Some Florida parents hope their neighbors will wave the white flag and take down their profanity-laced flags criticizing President Joe Biden.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump in Cape Coral, Florida, have been flying flags reading, “F— Biden, and F— you for voting for him,” which has become a point of concern for some parents who say their young children have read the explicit message.
“I talked to a lady, [and she] said, ‘Well, it doesn’t really offend me. It’s just the fact that I have small kids and they read it,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, sorry,'” Tony Paparone, who flies a flag bearing the message, told KDFW.
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Paparone and John Strasburger, who flies the same flag on his Cape Coral property, invoked their First Amendment rights, saying their flags are protected speech.
“Freedom of speech,” Paparone said. “You’re not going to rewrite the Constitution.”
A representative for the city agreed, saying Cape Coral does not regulate the messages written on flags.
“The City’s sign ordinance only addresses the number and size of signs. It does not regulate the content of flags or signs,” Maureen Buice, a senior public information specialist employed by the city, told the Washington Examiner in an email.
At least one of the owners of the flags said he has no intention of taking the flag down.
“If there was an ordinance, I would take it down tomorrow, but there’s not, so it’s going to remain up,” Strasburger said.
Other controversies involving politically charged flags have snagged headlines across the country in recent weeks.
For instance, Michael Challans of Montana pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation for an altercation with a neighbor over an anti-Trump flag that read, “Trump Lost: LOL.” Challans was ordered to pay a fine of $100, in addition to court costs totaling $85 before he was mandated to head to a police station for fingerprinting and a mug shot, and he apologized to the neighbor during sentencing.
And in Ohio, one resident’s flag voicing support for the former president was set on fire earlier this month.
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Representatives for John Gunter, mayor of Cape Coral, did not immediately reply to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
