The following letter was published in this week’s issue of the Gazette.
To the editor:
Mr. Hasko’s letter (The Gazette, week of July 22/28) is funny, but he raises some serious questions. As a proud son of the Emerald Isle, he will be happy to know that the Croton Village Code 230-4 allows him to fly the Irish flag not only on St. Patrick’s Day but every day of the year. There is a Canadian flag on Old Post North which flies year-round, and Ireland would be a welcome addition.
Croton law explicitly excludes “The flag or insignia of any government or governmental agency” from the definition of “sign” and therefore it is excluded from the requirements of the village sign law.
This suggests a possible solution for those residents who want to show support for Black Lives Matter. A BLM flag can only be flown in Croton from a “flagpole or mast” and even that limited display assumes that the village government regards BLM as an “organization.”
A lawfully permitted BLM alternative in Croton would be to fly the flag of Wakanda, which would be exempt from the village sign code.
The village code does say “any government.” Wakanda is recognized by the US Dept of Agriculture (google “Wakanda USDA”). NYC public school teachers in the Bronx have sworn fealty to Wakanda, albeit under duress (google “Wakanda Rasheda Amon”). Of course displaying the flag of Wakanda communicates a very different message than displaying a BLM flag, which raises some interesting issues which I shall get to in a moment.
“If you put up a Red Sox flag, that conveys a different message than putting up a “Yankees Suck” flag. Because our village code makes such a distinction based on the content of a communication, the Board of Trustees must show a compelling government interest as to why Croton residents are legally prohibited from saying that the Yankees suck. Recent weeks have made abundantly clear the attitude of Croton’s ruling class toward flags showing support for police and firefighters, but it is shocking that our village code preferences the flag of a terrorist group over a flag supporting our volunteer firefighters.”
Wakanda is a fictional nation. Taiwan is a real place, but if someone put up a Taiwanese flag (whether on a flagpole or otherwise) it would require the village code enforcement to wade into a diplomatic and legal minefield. So unless we want to get targeted by DF-21s, I suggest a tacit agreement for all of us to refrain from flying Taiwan’s flag.
Olympic flags have an unclear status in Croton. Although many nations regard their national Olympic committee as a government body, that is not true in the US. So you are fine using a flagpole, but whether you can lawfully hang an Olympic flag from your porch without a permit depends on a Talmudic parsing of the Croton Village Code. I tried to grapple with the Olympic flag question, but after a brief struggle I followed the example of Simone Biles and gave up.
NY Yankees flags are fine so long as you have them on flagpoles. But it is against the law in Croton to put up a “Yankees Suck” flag without a permit; the best you can do is put up a Mets or Red Sox flag.
On a serious note, this illustrates a key problem with the village code. If you put up a Red Sox flag, that conveys a different message than putting up a “Yankees Suck” flag. Because our village code makes such a distinction based on the content of a communication, the Board of Trustees must show a compelling government interest as to why Croton residents are legally prohibited from saying that the Yankees suck.
An up and comer is the Taliban flag. Since it is an “organization” you can currently fly the flag in Croton only on a flagpole or mast. Taliban forces now control about three quarters of the land area in Afghanistan and almost half the population. Given current trends, it appears likely that at some point in the coming year the Taliban flag will be removed from coverage of the Croton sign law and can be hung anywhere on your property. In the meantime, residents with Taliban flags should seek appropriate guidance from Village Manager Healy or Village Engineer O’Connor before displaying the flag from anything other than a flagpole or mast.
“Back the Blue” and “Thin Red Line” flags in support of Croton’s police and firefighters may not be lawfully displayed in Croton under any circumstances without paying a fee and having your application approved by the Village Engineer and the Planning Board, as per 230-44(C)(1) or 230-44(K)(1).
Given the hostility of Croton’s political leadership (and some school board members) toward those type of flags, permit approval by the Planning Board (all nominated by the Mayor) is not assured. You cannot lawfully display those flags on your property in Croton even if you have a flagpole, since they are not exempt under 230-4. And as we all know, showing support for first responders on a vehicle is likely to draw the ire of our Mayor and at least one influential member of the school board.
So unless you want to risk a trip to Croton’s Village Justice Court, keep your support for police and firefighters to yourself. Support for terrorists is permitted under Croton’s village code, provided you support the correct terrorist group.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is designated as a terrorist organization by the US Government. In Croton, you may display your IRGC flag wherever you wish. The IRGC is indisputably a government agency: after the US Navy surrendered to Iran off the coast of Farsi Island in 2016, one of the US vessels had the American flag taken down and it was taken into port flying the IRGC standard. IRGC flags are difficult to get and a bit expensive. Displaying that flag might get you a visit from the FBI, but Croton code enforcement will not ticket you.
Recent weeks have made abundantly clear the attitude of Croton’s ruling class toward flags showing support for police and firefighters, but it is shocking that our village code preferences the flag of a terrorist group over a flag supporting our volunteer firefighters.
Mr. Hasko notes the changing view as to what the American flag represents. He is correct, but I would add that the national standard has been a subject of steady debate since even before the Vietnam era.
A flag is an inanimate object. The power of a flag is in the communicative value, and that is very much context-dependent: an American flag draped over a coffin at Dover Air Force base represents something very different than an American flag placed on the pavement and stomped on during the 2020 Fourth of July protest outside the White House.
Properly used, a flag can convey “speech” in a way that verbal communication cannot.
A recent example of that was seen on Cleveland Drive. The resident had an American flag on a flagpole at the end of the porch deck, with the subcompact car parked below—a Norman Rockwell image. But then in the center of the image, there was a sharp accent: On the front fence of the deck perpendicular to the American flag, there was a “Black Lives Matter”.
The effect was surprisingly powerful, and attracted conversation in the village.
The power lay in the juxtaposition of two simple pieces of cloth, placed in the context of classic Americana. It was a rebuke of the racism in our nation’s past, and at the same time called upon the viewer to fulfill the promise of America. It was the best political commentary I have seen in Croton.
The display of flags on the resident’s property was illegal, but if the resident had reversed the placement of the BLM and American flags, that would have been lawful under the village code. It would also have been a very different message. If the resident had put up lawn signs instead of the porch fence flag, it would have been not only a different message but a muddled message open to different interpretations.
The resident was making a clear and unequivocal statement. Somewhere above I think that Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. were smiling in approval. You might not agree with the message, but it was squarely within the protections of the First Amendment. Beyond a simple political statement, it was artistic and thought-provoking: the very manner of display was essential to the communicative nature of the expression.
In Croton, the legality of displaying any particular flag depends on whether politicians approve of the message. Think about that for a moment, and think about what we will lose if we allow the Board of Trustees to continue suppressing free speech.
Paul Steinberg