Former “Playboy” Model Tackled By Police At Protest

When Michelle Manhart, the 2008 Playboy Calendar Cover Model, heard that the American flag was being trampled at a protest at Valdosta State University, she showed up to defend the flag. Students gathered on campus to protest racial inequality, and during the protest, an American flag was trampled and tattered.

A friend called Manhart and told her what was going on with the flag, so she took it upon herself to go get the flag. In her words, “I was just going over there to pick up the flag off the ground. I don’t know what their cause is, but I went to pick it up because it doesn’t deserve to be on the ground.”

Protesters, however, disagreed with her interruption of their work, and one told her, “You enslaved our people. You put us in this white supremacist place. And you’re stealing our flag now.” When police tried to get the flag back from Manhart, she refused to let it go, and this resulted in her being tackled to the ground by two police officers.

In the end, Manhart was not charged, but she has been banned from campus activities. She now plans to host her own demonstration in protest of flag desecration.