Neighbor Outrage Prompts Man To Remove Klan Flag From Home

[bonnie]

Neighbor Outrage Prompts Man To Remove Klan Flag From Home

March 5, 2014 11:30 PM

WEST BOCA RATON (CBSMiami) - The KKK flag, infuriating some neighbors as it flapped in the wind outside of a West Boca Raton home, was taken down Wednesday night.

The man, who hasn’t given his name, said he had every right to fly the flag as part of his freedom of speech. Code enforcement in the area agreed after visiting the home.

But the flag is down Wednesday night, soon to be replaced with a Confederate flag.

The man did not speak to CBS4’s Brian Andrews but his wife Marla Curly, however, had plenty to say to Andrews, and to her mother who stopped by begging her daughter and son-in-law to end the neighborhood controversy.

“Apologize to who? The Blacks and the Puerto Ricans? Just because he took the flag down doesn’t mean he feels any different,” Curly said to her mother. “He still feels the way he feels.”

Curly did say that the flag was down for good.

“I’m apologizing for him,” Curly said.

Curly said that her husband, whom she calls Steven, put up the flag “because he’s a boob.” She also said that flying the flag was “ignorant and offensive” and that the couple will be putting up a confederate flag because “he’s a rebel without a cause.”

Curly said that she found the outrage in response to the flag funny that it was such a big thing to so many people.

“What’s wrong with you people? I’ve been here for 32 years. You don’t belong here. Tan America!” shouted neighbor Susan Wantz. “You’re a pig! There’s not room in America for racism and people like you. If you don’t like it in this neighborhood, get out!”

Curly spoke earlier Wednesday, while the flag was still up, urging her husband to say something and tell people why he “loves to be a white man.

She said she doesn’t believe in what the Klan stands for, but her husband does. She said he has his beliefs, and she has hers.

CBS4′s Ted Scouten asked Curly, “With the Klan, they’re known to be anti-gay, anti-Jew, anti-black, anti-Latin.” Marla replied, “Okay, that’s their club. That’s their feelings. It’s not everybody’s feelings. I don’t feel that way. I’m not anti most of those.”

“I’m not racist, they are, but they’re really good people,” said neighbor Bianca Barresi.

In addition to the Klan flag, a sign saying “Members Wanted” is also in the yard and a noose hangs in the front yard. The man said he didn’t say what he was recruiting members for and that the noose was in the front yard because he didn’t “have a big tree in the backyard to hang it from.”

Curly said she can’t understand why others can fly their flags, but when someone raises the flags of the Confederacy and the Klan it draws so much anger.

“The Spanish people put their Spanish flag up and it has meaning,” Curly said. “It means they are Spanish, we love to be Spanish. Okay, they love to love who they love, they love to be white.”

Curly said her husband and the Klan are misunderstood.

“They don’t kill people they don’t have meetings with the pointy white hats and its not as bad, it’s nothing,” Curly said.

Wednesday afternoon the Anti-Defamation League and the ACLU released statements on the Klan flag controversy.

ADL

“The First Amendment is a powerful constitutional right. It protects both mainstream speech and extremist speech,” said Hava Holzhauer, ADL Florida Regional Director. “However, the Anti-Defamation League strongly condemns the display of the Ku Klux Klan flag coupled with the noose, which is akin to the swastika with respect to the Jewish community in the fearful emotions it evokes within the African-American community. While the display is likely legal, these symbols are highly offensive, hurtful and a haunting reminder of the Ku Klux Klan’s history of violence, terrorism, and lynchings of African Americans.”

ACLU

The First Amendment protects the right of people to express themselves – even in ways that are offensive and abhorrent – on their own property. We don’t believe the answer to ugly expression is less speech, but rather more speech: hopefully others in the community will use this moment as an opportunity to exercise their own First Amendment rights and express messages of tolerance and equality.

[lazarus]

Curious that this particular terrorist organization is still allowed to terrorize.

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

“The First Amendment is a powerful constitutional right. It protects both mainstream speech and extremist speech,

Hate speech

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hate speech is, outside the law, speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of e.g. race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.[1][2]

In law, hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which is forbidden because it may incite violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected individual or group, or because it disparages or intimidates a protected individual or group. The law may identify a protected individual or a protected group by certain characteristics.[3][4][5][6] In some countries, a victim of hate speech may seek redress under civil law, criminal law, or both. A website that uses hate speech is called a hate site. Most of these sites contain Internet forums and news briefs that emphasize a particular viewpoint. There has been debate over how freedom of speech applies to the Internet.

Critics have argued that the term "hate speech" is a contemporary example of Newspeak, used to silence critics of social policies that have been poorly implemented in a rush to appear politically correct.[7][8][9]

International

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law".[10] The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) prohibits all incitement of racism.[11] On 3 May 2011, Michael O'Flaherty with the United Nations Human Rights Committee published General Comment No. 34 on the ICCPR, which among other comments expresses concern that many forms of "hate speech" do not meet the level of seriousness set out in Article 20.[12] Concerning the debate over how freedom of speech applies to the Internet, conferences concerning such sites have been sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.[13]

When man comes to the point of keeping all ten commandments of the moral code, the multitudinous plethora of laws will no longer be needed to affect the same thing.

Jesus/God saves!

[bonnie]

Curious that this particular terrorist organization is still allowed to terrorize.

Beliefs are not illegal. Belonging to the KKK is legal.

Actions are illegal and unless displaying a flag on your personal property is not allowed,no law has been broken.

[Liz]

What I thought was strange about this article. Was that the man who owned and flew the flag would not give his name, so the reporter talked to his wife who not only gave her first and last name but also called her husband by his first name. Methinks there is some contention in that marriage.

[Naomi]

Racism is equally alive and well in all races.

This afternoon I was waiting for a car to pull out of a parking spot. Then I proceeded to pull into the spot ... on my side of the drive ... a car with several young men of another race was on the other side of the drive facing the opposite direction. As I was getting out of my car and all the way to the store's door they proceeded to holler at me calling me all sorts of racist names and just down-right vulgar 4-letter words. Bottom line, before God & anyone observing, I did nothing to create this treatment or abuse. Witnesses got the store manager and they asked that I file a report to be flagged by the store's security camera. I was offered, and accepted, an escort as I exited the store to return to my car.

How in the world are we to live in harmony in Heaven if we can't set aside our hostile issues on this earth? No one has the right to terrorize anyone!!!

[LifeHiscost]

I am saddened by the experience you had, Naomi, however it does enable me to see clearly Whose side you're on and how much closer we are to His coming than many might believe.

"But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’"John 15:25 NKJV

"Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. "John 14:22-23 NKJV Parenthesis theirs' LHC

The topic is a neighbor's outrage and I'm a neighbor outraged, so believe it to be on topic.

"“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,"Ephesians 4:26 NKJV

God/Jesus saves!

[phkrause]

Racism is equally alive and well in all races.

This afternoon I was waiting for a car to pull out of a parking spot. Then I proceeded to pull into the spot ... on my side of the drive ... a car with several young men of another race was on the other side of the drive facing the opposite direction. As I was getting out of my car and all the way to the store's door they proceeded to holler at me calling me all sorts of racist names and just down-right vulgar 4-letter words. Bottom line, before God & anyone observing, I did nothing to create this treatment or abuse. Witnesses got the store manager and they asked that I file a report to be flagged by the store's security camera. I was offered, and accepted, an escort as I exited the store to return to my car.

How in the world are we to live in harmony in Heaven if we can't set aside our hostile issues on this earth? No one has the right to terrorize anyone!!!

Sorry to hear that, and your right, racism is alive in all races.

[lazarus]

Beliefs are not illegal. Belonging to the KKK is legal.

Actions are illegal and unless displaying a flag on your personal property is not allowed,no law has been broken.

I'm not really concerned about their beliefs but their actions. There is ample evidence of what kind of actions come from their beliefs. Hanging a noose is a symbol of that. Its not just people wearing a keffiyeh who are terrorists.

[phkrause]

Was thinking the same thing Lazarus

[bonnie]

Was thinking the same thing Lazarus

It isn't against the law to be a racist. Unless the KKK is involved in terrorizing someone which I have not heard of in recent years.At least as an action by the KKK org.

The Nazi party in the US is alive and well. Their history isn't exactly love and kindness to the Jews.

Would you have the same objection to the Nazi flag?

The guy sounds like a moron,but there isn't any law against being a moron. Had he taken that noose and hung it in the yard of a black family it would be different. Same with the KKK flag

[Bravus]

A social issue, socially dealt with. Not sure I see a problem.

[lazarus]

Unless the KKK is involved in terrorizing someone which I have not heard of in recent years.At least as an action by the KKK org.

Hanging a noose, burning crosses, bomb plots, and even a bizarre death ray plot are are not invitations to dinner. Burning a cross in a black neighborhood is said to be a warning sign of impending violence. It is designed to terrorize you.

Quote:

The Nazi party in the US is alive and well. Their history isn't exactly love and kindness to the Jews. Would you have the same objection to the Nazi flag?

The IDF recently removed a Nazi flag from a mosque in Jerusalem I would remove it too.

Quote:

The guy sounds like a moron,but there isn't any law against being a moron. Had he taken that noose and hung it in the yard of a black family it would be different. Same with the KKK flag

If my white KKK neighbor hangs a noose in his garden he is sending the same message as if he hung it in my garden. I'd prefer that he hang it in my garden!

[bonnie]

Hanging a noose, burning crosses, bomb plots, and even a bizarre death ray plot are are not invitations to dinner. Burning a cross in a black neighborhood is said to be a warning sign of impending violence. It is designed to terrorize you.

[lazarus]

I didn't catch the part about this being a black neighborhood.

The events listed are KKK activities that have happened in recent years. Designed to intimidate and terrorize the locals.

Quote:

What took place in Jerusalem has what to do with the Nazi party in the US? Nazi rallies are legal,if I like the Nazi flag I am allowed to do that. If one were placed in a SDA church,yes we would have the right to remove it.

The flag was placed by the people in the mosque as a message

Quote:

And if he claims otherwise?

He would be lying.

[bonnie]

The events listed are KKK activities that have happened in recent years. Designed to intimidate and terrorize the locals.

[lazarus]

.What this man did was in his yard and he was not personally threatening anyone.

Of course it is. The whole point of the KKK is to be threatening. Hanging a noose is a threat to every black person. He is saying I would like to hang you if I could. I want to exterminate blacks, jews, gays etc. It is that simple.

Quote:

And you would be the proof of that HOW?

Simple logic.

[CoAspen]

What we have here is the obvious lack of how communication is carried out. Laz is correct and anyone with an understanding of the KKK and a 'noose' knows exactly what message is being given to others, the same with the Nazi flag. They both carry a meaning and it has not changed. To say no one is being ' personally threatened' is extremely naive, at best, or in the least, not aware of history and the meanings of actions or words.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I'd rather have relatives who are Masons than someone who is a Klan member.

Interestingly, from the Kitsap [Washington] Sun newspaper in their centennial edition, Adventists are mentioned as well:

"Expanding on the anti-black racism of the old, southern Klan, the KKK of the 1920s fed on growing fear of immigrants, Catholics, Jews, socialists, Seventh-Day Adventists, bootleggers and parochial education."

source

[phkrause]

What we have here is the obvious lack of how communication is carried out. Laz is correct and anyone with an understanding of the KKK and a 'noose' knows exactly what message is being given to others, the same with the Nazi flag. They both carry a meaning and it has not changed. To say no one is being ' personally threatened' is extremely naive, at best, or in the least, not aware of history and the meanings of actions or words.

[phkrause]

I'd rather have relatives who are Masons than someone who is a Klan member.

Interestingly, from the Kitsap [Washington] Sun newspaper in their centennial edition, Adventists are mentioned as well:

"Expanding on the anti-black racism of the old, southern Klan, the KKK of the 1920s fed on growing fear of immigrants, Catholics, Jews, socialists, Seventh-Day Adventists, bootleggers and parochial education."

source