Mayor orders police to remove man who wouldn't stand for Pledge of Allegiance

[Baitball Blogger]

Winter Garden Mayor John Rees ordered a man to leave the city commission meeting Thursday night because he refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

"I just said, 'Either stand or go in the hallway.' He wouldn't," said Rees, 65, who was elected to a third, three-year term in March. "It wasn't premediated. I just reacted. It hit me. I said it. I gave him an option...Life will go on."

Rees said he considered the man's refusal to stand for the invocation – a ceremonial prayer that opens the city's public meetings – and the Pledge of Allegiance to be disrespectful. "I did not make him stand for the prayer," Rees said. "But the Pledge? Even school kids stand. So I told him, 'You have two choices: You can stand or go outside.' "

Police Chief George A. Brennan then approached the man and asked, "What are you going to do?"

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-mayor-tosses-man-for-not-standing-for-pledge-of-20140829,0,80941.story

[annabanana]

1. tin pot dictator

Unfit for office.

[pinboy3niner]

2. +1

[OriginalGeek]

5. +2

Unworthy of his position.

[DFW]

3. i sing of Olaf............ n/t

[hobbit709]

4. My attorney would be giving that ass a call.

[hunter]

6. I didn't stand as a school kid.

We were Jehovah's Witnesses, then Quaker.

(My mom couldn't stay out of politics, which got her in trouble with the Witnesses, which is how we ended up Quaker...)

But even if this guy simply didn't feel like standing up the mayor and the police chief were fascist assholes.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. Sue the bastards!

[whistler162]

8. Sounds like he finally got the response

he was after.

"Though Rees said he did not know Richardson by name, he recognized him from previous meetings as the man who sits in the front row and then leaves after the invocation and pledge. "He doesn't come to the meetings because he cares about the city," Rees said."

[steve2470]

9. sigh, our idiot public officials around here nt

[whistler162]

10. Read the story. More like the man

who sued a family because their dog bit him. When asked what provoked the incident he said, "I don't know why the dog bit me. I always walk the same way and I've been poking the dog with my walking stick for months and the dog never so much as snapped at me. So I've no idea why the dog up and bit me this time."

The idiot resident was playing a game and finally got the desired response.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. You are way off on this one.

This is a First Amendment issue. He has every right to sit through the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, and then leave. He is obviously following a cause within the parameters of the law.