View Full Version : Apartment residents told to take down U.S. flags
ArmyStrong
10-14-2009, 09:21
Source:http://www.katu.com/news/local/64059697.html
ALBANY, Ore. - At the Oaks Apartments in Albany, the management can fly their own flag advertising one and two bedroom apartments - but residents have been told they can't fly any flags at all.
Jim Clausen flies the American flag from the back of his motorcycle. He has a son in the military heading back to Iraq, and the flag - he said - is his way of showing support.
"This flag stands for all those people," said Clausen, an Oaks Apartment resident. "It stands for the people that can no longer stand - who died in wars. That's why I fly this flag."
But to Oaks Apartment management, Clausen said, the American flag symbolizes problems.
He was told to remove the red, white and blue from both of his rides, or face eviction.
"It floored me," he said. "I can't believe she was saying what she was saying."
Even long-time residents like Sharron White, who has flown a flag on her car for eight years, has been told to take it down.
White said management told her that "someone might get offended."
"I just said to her 'They'll just have to get over it,'" White said.
Resident we talked to who had been approached to take down their flags all told us the same thing: that management told them the flags could be offensive because they live in a diverse community.
Attempts to find out for ourselves why management would ban flags were unsuccessful. KATU wanted to talk to management at Oaks Apartments, but no one has returned our calls. The woman we were told had made the decision said she was "not going to answer any questions."
The mother of one soldier fighting in Iraq put up a poster in her son's apartment window when she learned of the ban. Her son's roommate said he'll risk eviction to make sure it stays.
Another Oaks Apartment resident, Judith Sherer, doesn't have a car. Instead she carries an American flag around the complex to protest the ban, and wonders if the flag pin she wears is next to be "singled out."
"If I put it on and I walk outside, what's going to happen?" Sherer muses. "Am I going to be confronted by a manager about this?"
We're told the ban includes sports flags and even flag stickers on cars.
I can see ( no matter how much it galls me) the complex saying people can't fly the flag off of the building structure. But to tell people they can not have flag stickers on their POVs is what is going to get them into trouble.
Lord, where do these people come from, and can we please find a way to send them back?????
I just looked up the complex on Google and there are 128 "reviews" of the complex all concerning the flag issue. I hope the owners are getting an earful.
Rumblyguts
10-14-2009, 09:46
It'd be interesting to read the lease for fine print or the legalese as to how the landlords can just "institue" new regs into a contract.
I would like to see the landlord try and evict over a flag on a personal vehicle or displayed inside of a residence in the complex.
I do not know if Oregon has any really wacky landlord biased laws but if laws even resemble the tenet laws in Illinois none of those people are in any danger of being kicked out.
The mother of one soldier fighting in Iraq put up a poster in her son's apartment window when she learned of the ban. Her son's roommate said he'll risk eviction to make sure it stays.
Saw this on Fox this morning. Un-Fu**ing believable!:mad:
Idea...The landlords should be on the next transport to A-Stan, and then dropped off. Would pay money to watch them run around like the idiots they are, searching for a safe place to hide...
Holly
Utah Bob
10-14-2009, 11:10
If I lived in that complex, I don't think I would respond very well. Nope, not very well at all.:mad:
UnF***** Real... But the sad thing is that there is probably a line of AMERICAN lawyers waiting to defend the Landlords rights!!!!:mad:
Hey Folks,
It is on the LEFT coast......ALBANY, Ore.
What else would you expect. :rolleyes: :munchin
Bill Harsey
10-14-2009, 13:57
Albany, Oregon is about an hour up the road from here.
Listening to Lars Larson regional talk show on the radio and the owner of the apartment complex in question was on and it sounds like the problem is solved.
Owner was getting phone calls from all over the United States and was helped by his legal counsel finding out he couldn't deny our flag flying around his apartments.
greenberetTFS
10-14-2009, 14:14
Albany, Oregon is about an hour up the road from here.
Listening to Lars Larson regional talk show on the radio and the owner of the apartment complex in question was on and it sounds like the problem is solved.
Owner was getting phone calls from all over the United States and was helped by his legal counsel finding out he couldn't deny our flag flying around his apartments.
Bill,
It's great to hear that the owner was hit with all those phone calls,it means that Americans aren't going to put up with $h*t like this........;););)
Big Teddy :munchin
Bill Harsey
10-14-2009, 14:23
Bill,
It's great to hear that the owner was hit with all those phone calls,it means that Americans aren't going to put up with $h*t like this........;););)
Big Teddy :munchin
Owner said some of the calls were not very friendly, think he said something about a few offering bodily harm.
Albany has traditionally been one of the most conservative city's in Oregon, a former timber industry center that used to host the BIG Albany Timber Festival/World Championship professional logging show that was often televised on Wide World of Sports. This is why it was a little shocking to hear of a flag ban there.
Edited to add this, "Flag Ban Lifted": http://www.katu.com/news/local/64262707.html
Albany, Oregon is about an hour up the road from here.
Listening to Lars Larson regional talk show on the radio and the owner of the apartment complex in question was on and it sounds like the problem is solved.
Owner was getting phone calls from all over the United States and was helped by his legal counsel finding out he couldn't deny our flag flying around his apartments.
Owner said some of the calls were not very friendly, think he said something about a few offering bodily harm.
Albany has traditionally been one of the most conservative city's in Oregon, a former timber industry center that used to host the BIG Albany Timber Festival/World Championship professional logging show that was often televised on Wide World of Sports. This is why it was a little shocking to hear of a flag ban there.
Edited to add this, "Flag Ban Lifted": http://www.katu.com/news/local/64262707.html
I don't think the "Silent Majority" is silent any longer. :lifter
That's awesome. :lifter
Resident we talked to who had been approached to take down their flags all told us the same thing: that management told them the flags could be offensive because they live in a diverse community.
Really? Last time I checked we live in the United States of America.
Glad to hear the management had a change of heart, however they got there. :lifter
rltipton
10-14-2009, 17:39
I don't think the "Silent Majority" is silent any longer.
It's about f***ing time. I'm tired of being the loud-mouth right wing bad guy. About damn time people wake up and stop putting up with that kind of crap.
We need a bunch more people like this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nal3RP9il3A
Be Safe,
Randy
Personally - I think the issue is far more complicaed than it appears to be as presented in the MSM - and both sides have issues which need to be resolved.
And so it goes...;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
ZonieDiver
10-14-2009, 21:41
We need a bunch more people like this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nal3RP9il3A
Great job by the bearded vet, but he was in desperate need of a much sharper knife! :D
Dozer523
10-14-2009, 21:59
This is a simple case of the First Amendment being violated.
The ACLU should file suit.
Copied from the Net.
On October 2, 2007, Brossard heard on a local talk radio show that the Cantina El Jaripeo near downtown Reno was flying a Mexican flag above a US flag. He drove to the site and cut down the flags.
Aftermath
Brossard appeared with talk radio host Bill Manders on Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto on October 3 and said that he "heard on Bill Manders' show that the flags were flying as they were. I found it disturbing to the point that I had to do something about it. I grabbed my Ka-Bar, I went down there, I left my vehicle a couple of doors down, I found TV cameras rolling as I walked up, I did what was in my heart."
Talk radio host Mike Gallagher told Brossard during an October 3 interview, "I can promise you that Americans view you as a hero." During that interview Brossard explained that his primary concern was what Gallagher referred to as the 'Hispanification' of America. Brossard said, "I feel there’s a lot of this turning our heads on things in concern to the Hispanic community and the things they do. They seem impervious to our laws in a lot of situations."
A veterans' group, the U.S.S. Intrepid Association Inc., in November 2007 presented Brossard with a U.S. flag that had been raised over the Intrepid July 12, 2007.
Although Cavuto, Gallagher, and other reporters stated that flying the U.S. flag in this manner is illegal, the Reno Police Department and the Nevada chapter of the ACLU issued separate press releases stating that while both U.S. code and Nevada statutes contain protocols relating to the display of the American flag, the protocols are advisory only and carry no sanctions for violation.
The Director for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Bob Fulkerson, called Brossard's actions "criminal". Right Wing Watch, the online newsmagazine of People for the American Way, called him a vigilante.
The owner of the bar did not press charges against Brossard.
Ka-Bar, the manufacturer of the knife Brossard used, made a Jim Broussard commemorative edition of the military knife.
BT
I was in Reno when this happened. Story I heard in the aftermath was, Jim Broussard was going to be charged with theft. Aparently, stealing a flag is still stealing. However, the filing for theft was never placed, seems a curtain lawyer talked with the owner of the store and cooled his jets.
I did learn that the bar owner's intent was to show American pride, he however, did not do his homework and learn that no flag is flown above the US flag on native soil. In the aftermath also, the bar owner was taking English and cultural classes to obtain his US citizenship.
May I ask a question to the 18Xer's.
What have we learned from this episode? I welcome a response or comment.
BT AR
WD
kimberly
10-14-2009, 22:12
My first inclination would be to hand out American flags to everyone in the complex and fly them all on cars, front doors, in windows, etc.. She would have had to empty the building then find new renters who were from somewhere else. Then we'd see how much friction she would generate between people.
The Mexicans can be a brash as they want to be, but I saw no one stopped the Vet with the knife.
charlietwo
10-14-2009, 22:13
Owner said some of the calls were not very friendly, think he said something about a few offering bodily harm.
Yea... my inner monologue said something to the affect, " I would f*****g stab someone if they told me that. "
I must ask though, where's the ACLU in all of this? :)
charlietwo
10-14-2009, 22:16
This is a simple case of the First Amendment being violated.
The ACLU should file suit.
Oops! You beat me to it Dozer! :)
Slantwire
10-15-2009, 08:50
I did learn that the bar owner's intent was to show American pride, he however, did not do his homework and learn that no flag is flown above the US flag on native soil. In the aftermath also, the bar owner was taking English and cultural classes to obtain his US citizenship.
May I ask a question to the 18Xer's.
What have we learned from this episode? I welcome a response or comment.
Go talk to the guy first, figure out his intentions. If they align with yours, encourage and educate (in this case, explain the US Flag Code). Problem solved. If his intentions won't co-exist with yours, then proceed this way.
In other words, win hearts and minds so you don't have to try to kill your way to victory.
Dozer523
10-15-2009, 08:54
Oops! You beat me to it Dozer! :)
Meanest thing I ever did to my Dad was to invite him to the LA area for a UCLA football game. I got him a cap. (It's always sunny in the Rose Bowl and I was worried about his scalp under that thinning hair.) Before I gave it to him, I switched the first and last letters.
He didn't figure out the odd looks until he went to the restroom in the third quarter.:eek:
He didn't even appreciate the EFFORT that went into doing that!:p Sheesh. . . dads.:rolleyes:
Snaquebite
10-15-2009, 13:57
without help from the ACLU....
The American Civil Liberties Union said that Barb Holcomb's ban at Oaks Apartments did not violate any laws, but Holcomb said her legal cousel led her to believe otherwise so she reversed the decision.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566740,00.html?test=latestnews
MOO - the owners ban on such things as flags or window displays and the like on the property of the apartments can be legally incorporated into the lease - the window stickers or small flags on POVs are another matter altogether.
Richard
greenberetTFS
10-15-2009, 14:39
Meanest thing I ever did to my Dad was to invite him to the LA area for a UCLA football game. I got him a cap. (It's always sunny in the Rose Bowl and I was worried about his scalp under that thinning hair.) Before I gave it to him, I switched the first and last letters.
He didn't figure out the odd looks until he went to the restroom in the third quarter.
He didn't even appreciate the EFFORT that went into doing that!. Sheesh. . . dads.
Dozer,shame,shame,shame on you for what you did to your daddy.......:rolleyes:
You realize your gonna be punished for that by the BIG guy....:eek: HE's not going to let you get away with it........:p
Big Teddy :munchin
There comes a point when problems just need to be solved.
What would I have done? Fixed the problem. For me, this crosses the line. I believe the actions of the cantina owners are a blatant display of disrespect that warrants a direct action. The cantina owners should have learned how to fly the flag before they did this.
Some things just need to be learned the hard way....
Dozer523
10-15-2009, 19:38
There comes a point when problems just need to be solved.
What would I have done? Fixed the problem. For me, this crosses the line. I believe the actions of the cantina owners are a blatant display of disrespect that warrants a direct action. The cantina owners should have learned how to fly the flag before they did this.
Some things just need to be learned the hard way.... Sometimes you don't know what you don't know. There are so many opportunities in this world to be offended, do we need to try to find them?
As an SF candidate do you really think that you will able to navigate a culture without accidentally making a misstep? Case in point. We were in Jordan for 6 weeks. (In the Wadi Ram area:cool:). Bn CO was giving a culture brief, when it was all over he asked all the lefties to raise their hands. Everyone else was dismissed. (It was just before a communal meal.) SEZ Binco, "When the food comes out you all take that left hand and reach behind and grab hold of your belt with it and DO NOT let go. If your left hand goes into the food, the meal is over.
To obvious?
Right, everyone know that one. Have you ever tried to pee from a squatting position? It's harder then it looks! But, if you're going to run with the Afghans you better get used to it cuz that's how they do it.
Teddy, I know I'll get what I deserve, eventually.