Profane anti-Biden flag creates storm in Michigan

A profane anti-President Biden flag is creating a storm in Michigan. 

The flag, which looks a bit like a Trump campaign flag, has been displayed on a Jackson, Mich., home, sparking complaints from neighbors and at least one call to police, NBC affiliate WILX reported on Monday.

The flag says, “F— Biden” and, in smaller text below, “And f— you for voting for him!”

Resident Steven Gilbert, who identifies as a Republican, told WILX that he called the Jackson Police Department about the flag, calling it “just so offensive.”

“It’s the word itself,” he said. “It’s not the statement that it’s making. It’s that word.”

Jackson is a city of about 35,000 that sits in the center of Michigan, to the west of Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Gilbert told WILX that police said they could not require the homeowner to take the flag down. 

But a city spokesperson told the outlet that there is an ordinance that bans signs that have statements, words or pictures that are considered obscene. The Jackson Police Department is reportedly discussing the matter with the city attorney. 

The Hill has reached out to the city and police department for comment.

A profane anti-Biden flag on a home in Michigan is raising eyebrows and questions about the First Amendment.
https://t.co/FoNotLfjNq

— WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) March 9, 2021

The same flag has drawn controversy across the country since Biden won the presidential election, including in Plymouth, Conn., the Hartford Courant reported. 

Plymouth Police Capt. Edward Benecchi told the newspaper that residents had complained about the flag but that the state attorney’s office in New Britain found “we are unable to intercede as it would violate (the residents’) First Amendment right to free speech.”

“However crass a property owner’s ability to criticize the president is protected by the First Amendment,” Dan Barrett, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, told the Courant.