Resident calls 911 over man walking ‘very deliberately’ with Confederate flag
A “concerned” resident called police on a man walking “very deliberately” down an Arlington, Virginia sidewalk with a hybrid Confederate flag over his shoulder.
The flag had the Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me” snake in the middle.
According to police scanner traffic, dispatchers determined “the man was exercising his First Amendment rights and not violating the law,” WTOP reports.
Twitter user Wayne Jaing (@WanyeVVest) tweeted a photo to a news outlet of the man walking down Lee Highway “with a purpose.”
Ironically, by using his phone to snap the picture while he was driving, Jaing was likely in violation of the law more than the man carrying the flag was.
“[He was] not yelling anything but [you] could tell he was walking with pride in his step,” Jaing tells ARLnow.
The news outlet deemed it “highly unusual for Arlington,” apparently not remembering — or subconsciously suppressing — Virginia has a Confederate flag option on its license plates and as of now, the Stars and Bars is still allowed at the National Cemetery.
Two weeks ago, a shopper at the Redwood Country Flea Market in Wallingford, Connecticut was so “offended” by Confederate merchandise, he called 911.
“There was a table set up with this material,” Wright said. “It’s not criminally illegal, but obviously it offended this person. It causes some people a sense of being uncomfortable. Certainly the owner could preclude this merchandise.”
The town resident who called 911 said there were helmets with swastikas, images of Hitler and other historical Nazi items.
“I was shaking and almost vomiting,” he tells the paper. “I had to run. My grandmother had numbers,” referring to the digits the Nazis would tattoo on prisoners.
The caller complained that the Confederate items were “not authentic” and were replicas of flags and weapons.
Police chief William Wright said “the reason no one was arrested was because the items were being sold on private property.”
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/resident-calls-911-over-man-walking-very-deliberately-with-confederate-flag/