While there are periodic news reports about homeowners’ associations asking residents to take down U.S. flags for various reasons, now there is a Florida case of a HOA telling a retired New York Police Department officer to remove his commemorative 9/11 flag or face fines and legal action, notes Grumpy Editor.
Richard Wentz, who helped victims out of New York’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, told WPLG, channel 10 in Miami, that the flag he flies lists the names of everyone who died on that day and he is not budging because “that flag means the world to me.”
While getting coverage in Florida and in faraway London’s Daily Mail (with two photos), most national U.S. media have been silent on the skirmish.
Wentz also flies the American flag.
A letter he received from the Fairways at Heron Bay Association said the commemorative flag detracts from the aesthetic harmony of surrounding properties.
Neighbors at the luxury town home and villa community, siding with Wentz who said he lost 43 friends and colleagues on 9/11, have complained.
But Bill Sugarman, president of Benchmark Property Management which represents the association, pointed to rules that said there can be only one flag per home.
"The only flag that is allowed is an American flag,” he added. “The problem is he is flying two flags, and until someone changes that there is a problem."
