Elected officials in New York have demanded that police and other authorities stop the desecration of the American flag that is the signature of the Disarm the NYPD gun control group.
The calls came after Disarm held a rally at which it burned both an American and a Confederate flag.
"The city of New York had an opportunity to stop this because Disarm the NYPD didn’t have a permit," Republican State Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, told Newsmax Sunday evening.
"Their burning of the flag posed a risk of fires, and this was a violation of our parks regulations."
Under Parks Department Rule 105, Section M: "No person shall kindle, build, maintain or use a fire in any place, portable receptacle or grill except in places provided by the Department and so designated by sign or special permit."
A spokesman for the mayor’s office did call the flag-burning "divisive," but Malliotakis said "it would have been nice to hear from Mayor [Bill] de Blasio himself."
Disarm the NYPD's mission is to have the New York Police Department denied guns of any kind. Charging that "racism and violence have been mainstays of the police since their inception," Disarm’s website points to recent "abhorrent" behavior of police — including "the callous murders of unarmed black people" in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere.
With its eventual goal to "make the police obsolete," Disarm vows to "disarm the police of their guns and we will disarm them as a viable political/military entity in the neighborhoods they occupy."
As to precisely how it will achieve that goal, its website does not say.
Regarding its flag-burning rally in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn on Wednesday, a Disarm spokesman told Newsmax that "it was the police themselves who demonstrated the correspondence between the Stars and Stripes and the rebel flag of Dixie by openly aiding and abetting armed and violent racists as they attempted to attack our rally."
The spokesman was referring to counter-demonstrators, some wearing red, white, and blue clothing, who tried to stop the burning, which was accomplished with small flags in a grill.
Assemblywoman Malliotakis saw it differently.
"The counter-demonstrators were primarily veterans who had defended the Stars and Stripes and were not going to let it be burned," she said. "And it’s ironic that the police that Disarm so dislikes came to their rescue."
According to several accounts, there were no arrests by police in Fort Greene Park. A possible riot was averted, the Fort Greene Focus reported, when "retired U.S. Army veteran Mark Brummitt, dressed in camouflage fatigues and leading his canine Kita by a leash, managed to break through the raucous circle and stand between the [protesters and counter-protesters]. The duo had a calming presence, at least for a short while."
New York State used to have a law making burning the American flag illegal. But in 1969, the law was struck down as a violation of free speech by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Days before the flag-burning, state Sen. Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, called on city officials to halt Disarm’s protest out of respect for Fort Greene Park, which is home to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, housing the remains of the 11,500 men and women who died in ships held captive by the British during the Revolutionary War.
"As we approach the Fourth of July, the greatest city in the world cannot stand by and allow our flag to be burned in an historic park in violation of our Parks Department rules," Golden told reporters. "I call upon Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, and Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver to immediately notify the organizers of Disarm the NYPD that their event will not go on as planned tomorrow night.
"If the city allows the American flag to be burned in Fort Greene Park, contrary to Parks rules, it will truly insult all those who have fought to defend our freedoms, our rights and our liberties."
The Parks Department did not take up Golden’s call. But it is clear from his words and those of Assemblywoman Malliotakis that this is just the beginning of the movement to "Stop the flag burning."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.
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