Pirate Flag Tragically Taken Down

The Daily News today writes about a worker at the Criminal Justice Center ordered to take down his pirate and American flags from his desk.

Here’s where it gets fun:

For months, that flag and another one that Silvestro had taped to his computer - a black “pirate” flag with skull and crossbones - greeted a steady stream of folks, mostly lawyers, who lined up daily at the front counter of the court’s Active Criminal Records department to file motions that Silvestro processed.

No one complained about the flags, Silvestro said. Then on Sept. 23, Silvestro got an e-mail from his supervisor: “Keith has advised me as your supervisor, that the flags must come down. They are not appropriate for the workplace,” the e-mail said.

The “Keith” mentioned in the e-mail was Keith Smith, the new director of Active Criminal Records.

Silvestro, 34, said he could understand why Smith didn’t want him to display a pirate flag - a symbol of thievery on the high seas - in a criminal courthouse. The flag was a gift from a co-worker who had bought it while on vacation and knew that Silvestro liked pirate stories and had served in the Navy, Silvestro said.

Doesn’t the Active Criminal Records department know how “in” pirates are with the kiddies nowadays?! Geeze, this is just silly. How dare government workers be barred from putting up pirate flags in their office!

His boss flags Old Glory [Daily News]
Photoshop with apologies to Jessica Griffin.

Vandalism Running Wild Locally

A few incidents of recent vandalism are sure to have people angrily writing on messageboards and blogs. Let’s go over the recent attacks on inanimate objects and how they show the downfall of America, or something.

• The vandalized item: Daniel Faulkner’s memorial plaque at 13th and Locust. The time: Sometime between Saturday night and 10 a.m. Sunday. The damage: “Fuck him” written across the late officer Faulkner’s plaque. The culprit: Uh, Free Mumia people were in town over the weekend, so them. Or could it be a set-up attempting to demonize the innocent (but annoying) protesters? Yeah, I’vealready thought about this too much. The likelihood alcohol was involved: 100%.

• The vandalized item: About two dozen flags, part of a display of over 4,000, one for each solider killed in Iraq. The time: Sometime overnight. The damage: Two dozen broken flags, duh. The likely culprit: Unclear, but probably the Mumia people, or some right-wing warmongers. There’s also a chance it was a hard-up flag manufacturer. The likelihood alcohol was involved: 100%.

• The vandalized item: Mets fans’ dignity, as at least two fans of the New York National League club were arrested. The time: Saturday’s Phillies-Mets game. The damage: I’d say “clean arrest records,” but who knows if that’s true. Let’s say the price of a ticket and bail. The likely culprit: The Mets fans themselves, of course. Phillies fans are veritable saints. The likelihood alcohol was involved: 100%.

Wow, annoying people vandalizing heartfelt displays. Uhm, shocking.

Bensalem Gets Heroic Symbol Of Torture

Hey, a veteran came back to Bensalem and presented a flag to the town council and the mayor. How nice. It’s good to see that… oh.

Savinon, 56, presented the mayor and council with a flag that flew at military prison and interrogation camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Great, great. Maybe next Bensalem can get an official wagon from the Trail of Tears.

Guantanamo flag presented to mayor, council [Bucks County Courier Times]

Anti-Illegal Immigration Rally Allows Residents Of Riverside To Fly Their Racism High Under The Guise Of ‘God Bless America’

Because, really, what better way to show that your predominantly white town is a home to a bunch of racist fucks than fly the Confederate flag? Ooh, the protesters could cheer the flag as it goes by, too. Yeah, that’ll do.

Protest roils Riverside [Inquirer]

Semper Fight

One of the ways suburban communities make sure nobody “upsets” anyone — which, really, is the best thing about living in the city, since you can upset and anger people at your convenience — is to impose restrictions on what color you can paint your house, what kind of decorations you can put up and what flags you can fly.

This, of course, usually leads to utterly ridiculous disputes between neighbors, which escalate until perfectly reasonable, normal people hate each other for the rest of their lives because they disagreed over whether Halloween decorations were allowed in the front of a suburban townhome.

The Inquirer does its duty of informing the public of this ridiculousness today with an article about a dispute over what constitutes a “defaced” flag.

Yes, a woman in Montgomery Township, whose son is a Marine recently shipped off to Iraq, has a flag up in front of her house, and the neighbors seem pissed. The flag is a normal U.S. flag with the U.S. Marine Corps emblem in the center. (I couldn’t find a photo of it online, but I did find that nifty American flag/Marine Corps mashup mailbox up in the right-hand corner. I assume the flag is something like that, only with the stars in the correct place.)

The homeowners’ association wants her to take it down, as I suppose an altered U.S. Flag — or the Marine Corps flag she had up originally, before they made her take that — could possibly lower property values or kill children or ruin everyone’s summer or something.

And now the issue has been tabled, with both sides refusing to budge. More updates as this progresses, or Developing… as they say here on the Internets.

Banned Marine flag is flying once again [Inky]