{"id":158001,"date":"2024-06-21T09:05:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T13:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=158001"},"modified":"2024-06-21T08:14:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T12:14:48","slug":"illinois-law-maker-wants-to-criminalize-flying-the-american-flag-upside-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=158001","title":{"rendered":"Illinois law maker wants to criminalize flying the American flag upside down"},"content":{"rendered":"

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State Representative Harry Benton introduced legislation that would penalize flying the U.S. flag upside down on government property. A township supervisor ordered the U.S. flag to be flown upside down after Donald Trump’s conviction in New York. However, David Friess, a state representative who is also a veteran of the Air Force, feels that people should be able to fly the flag upside down if they feel that the country is in distress.<\/p>\n

From the Washington Examiner:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“The public official who made this sad choice — to disrespect our nation’s flag and everything it stands for — may be disappointed in the outcome of a certain criminal trial, but that is no excuse,” said Benton. “That he then attempted to deflect rising outrage by draping himself in the very same flag he’d just finished spitting on makes his actions all the more pathetic.”<\/p>\n

State Rep. David Friess, an air force veteran, said he believes if an individual feels the country is in a time of distress, he or she should be able to fly the flag upside down.<\/p>\n

“Even as a veteran, I don’t lose my cool … I understand that one of the greatest freedoms we have is free speech and I may not agree with an individual if he or she flies the flag upside down, but I absolutely respect your right to do that,” said Friess.<\/p>\n

Benton’s House Bill 5860 would make it a crime for a government official to knowingly cause the national flag to be displayed upside down on government property.<\/p>\n

Friess said he doesn’t think the bill will go anywhere, but he hopes Benton will couple the legislation with a measure prohibiting the burning of flags at Black Lives Matter or Pro-Palestine protests.<\/p>\n

“I would love to see him put out a bill that you can’t burn a flag during a Pro-Hamas rally, a Pro-Palestinian rally or BLM rally,” said Firess.<\/p>\n

Benton said in a news release, “that despite our differences, we’re all Americans.”<\/p>\n

Benton also filed House Bill 5861, which goes beyond making it a crime to fly an upside down flag but also makes it punishable by a fine of up to $25,000.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additional Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Petersen, C. (2024, June 20). Illinois lawmaker seeks to criminalize flying American flag upside down. Washington Examiner<\/em>. Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Representative Harry Benton introduced legislation that would penalize flying the U.S. flag upside down on … Illinois law maker wants to criminalize flying the American flag upside down<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,13,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberals-suck","category-society","category-veterans-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}