man's flag confiscated for a day for flying it upside-down.

[Dachs]

There should be a law against being a 'thoroughly disagreeable character'

Obviously I would be against laws that are designed to punish me.

Sarcasm detection fail?

Or pc+1? YOU DECIDE

 

[Babbler]

No-one would say anything about flying the British flag upside down.

Okay, then the English flag.

Fine then, the Scottish flag.

You would notice the Welsh flag flying upside down, but then nobody cares about Wales or the Welsh, not even the Welsh themselves.

 

[warpus]

If it actually was really offending people, then he should be made to take it down, since your freedom of speech is not the right to insult people. You have a responsibility to think about what you say (as someone put it: my right to swing my arm ends where yoour nose begins)

You're quoting a guy (Oliver Wendell Holmes) who also said the following:

A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.

so he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

[amadeus]

You would notice the Welsh flag flying upside down, but then nobody cares about Wales or the Welsh, not even the Welsh themselves.

The Welsh language would be great to send secret communications in, though... its written form makes no sense and almost nobody can decipher it.

 

[Wolfe Tone]

No-one would say anything about flying the British flag upside down.

That's because it looks the same upside down.

Actually the Union Flag doesn't look the same upside down. It's subtle, but the diagonals aren't the same.

 

[Cutlass]

Then suspend the officials responsible. They took his flag for a day, and as asinine as that is, I don't see why the taxpayers should be punished.

Because they are responsible for who are the elected and appointed officials of the town. Therefor, if anyone is to be punished, they are the correct people to punish. Since they are the ones responsible for seeing that it does not happen again.

The cops should be fired. They are just too anti-American to be allowed to have that kind of power.

 

[Rashiminos]

Not if his 'free speech' is going to cause a riot or public menace. The citys job is also to keep the peace, and if thats accomplished by taking the guys flag away from him for one day on the 4th, then its arguable that they acted within the law.

How exactly an upside-down flag causes a riot or in any way disturbs "the peace" is something I would really like to know.

(Maybe the people whose nether regions were bunched at seeing it should answer for their actions.)

 

[emzie]

Not quite sure what you mean here... care to explain?

It wouldn't be the guy's fault if the village lost money in a law suit.

People said they were being disturbed by it, so it's a public nuisance by definition

I'm disturbed by blue houses. I don't have some right to demand my neighbour paint his house.

 

[caketastydelish]

I don't really see the big deal. He got the flag back, right?
In Denmark, there is a law stating that you can get a fine for having the Danish flag flying at night (between sunset and sunrise) unless it is lit by a spotlight or something similar. If the Danish flag weren't symmetrical along its horizontal axis, I'm sure you could get the flag confiscated for flying it upside-down as well.

Its a big deal if you think he was stripped of his first amendment rights (freedom of speech). I personally believe that that was the case.

It is also illegal in America to fly the flag at night if its not lit.

Flying the flag upside down is a symbol of mourning. That is what he was doing. Its not a meaningless thing to fly it upside down. He was mourning. I know mourning the fact that a town went "dry" is stupid, but its still his right to do it.

 

[Hundegesicht]

Its a big deal if you think he was stripped of his first amendment rights (freedom of speech). I personally believe that that was the case.

It is also illegal in America to fly the flag at night if its not lit.

Flying the flag upside down is a symbol of mourning. That is what he was doing. Its not a meaningless thing to fly it upside down. He was mourning. I know mourning the fact that a town went "dry" is stupid, but its still his right to do it.

afaik, mourning is flying it at half-mast. Upsidedown means distress.

 

[cardgame]

afaik, mourning is flying it at half-mast. Upsidedown means distress.

He was distressed/in mourning at wasting $200,000 or some similar amount on a bar and then the county going dry, then. It kinda is interchangeable.

 

[Gustave5436]

He was, as I said before, grossly abusing the 'distress' usage of the flag. Could that be compared to painting a Red Cross emblem on something falsely in a war zone? Improper use of a symbol? I think I'm reaching with this, but...

Paint the red cross on your military vehicles (for instance) and you put legitimate red cross workers in (more) danger.

Flying a flag upside down because the State won't let you serve liquor in your establishment won't put anyone in danger.

 

[Souron]

Not true in the US. You have a right to insult people; insulting people isn't imminent harm.

Fighting words are not protected by the first amendment. You do not have a right to insult in such a way as could incite an immediate breach of the peace.

The relevant Supreme Court case according to wiki is [wiki]Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire[/wiki].

 

[Bill3000]

Fighting words are not protected by the first amendment. You do not have a right to insult in such a way as could incite an immediate breach of the peace.

The relevant Supreme Court case according to wiki is [wiki]Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire[/wiki].

Actually, the relevant Supreme Court case is [wiki]Street v. New York[/wiki]. Mere offensiveness does not count as fighting words.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Not if his 'free speech' is going to cause a riot or public menace. The citys job is also to keep the peace, and if thats accomplished by taking the guys flag away from him for one day on the 4th, then its arguable that they acted within the law.

Would this be more distressing then say an upsidedown flag ?

What about this ?

Moderator Action: Foul language pictures deleted
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

You know how the US is when it comes to Hyper patriotism.

Like that new story about a US citizen flying the australian flag being sued and having the police called on them. When they had no idea that the flag was australian let alone that no other country since ww1 has fought beside the US. And was only other nation other then the UK to send combat troops to partake at the start of Gulf II.

I can still remember the person being interviewed by the journlist about what flag was being flown which was so offensive. And then having say he dosnt know but it should be taken down immediately.

 

[Miles Teg]

It is also illegal in America to fly the flag at night if its not lit.

Flying the flag upside down is a symbol of mourning.

You seriously need to brush up on your flag code. As previously noted, the upsidedown flag is a symbol of distress. Flying the flag at half mast is the proper symbol of mourning.

More importantly, every portion of the US Flag Code is etiquette, to be observed voluntarily, not federal law. It's legally unenforceable. Hence the push for a "Flag Desecration act".

To comment on the thread topic, unless the police had reason to believe that their would be an imminent breach of the peace (Phone calls from several people, loiterers) they overstepped their boundaries.

 

[Masada]

Shoot him for treason

Hang, draw and quarter him.

 

[Tee Kay]

That's an archaic English tradition. Electric chairs are American.

 

[Masada]

That's an archaic English tradition. Electric chairs are American.

But it doesn't look as good in the middle of Times Square: not with today's jaded audience.

 

[Tee Kay]

Well if you add some Tesla Coils at least all the teens will go OMG LIGHTNING BOLTZ PURE AW3S0M3N355!!!