Las Vegas Humer Dealership Ordered Take Down 30x60 Foot American Flag

[las47032]

Call it a show of patriotic pride. Or call it a crass red-white-and-blue marketing ploy.

Either way, the city of Las Vegas has ordered a Hummer dealership to take down an American flag that flies 100 feet above the business.

Dan Towbin, owner of Towbin Hummer, said he was in disbelief at the City Council's decision this week to require the business to take down the 30-by-60-foot Stars and Stripes that has flown since May 2006 in front of the dealership.

"It's ridiculous in today's day and age to suggest removing an American flag," he said.

Towbin must remove the flag within 60 days, though he said he was contemplating a lawsuit to challenge the council's unanimous action.

When Towbin originally got approval for his flag in May 2006, he agreed to a six-month review, contingent on complaints from neighbors of the dealership on Sahara Avenue near Lindell Road.

At Wednesday's City Council meeting, some residents showed up to complain about the noise from the flapping flag when the wind blows and the aesthetic effect of the looming flag pole.

At the meeting last year, Towbin employee Carl Marcello told the City Council that the dealership planned to build a memorial for military veterans at the base of the flag pole.

On Wednesday, council members and others questioned why Towbin had not built the memorial.

Steve Sanson, president of the locally based Veterans in Politics International, said he didn't believe the flag was about love of country but was instead intended to make the Hummer dealership a landmark.

"What disturbs us is the exploitation of veterans," said Sanson, a Marine in Desert Storm. The flag "is being used for selfish financial gain."

Wayne Earl, 80, who lives near the dealership, said he wasn't bothered by the noise like some of his neighbors but wanted it removed anyway.

"I like to see the flag flown. I don't like to see the flag used as a commercial draw," said the World War II veteran. "It should be flown reverently, not auspiciously."

Towbin insisted the flag is only about his patriotism.

"Whether my heart is in the right place, only I would know that," he said. "How would anyone else know that?"

He pointed to his involvement at Nellis Air Force Base where, he said, he is an honorary commander.

Towbin said the veterans memorial hasn't been built because he was waiting for the City Council's final approval of the flag.

A video of last May's City Council meeting shows Marcello, with Towbin standing next to him, telling the council that he understands they can review and order the flag pole removed after six months. Marcello then said the flag would be dedicated with a plaque and representatives from Nellis Air Force Base to coincide with the city's centennial celebration, which ended later that month.

The six-month review slipped through the cracks at City Hall, and it wasn't until recently that residents approached Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian to ask her about it.

Those for and against the flag's location lobbed accusations of un-Americanism at their opponents on Wednesday.

Towbin read a letter written by Joseph Esposito, president of Liberty Lock & Safe, next to the dealership.

The flag "fills my entire team of 55 employees with pride," Esposito wrote. "Any individual or group that would refer to this symbol of America as a nuisance, eyesore, or noisemaker should be looked at by the Department of Homeland Security to see where their sympathies lie."

Esposito, reached at his store Thursday, said he was "outraged" by the council's vote.

But Tarkanian, after extolling her love of the flag, told Towbin, "You're not doing this for the right reason."

Last May, Tarkanian had made a motion to allow Towbin to erect a 75-foot flag pole. But Towbin had said he had already bought the 100-foot pole and the flag. Tarkanian's motion failed 6 to 1.

Mayor Oscar Goodman then made the motion to allow Towbin to build the 100-foot-tall flag pole, with a six-month review.

"I would say publicly, whatever this body decides to do, I will live by it," Towbin said.

On Thursday, Goodman said he voted to take down the flag because the veterans memorial was not built.

Goodman said Towbin can reapply for a new flag pole.

The mayor also parried any accusations that the council's decision is unpatriotic by pointing to an ordinance passed under his watch that bans homeowner's associations from prohibiting the flying of American flags.

But Alan Lichtenstein, general council for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said flags can't get any special treatment under the law.

"There can be reasonable time, place and manner restrictions," he said. "But there can't be special rules based on content."

Lichtenstein noted, however, that the city gives variances all the time, often inconsistently.

David Chesnoff, Towbin's attorney, said any potential lawsuit would argue that "the decision was arbitrary and capricious, and also because of the First Amendment implications, that you can't fly a flag you've been flying for a year."

This isn't the first run-in Towbin has had with the city over flags.
Just before Memorial Day in 2004, Las Vegas code enforcement ordered small flags flying from vehicles at the Prestige Infiniti dealership removed because they were "attention gaining devices."

Towbin said he continued to fly the flags on the cars, and the city backed off after the story got national attention.

Source: ReviewJournal.com - News - Council backs neighbors in flap, orders flag down

May 2006 Towbin gets the ok to fly the flag after he agreed to a six-month followup. It's a year later give or take a few days, and the city council demands Towbin take down the flag, and neighbors gripe the flag flapping noise, did it take them from May 2006 to May 2007 to find the flag flapping too much of racket for them?!

Would flying the big flag at another location make a difference?!

Veterans in Politics president Steve Sanson is opposed to the flag flying at the hummer dealership because he feels the flag is being used to make Towbin's place a landmark and he asserts flying the flag is exploiting veterans. Want to play that game, no difference stores capitalizing on Veterans and Memorial Day, as well as anti war protesters using flag draped coffins during one of their rallys, and anti war political ads broadcasted on tv. YouTube - Because of Iraq= Internet Archive: Details: Operation Truth's 'Better Way' TV Ad

America is the land of the free brave ... veterans, servicemen and women who value very much liberty, and they are willing to dedicate lives and die for our nation's defense.

Likwise for these people have the freedom gripe about the flag because veterans and troops have made it possible for us to enjoy the liberties we have.

Las Vegas City Council, Nevada ACLU, and whiney neighbors put this in your pipe and SMOKE IT!

[BrianK]

Those large flags are flown at a lot of differant businesses around Las Vegas.

To claim that it is flown for commercial purposes should be proved by auditing sales and several months of opinion poll of buyers.

A simple poll like. Did you buy your vehicle because the large flag is flying above the dealership?

Sometimes elected officials make me wonder. This kind of decision making reminds me of the ham sandwich nonsense.

[Snowden]

The flag flies all over here where we live. I look out my kitchen window and the neighbor has a big flag in his front yard. Businesses and private homes fly Old Glory and everybody accepts her and loves her.

How could a flag flapping in the breeze bother anybody? Of all the stupid things... yes, like the ham sandwich nonsense, Brian. Anything to complain. The people in the US are in need of a dose of reality -- although you would think 9/11 would have taken care of that.

[Old Fart]

There is NO "bad" reason to fly the flag!, I don't care what it is!
The fact that this is a "Hummer" dealership is as good a reason to fly the flag as any, I might have an issue with it if if was A Volvo or Cadillac dealer.
In fact, this guy should get his hands on a Military Humvee and park it right under the friggin flag!
Too bad I don't have Donald Trump's e-mail, after the fools he made out of the Palm Beach city council over HIS flag, this would be a piece of cake!
I'll bet he's got a half dozen Hummers of his own.
DJH