In Wausau, Wisconsin, the state in which I reside, the police walked onto the property of a US citizen and removed an upside-down US flag he was flying. Why? Because neighbors thought it was unpatriotic. So?
On the advice of Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey, the police confiscated the flag on Independence Day. Vito Congin’s First Amendment rights were trampled on the very day Americans celebrate the independence that paved the way for the establishment of uniquely American liberties, which include the right to fly the US flag upside-down.
Congin’s neighbor, Steven Klein was stunned. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’ They said, ‘It is none of your business.’” Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula put it this way: it’s not illegal to fly the flag upside down but people were upset and, after all, it was the Fourth of July. What the fuck?
Village President John Deschane, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it’s disrespectful to fly the flag upside-down. “If he wants to protest, let him protest, but find a different way to do it.” Hey John, which constitutional amendment gives Deschane the right to dictate to a fellow citizen the manner in which he should protest his government?
By the way, Congine is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004. Here’s what he had to say: “It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else and then I come home to find it right here at my front door.“ Indeed.
freedom and reason 