A woman in St. John’s County, Florida put up a blue United States flag in support of law enforcement, but a neighbor says it’s actually racist.
Jeff Gaddie says his daughter flew a Blue Lives Matter banner outside her home for years. It’s more than an abstract sentiment. Gaddie says he and numerous family members serve in law enforcement.
“If you drive by and see that flag, it kind of makes you feel a little bit better, that there’s a family that supports what I’m doing,” he told Fox 30 in their Friday report. But he claimed his daughter got a letter from the local homeowners association saying they got a complaint: the flag, a neighbor said, was racist, offensive, and opposed to Black Lives Matter.
The group who enforced the rules, First Coast Association Management, told her to formally request permission to fly her blue flag, Gaddie said. She got denied. The outlet reached out to the group, which said only U.S. and military-themed flags are allowed, though the outlet claimed the neighborhood featured other types of banners.
The family plans an appeal at a homeowners association meeting in April.
Gaddie insists the flag isn’t meant to be racist in any way.
“We’ve got black officers, we’ve got Asian officers, we’re got every race,” he said. “I mean for them to say it’s racist, blue is not a race, it’s the furthest thing from it.”
[Screengrab via Fox 30]
