A Board of Fire Commissioners in Poughkeepsie, New York, has ordered one local fire district to remove American flags from the back of their trucks because they could be a “liability” and a “distraction to motorists.”
Because the bright red fire engine paint, emergency striping on the back, and the flashing lights – all designed to draw attention to the emergency vehicles – wouldn’t catch the eye of passing motorists. It’d be the American flag.
Via Fox News Insider:
A decision by the board of fire commissioners serving Poughkeepsie, New York sparked outrage when the panel ordered Arlington Fire District Chief Tony Gallante to remove the American flags from the rear of his trucks, the Poughkeepsie Journal first reported.
Arlington Fire Commissioners Chairman Jim Beretta said three of his members called the flags a “liability” and a “distraction to motorists.”
Two other members said the department could keep the flags posted as long as they didn’t interfere with operations.
But you have to dig a little deeper to find the true reason the flags had to be removed. It’s not really because the flag could be a distraction to motorists. It’s because the fire district didn’t ask big government for permission.
Arlington Fire Commissioner Chairman Jim Beretta said he saw one of the fire trucks responding to a call over the weekend and noticed “it had a physical flag mounted to the back of it.”
“None of the board was aware, or consulted that these flags were being affixed to the apparatus,” he told the Journal.
Beretta would later complain too that “the board had no prior knowledge” of the flags being mounted.
Despite their disappointment, the patriotic firemen removed the flags in the most incredible way possible. They gave a proper ceremony.
Union President Joseph Tarquinio said “if we had to take them down, they had to be taken down the right way. At the time when the country needs unity, to do something like this … it’s next to flag-burning in my mind.”
He added, “I think (for) a lot of people … (the issue) crosses political lines, moral lines, religious lines. It’s the flag of this country.”
Unfortunately these days, liberals have found a way to consider it a ‘distraction.’
Comment: What do you think of the decision to have the American Flag removed from these fire trucks? Tell us what you think below.
