Torn and Worn American Flags Fly in Disgrace at Brentwood VA

Robert Rosebrock

RETRACTION & CORRECTION:  Due to a misunderstanding, “Torn and Worn American Flags Fly in Disgrace at Brentwood VA” – published April 23, 2010 by Terry Richards, was in error as to the time-line of when these Flags were flown torn and worn. It was actually in August of 2009 when Senator Ted Kennedy died that the photographs were taken. I apologize for the time-line error but the facts still remain the same in that these Flags were flown torn and worn and were shown in a story by Robert Rosebrock on August 28, 2009. Click on links below to view.
VA’s Disgraceful Flag Salute to Senator Kennedy – published August 28, 2009 by Robert Rosebrock.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2009/08/28/va-s-disgraceful-flag-salute-to-senator-kennedy/#respond

While Veteran Robert Rosebrock, the Plaintiff in a well-publicized Lawsuit against certain employees of the Los Angeles VA Healthcare System filed on his behalf by the ACLU awaits a Judge’s decision as to whether these employees violated his first amendment rights of free speech to express his viewpoints when they ordered him to remove an American Flag he and other demonstrators had displayed union side down on a fence just outside the Brentwood VA Medical Center.

Rosebrock, among other things, stated in his Lawsuit that the reasons he was hanging the American Flag union side down was to indicate that the land at this location was “in distress” because it was being used for purposes other than providing medical care and housing for disabled and homeless Veterans which was the specific and exclusive purpose for which this land had been deeded for by its Granters in 1888.

The Government in their answer and defenses to that Lawsuit stated among other things, that Rosebrock was in violation of U.S. Flag Code and that the union side down American Flag on the VA’s fence offended and upset the very sickest of the patient population, especially those Veterans with mental health problems, and that it also compromised and undermined the VA’s ability to provide healthcare services to Veterans.

This same VA now disrespectfully and disgracefully flies at least two torn and worn flag-pole hoisted American Flags in violation of U.S. Flag Code and which has nothing to do with the VA expressing any free speech viewpoints.

So other then apathy and dereliction of duty they have no excuses for allowing these Flags to be flown in this poor condition.

Moreover, since these torn flags are inside the VA just adjacent to the Health Administration Building, this disrespectful display of Our Flag could offend and upset the very sickest of the patient population, especially those Veterans with mental health problems, and also compromise and undermine the VA’s ability to provide healthcare services to Veterans, as they said Rosebrock, et al did when they displayed the American Flag union side down.

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=28290