A Virginia man upset his neighbors by protesting the president’s speech on immigration reform by flying a Nazi flag outside his home.
“I’m so proud of my 13-year-old son,” said Sherene Silverberg, who is Jewish. “The minute he saw the flag, he went marching up those stairs banged on the door, didn’t even bother with the doorbell and confronted the man.”
The homeowner told WVEC-TV that the flag was set up to protest President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration reform.
He declined to speak on camera without a written agreement to view the report before it aired, but the station said it does not accommodate such requests.
Another neighbor, Beth Brooker, recorded a conversation she had with a woman who helped the Ghent man remove the Nazi flag.
“You have every right to fly that flag, you do,” said Brooker in the video posted to Facebook. “But I also think you need to understand how offensive it is.”
The woman insisted the flag was simply a political expression.
“It’s offensive when one person tried to change the rule of law on his own and that’s what this states,” the woman said.
The man spoke off-camera to WTKR-TV, saying he intended to shock and offend his neighbors with the Nazi flag the same way he is offended by bumper stickers supporting the president or his policies.
“I am not a Nazi, I am half-Jewish,” said Dr. William Wheeler. “I hung the flag after watching President Obama (Thursday) night. Obama usurped his oath of office. I wanted people to be shocked, because I am offended.”
Brooker, who said Wheeler and the woman hurled insults at her when she confronted them over the flag, said her neighbors just don’t get it.
“It’s amazing how somebody can have so much hate in them and feel it’s okay to express themselves,” Brooker said. “Granted, there’s freedom of speech. He can do and say whatever he wants to, but I think you need to have some respect for people in this country — and that flag represents nothing but hate.”
December 8, 2014 4:36 AM
