The Blaze – by Dave UrbanskiA veterans group has filed a free speech lawsuit against officials who banned a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag from a city-owned armory because they viewed the flag as a Tea Party symbol.
The lawsuit says the actions of officials in New Rochelle, N.Y., in addition to being unconstitutional, are “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious” and demonstrate a lack of appreciation of history, according to the Associated Press.
The veterans group had flown the flag—used by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps since 1775—at the New Rochelle Armory; the city council voted to have the flag removed in March, the AP reports.
The Gadsden Flag has been used as an unofficial Tea Party symbol since at least 2008, the AP says, and is often seen at tax protests and gun-rights rallies.
Council members said that because Peter Parente, president of the veterans group, is a Tea Party member, he is simply trying to make a political statement.
Parente acknowledged that while he is a “proud Republican,” no one in his veterans’ group belongs to the Tea Party, which the lawsuit reiterates.
The lawsuit declares that “contrary to defendants’ unfounded, subjective (and incorrect) belief,” their raising the Gadsden flag was meant only “to honor the veterans who have served and died for our country under the rattlesnake image and the words ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ since the American Revolution,” the AP notes.
According to the website Talk of the Sound, one council member compared the Gadsden flag to the gay pride flag while another member likened it to Nazi and even Mickey Mouse flags.
The Thomas More Law Center is representing the veterans group and claimed that if one were to use the city council’s logic, even the Stars and Stripes would be removed from flagpoles around the country “because both Democrat and Republican Parties, as well as most political candidates, use the Stars and Stripes in their campaign messaging,” said Richard Thompson, president of the center.
The lawsuit names the mayor, city manager, and four city council members, requests an injunction and “nominal and compensatory damages,” the AP reports, adding that city officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
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The Gadsden Flag was the flag flow the first time the Marines went into combat – as the story goes, I was not there as far as I know.
As far as you know, but you just may have been there in a past life. Who is to say that you were or not there one way or another. 🙂 I bet that we all met in a prior life in one form or another – prove me wrong. 🙂 We are all bro`s eh.
Yeah & Trayvon’s hoodie gets the Smithsonian treatment. U.S. Navy’s Battle Flag was red & white strips with a stretched rattler & “Don’t Tread On Me”. It was flown on Navy ships during the Reagan era.
Our Patriotic symbols sure do piss these Zio-libturds off. Guess we be getting a visit from NSA when we fly our Nation’s Flag on Vet’s Day this year.
I have the Gadsden license plate on the front of my truck. I wear it proudly but not without grief. I live in artery of liberalism here on the Delaware shore. I get some thumbs up but I get my fair share of fingers as well from the serotype lesbian prius drivers who sports the Obama stickers. I figure their just mad because they don’t have any snake in their life 😉
People can fly what ever flag thy want here. I can say that we native people are letting them fly their pos flag here and they better start respecting our land G D IT. Wen the SHTF there is only gonna be one people and it isn`t gonna be a F`in flag because we represent our land here and nobody can say any different!! NO FLAG AND NO DAMNED GOVT. POS !!! Only us good real people. YES us human beings DAMNIT P.S. And that is right We real people do not have to HIDE BEHIND A GD F`N FLAG to protect us. That is like hiding behind a damned group religon. F that flag lets all be people and stand up for our country and take it back instead of being a buch of bought off sheep bunch of pussies. And I am calling them all a bunch of pussies that want to be a bunch of sisies. Stand up or be bought off. Time is getting late guys.