Berkeley firefighters told to remove Stars and Stripes from rigs
By The Associated Press
09.21.01
BERKELEY, Calif. — Old Glory sailed into new controversy when firefighters were ordered not to fly large U.S. flags from their trucks.
Fire officials gave the order out of concerns the rigs could become targets in a city that is home to a vocal anti-war contingent.
"We're just removing the temptation from the situation," said Assistant Fire Chief David Orth.
The decision came a day before 2,000 people marched in an anti-war rally yesterday at the University of California, just one of several similar events planned for upcoming days. Orth said officials would reconsider the embargo if the anti-war effort doesn't take a violent turn, as it sometimes has in the past.
Mayor Shirley Dean had another idea: Rescind the ban immediately.
"I will not have, I do not want to have, a city where we are trashing property for the thrill of it or to make a point. It is not right," said Dean, who doesn't have the authority to lift the ban herself but is urging the city manager to do so.
Orth said the concern was that if a riot developed, "and we go wading in there to suppress a fire or rescue somebody, that somebody is going to try to get to that flag either to wave it or to damage it, and either way it's going to cause the firefighters to take action to defend it instead of fighting the fire or rescuing somebody."
He said the ban was only for big flags, say four feet by six feet. Smaller flags might be OK if they could be mounted in areas the public couldn't easily reach. But firefighters are having a hard time finding smaller flags because of the national run on supplies.
The debate is nothing new for Berkeley, home of the 1964 Free Speech Movement that presaged the decade of often-violent anti-war protests that racked U.S. campuses during the Vietnam War.
Dean said free-speech protections extend to flag-wavers, too.
"Nothing wrong with a protest. Nothing wrong with a march. Nothing wrong with candlelight vigils for whatever it is, but we are not going to attack each other, the flag or property," she said.
Dean said the decision was particularly unfortunate considering that so many firefighters were killed trying to rescue victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers.
"The flag means at this point something more to the firefighters than simply a love of country," she said.
Orth said officials didn't make the decision lightly.
"We have a lot of experience about this. We've been in a lot of riots. To put it simply, we've had rigs burned; we've been attacked. We know how dangerous it is," he said.
But, he said, he wouldn't live anywhere else.
"This is a wonderful community. It does take a different attitude. The issue of going to war or peace ... people deserve to be heard," Orth said.