea," Broderick said. "I mean, I think some fraternities and sororities have been telling the people … 'Hey, don't come to this. We think it's a bad look.' And then some have been like, ‘Hey, please go to this is. It’s a really good look. It's good for our fraternity and our sorority.' … But I don't think there's a consensus about this."
What kind of party can you throw for half a million dollars? The stage, created by Technical Arts Group (TAG) Live, cost $100,000.
"We haven't seen kids do what these kids did in a long time," TAG Live Operations Director Jarrod Choury told Fox News Digital, adding that the students' actions on campus "spoke to" TAG Live and convinced them to take part in the concert by donating a lot of material support for the event.
The security budget for the event was approximately $80,000, including plainclothes security, 20 Orange County Sheriff's Office staff, fire and EMS personnel. Pints for Patriots chartered more than a dozen 50-passenger buses to transport students to and from campus, according to Noonan.
Dan Craigg, an attorney working for Pints for Patriots, offered about $15,000 to $20,000 worth of pro-bono general counsel legal work for the event.
'What those kids did was honorable and patriotic," Craig told Fox News Digital. "And we want to support that. ... And certainly, we want to create an incentive system where sticking their neck out like that — defending the flag — there's a there's a bonus for that. There's a reward for that."
Volunteers from the VFW gave up their Labor Day to set up tents and port-o-potties.
Related: University of Michigan Club Fair Explodes in Chaos as Pro-Hamas Protesters Broken Up by Police
Would the money have been better spent if it had all gone to charity? In hindsight, it probably would have. Organizers don't know if any money is left over at all but promise to be "transparent" about where the money was spent.
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