CALHOUN COUNTY, IOWA – An Iowa man was put in a jail cell for flying the American flag upside down, beneath the Chinese flag, in a protest – but the charge against him was dropped.
Homer Martz, age 63, was arrested in Calhoun county, Iowa on Friday, August 12 and charged with desecration of the American flag, a simple misdemeanor.
According to the Fort Dodge Messenger, Martz was protesting an oil pipeline being built next to his water well and decided to fly the American flag upside down, beneath the Chinese flag. He was then arrested and taken to jail.
Martz, reportedly an army veteran, told the Messenger he didn’t know about a law that forbade his treatment of the flag, saying “If they had asked me to take them down, and showed me the statute, I would have taken them down … but in my book, they trespassed by taking the flags down. In China there is no freedom, no protesting, no due process. In Iowa? In America?”
On August 15, court records show, the charge against him was dropped.
