May 25, 2009 8:24 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Tattered Flag "Liberated" in Cutler Bay
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CUTLER BAY (CBS4 I-TEAM) ―
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Residents of the Cutler Cay development said they agreed that the flag was a disgrace.
Jaime Reyes
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Outside the Cutler Cay housing development, a flag flew tattered and torn at the gated community's main entrance.
Jaime Reyes
Memorial Day is the perfect time to fly that most revered symbol of our country – the American Flag. It stands as a remembrance of those who paid the ultimate price for the ideals embedded in its stars and stripes.
But all too often those ideals and that sacrifice are taken for granted, as is the flag itself. Outside the Cutler Cay housing development on Old Cutler Road in South Dade, a flag flew tattered and torn at the gated community's main entrance.
To Jaime Reyes, who lives nearby, the severely damaged flag is a sign of disrespect made all the worse that it continued on Memorial Day weekend.
"Flying this type of flag up here is really an injustice to all those that have died in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Reyes, looking up at the flag. "It's just wrong."
Reyes contacted the
CBS4 I-Team after complaining about the flag for weeks.
"I tried to find a contact for the homeowners association, but wasn't able to," he lamented. "The story is the fact that a lot of communities and a lot of citizens are ignorant for what the U.S. flag stands for and how it should be flown properly."
In addition to criticizing the decision to fly a flag that has been ripped to shreds, Reyes also notes that on Memorial Day flags are supposed to be flown at half staff. The Cutler Cay flag was raised all the way to the top.
Residents of the Cutler Cay development said they agreed that the flag was a disgrace and blamed the homeowners association for failing to take care of it.
While Reyes and others may have been unsuccessful bringing about change,
CBS4 News' presence Monday afternoon certainly snapped folks into action. As we were preparing this report, the vice mayor of Cutler Bay, Edward MacDougall, arrived and declared that he was commandeering the flag as a government official.
"I'm a Vietnam veteran myself and it is a disgrace having it up on Memorial Day," MacDougall said. "Some people may consider this thievery, but this is liberation of the flag. I just came from my office and I saw an email about this flag and it is not properly displayed. There is a law against this and we could leave it up to or we can do it ourselves."
The scene turned chaotic as the vice mayor was joined by a second man who showed up from inside the gated community. The man, who arrived in a Jaguar, refused to identify himself but initially acknowledged he was a member of the homeowner's association.
The man seemed annoyed to see a television camera photographing the torn flag and began taking it down.
The vice mayor didn't realize that the other gentleman was from the homeowners association. We attempted to interview the man in the Jaguar, but he grabbed the flag, tossed it in the back seat of his car, and drove off.
Reyes said he was glad the flag was removed.
"If you are going to fly the U.S. flag, and I'm all for it, then at least read the rules and regulation for flying that flag," he said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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