Posted on 02/10/2006 7:17:47 PM PST by Rebeleye
A Hingham (MA) man has removed a Confederate flag he had been flying outside his downtown home after police told him they had received a complaint about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotledger.com ...
Ian Emmott, 22, a Civil War buff since age 12 who had been displaying the flag since October, decided to take the banner inside to avoid any trouble after two police officers, one of them his older brother, came to his home to tell him about the complaint.
‘‘I had a feeling this would happen; that someone would cause a stink and people would take it the wrong way,’’ said Emmott, who believes the flag represents the South’s heritage - not racism.
‘‘Some people use it as a racist symbol, but that is not what it represents. I have friends of all different races. I put it up partly to make a point. I don’t like it being used as a mark of racism.’’
Sgt. Michael Peraino, police spokesman, said the department asked Philip Emmott, 32, a Hingham police officer who is Ian’s brother, and Sgt. Chris Phillips to go to Ian Emmott’s home Saturday morning to tell him about the complaint.
Although the officers were on duty, Peraino likened the visit to going to a house after a noise complaint and informally telling someone to quiet down.
‘‘They did not order him to take down the flag, but they asked him if he knew it could be offensive to some people and he agreed to take it down,’’ Peraino said.
Ian Emmott said the officers mentioned possible personal safety issues and other potential trouble that the flag’s presence might create. He said his brother had recently spoken to him privately about flying the flag.
‘‘I didn’t really want to bring it in,’’ said Emmott, who graduated from Hingham High School in 2002. ‘‘But I took it down out of respect for my brother and for the Hingham police department.’’
The flag now hangs on a wall inside the front door at Emmott’s apartment.
Winston Hall, the town historian and a native of South Carolina, said Emmott’s view of the Confederate flag as a piece of national heritage has validity.
Stressing that she was speaking personally and not as town historian, Hall, 92, said that in the North, the Confederate flag is not viewed as symbol of white supremacy, but it is still taken as that in the Deep South.
‘‘That interpretation (of racism) in the Deep South is a mistake,’’ Hall said. ‘‘That is what some people have made it into, but I don’t think an educated person sees it that way.’’
At the time of the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, Hall said, the Confederate flag symbolized states’ rights ‘‘and whether the federal government had the right to impose its laws on the states. The Civil War settled that once and for all - the federal law is the law of the land.’’
There is no federal law prohibiting the flying of the Confederate flag.
The Anti-Defamation League web site says that although the Confederate flag is seen by some Southerners simply as a symbol of Southern pride, it is often used by racists to represent white domination of black Americans.
Mitch Marcus, co-chairman of Hingham’s No Place for Hate Committee with his wife, Barbara, spoke with police Monday and was told the complaint was from a black resident.
‘‘Some individuals might be unaware of what it represents to others,’’ Marcus said. ‘‘The vast majority see it as a sign of hate - almost like the swastika to someone who is Jewish.’’
When I was in college working at parades selling novelty items to make ends meet, we worked in Hingham for their July 4th event. The black kid on our crew who was one of the top earners everywhere else we worked managed to come in as the low man every time. The crew boss sent him elsewhere eventually so he could work a better place to make money.
Racist rich democrats
I'll bet nothing would have been said if he displayed the bright, rainbow "Gay Flag".
I was in a particular city in a particular part of the nation today and saw the flag of the south flying high.
I see blacks flying the "african" flag and wearing clothing that bears the same image, and I could give a rats ass.
I consider the argument of flying the flag of the south to be a free speech one.
I wonder if the police will listen to a complaint about the gay rainbow flag.
I wouldn't have taken it down...I keep the Stsars & Bars hangin on my living room wall...if I had a flag pole outside, I'd buy another one & fly it for all to see....if folks have a prob w/ that, it's their prob, not mine.
THE SOUTH WAS RIGHT!
...or the Bonnie Blue
ping
The vast majority see you, Mitch, as a whining little pansy with nothing better to do than race-bait your political opponents.
PS- God Bless America, North to South....
I fly the First National Flag. Most people never have a clue what it even is. I had a guy the other day ask me about the plate on front of my truck, he said he was from Texas too........
http://images.andale.com/f2/127/122/7953605/1080769421727_csa1flag.gif
No wonder the lefties support the muslims; they think just like them.
No wonder the lefties support the muslims; they think just like them.
Born in CT, raised in NJ.
There is more practical racial discrimination there than I have seen since coming South and living from VA to FL in all the years since.
Or the current Georgia state flag.
Dixie Ping
Every time you read of garbage like this or sex education for kindergarten students, it's always the same three offenders: Massachusetts, New York and California. These states are screwed up.
‘‘That interpretation (of racism) in the Deep South is a mistake,’’ Hall said. ‘‘That is what some people have made it into, but I don’t think an educated person sees it that way.’’
Never thought I'd see it. A yankee in some position of respect with sense
Mitch Marcus, co-chairman of Hingham’s No Place for Hate Committee with his wife, Barbara, spoke with police Monday and was told the complaint was from a black resident.‘‘Some individuals might be unaware of what it represents to others,’’ Marcus said. ‘‘The vast majority see it as a sign of hate - almost like the swastika to someone who is Jewish.’’
Then we still have idiots like this to deal with.
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