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Look at this moron in the video and all of his fake outrage. The flag has been up for over a year and now all of a sudden he wants to go ballistic over it and make a huge scene in the street. His excuse is that he kids have to see it. Dude, how about the fact that your kids have to see you acting like an uncontrolled fool in public?
I can guarantee you that he has no clue what the flag stood for and just equates it to "racism".
Latest from NYC: the offending flag has been taken down.
Landlord put up tarps covering much of the windows which one supposes prompted tenant in question to back down. That and or something else went on behind the scenes.
This is a very complex issue because it not only involves freedom of speech, but the safety of not only other tenants of that building, but the entire structure as well.
New York City atm is rather "hot" over certain issues. One man already was taken into custody by NYPD for throwing rocks at this window/flag. It is not a far leap from rocks to something more sinister. City is not going to deploy 24/7 NYPD protection for a private building forever without good reasons.
OTOH both NYC residents (including local to this street) and elected officials stressed that they had to thread carefully on this issue. The man *does* have freedom of speech rights. Anyone interfering with same, especially if an official of local government opens up the possibility of a lawsuit. That is something no one wanted.
In the end it came down to the property owner who has more direct control over his tenant than anyone else.
There is also the very real fact this man is not going anywhere for the foreseen duration. Do you really want to live in the same building or street where he knows you were the one giving him "problems" over the flag?
I don't know the history as well. Why not just ignore the guy, his flags and move on if it is legally ok. Just ignore the haters and racists as Gandhi suggested. Most of America is pretty good irrespective of their color and race.
Neighbors are stupid asses. If the apartment management/owners don't care, or if the covenants don't ban it, then leave him alone to his self-expression. At least they know they have a possible Nazi supporter (and a confederate flag doesn't necessarily mean that).
If the tenant's purpose IS to antagonize and incite attention, then his neighbors all fell for it. They may be the ones that get evicted.
If he is renting, his landlord can make him take them down. Free speech doesn't extend to private property owned by someone else.
Sorry but no; one does not surrender constitutional guaranteed rights merely by agreeing to a lease.
Unless spelled out otherwise in a lease, tenants can do whatever they want with windows of their apartments. What can and would come into play (and likely was the issue for this hot mess here in NYC), is the reaction to whatever is in window and affect on safety and or health of other residents/the building.
You notice every single local NYC news report covering this story says "tenant was *asked* by building management and NYPD to take down the flags....". If the landlord had an absolute right to have flags removed, that would have been the end of things, no "asking" involved. NYPD refused to do same becaue it was a "free speech" issue.
What a LL can do and could have done in this situation is issue a formal warning to tenant that his flags had to go and why. If tenant still failed to comply then legal action would commence (housing court) and a judge would decide if the flags could have remained or had to go.
This guy had German military flags (Iron Cross) on his windows for five or so years before the confederate. And that latter flag was up for awhile IIRC before people began the recent stink making.
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