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.
8 thoughts on “Charge dropped against Iowa man who flew American flag upside down, under Chinese flag”
The Iowa law that the guy was arrested for violating was found unconstitutional years ago.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/judge-finds-flag-desecration-statutes-unenforceable/article_b9bccaac-7ee1-584f-9227-150d3138c142.html
Doesn’t Calhoun County law enforcement have to take yearly professional courses to retain their certification? Seems like a yearly refresher course entitled “Iowa Laws Recently Declared Unconstitutional” would be useful.
Guess the bar’s been set pretty low out there.
The bar was set pretty low when they let you on here.
Perhaps your employer thinks you too could benefit from some yearly classroom work as to what is legal or not. Or not.
USA – give that crack pipe a rest.
The American flag should also always be to the left of the majority viewer…maybe change your picture?
deric – your a scum bag for bad mouthing our veterans who preserved this nation. You should be deported or dissappeared.
A little twist of the news — This was all about a private company laying a gas pipeline thru his property and the state trying to give eminent domain law to do so. This pipeline would have destroyed his source of water supply – thereby making his property worthless for a family dwelling – 12 other property owners have filed suit in this case also – he flew the flag as a protest to government raping his private property -flag story was just to spin the corrupt nature of big business paying off corrupt politicans.
Flying the flag upside down is a signal for being in danger or rescue. Nothing desecrating about that. Likely a bunch of old men with a WWII mentality who don’t know jack about jack.