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

[Masada]

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

Jaded audiences are not wowed by some trick stolen from RA. At least nobody will remember hanging, drawing and quartering.

 

[SG-17]

He should have inverted the colors instead.

 

[Bill3000]

Jaded audiences are not wowed by some trick stolen from RA. At least nobody will remember hanging, drawing and quartering.

I disagree.

 

[caketastydelish]

I disagree.

my mouth is open in awe, watching that.

 

[.Shane.]

This man has NO concept of what PR is. Good luck w/ a restaurant in a town where you piss off everyone w/ "protest". That said I think the cops/DA were outta line.

If we're gonna hassle this guy can we please also arrest all the jokers with shredded flags on their antennas or on their wifebeaters?

 

[Chazumi]

This man has NO concept of what PR is. Good luck w/ a restaurant in a town where you piss off everyone w/ "protest". That said I think the cops/DA were outta line.

If we're gonna hassle this guy can we please also arrest all the jokers with shredded flags on their antennas or on their wifebeaters?

Well I would still eat there...as soon as he gets his liquor license.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Anybody flying a flag upside down here for such a misleading reason would be dismissed as a brat throwing a temper tantrum. I remember when a refugee family burned a Canadian flag because they weren't allowed to have a huge laundry list of extra privileges they wanted for themselves and their family still in whatever country they came from. The overwhelming opinion of the community was that these people had proved themselves ungrateful for all the help they had already received, and they should be deported.

In short, misusing the flag doesn't impress anybody, and I don't blame the cops in this case for wanting to avoid people being needlessly offended on the national holiday.

That said, why was this guy denied a liquor license? I re-read the OP article and it said nothing about the county going dry.

 

[LucyDuke]

I see what Mobby is saying, but yeah this just rubs me wrong. Sure, I don't like what he's doing, and he's stretching the 'distress' use of a flag like this beyond any reasonable interpretation, but it is his flag and his property and unfortunately we don't have a flag protection amendment yet, so I have to say the city is wrong.

Unfortunately? Really? Come on, man, this is a damn easy one.

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

People saying they're disturbed by something is all it takes to make a public nuisance? You know, I'm pretty disturbed by traffic lights...

That said, he maybe should have gotten the permit before spending all his money building the place. Not sure how liquor permits work, though

That said, why was this guy denied a liquor license? I re-read the OP article and it said nothing about the county going dry.

Laws vary immensely from place to place regarding liquor licenses. It could be something as simple as that the town had met its quota, or something as convoluted as that he didn't have a high enough door to chair ratio. It could be pretty much anything.

Anybody flying a flag upside down here for such a misleading reason would be dismissed as a brat throwing a temper tantrum.

Which is how I think this guy should've been regarded.

 

[Japanrocks12]

Yeah, let this guy enjoy his spite or brief nonconformist thrill as long as he doesn't directly incite public unrest (if he draws a lynch mob, then disperse the mob but don't confiscate his flag. Simple enough)

 

[EnglishEdward]

Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula said it was not illegal to fly the flag upside down but people were upset and it was the Fourth of July.

"It is illegal to cause a disruption," he said.

According to this logic, if PETA declare a day a national vegan day,
and have a parade through town, the police should confiscate all the
meat from butcher's store fronts because it might cause offence.

 

[MobBoss]

A breach of peace must be imminent and you know that full well.

And currently, we have no idea if thats the case or not. But I bet thats going to be the most likely justification for doing it...

 

[Kraznaya]

And currently, we have no idea if thats the case or not. But I bet thats going to be the most likely justification for doing it...

We don't? If people were going to riot, wouldn't the police report it as justification?

 

[Mise]

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

It depends how you turn it upside down. If you rotate it 180 about its centre, it will look identical, but if you flip it along its long edge it will be different.

 

[Lillefix]

Speaking about flags up side down, I actually always found the American flag quite ugly because of the lack of symmetry.

He should in any case be allowed to hang it up side down if he wants to. It's just a flag, nothing else. And if I were an American, I would probably do the same thing under the Bush administration.

 

[REDY]

I dont see nothing offensive about flag flying upside-down.

Spoiler :

 

[Hundegesicht]

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.

Mourning and distress are not interchangeable at all. Mourning means you're sad, usually about the passing of some person/animal/thing. Distress, in this context, means "in need of immediate assistance" and ONLY THAT.

I realize that in normal conversation distress can mean sorrow, I also know it's a 98% probability you're going to pull up some dictionary quote and make a snarky comment, but in terms of flag flying, it's not a valid context for flying a flag upsidedown. If you're in great sorrow, you fly it at half-mast.

And if I were an American, I would probably do the same thing under the Bush administration.

Bush is no longer the president of the US.

 

[Wolfe Tone]

It depends how you turn it upside down. If you rotate it 180 about its centre, it will look identical, but if you flip it along its long edge it will be different.

Well that's true, I believe it has rotational symetry. However most flags only have attachments to the flag pole on one side, so it can only be attached to the flag pole in 2 ways.

 

[Mise]

@Hundegesicht: Is it illegal to fly a flag in an invalid context?

@Wolfe Tone: Ahh, yes, you're right, didn't think about that!

 

[Mowque]

Shame. The flag is not some sacred thing....

 

[Hundegesicht]

@Hundegesicht: Is it illegal to fly a flag in an invalid context?

Not afaik. It might be for military facilities and vehicles, due to the resources expended to make sure that facility *isn't* actually in need of assistence.

I was just correcting the guys saying that flying a flag upsidedown is a sign of mourning. I don't really think the police were justified taking it away - he's a private citizen, he can do what he wants.