Greer Residents “Devastated” by Desecration of American Flag on Lighted Pole In Upscale Neighborhood
On Wednesday, November 26, the day before Thanksgiving, Joe Barnett and his wife awoke to find their American and South Carolina flags cut from their twenty-foot lighted flag pole. They found the flags torn and on the ground. The American flag had been cut from the stars to the end of the third white stripe form the top.
The couple were devastated by what they found in their yard, because someone(s) had not only trespassed their private property, but had desecrated the American flag in this manner.
The incident was reported to the Greer Police Department and an award of $500 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the one(s) responsible.
This vicious and premeditated property destruction and flag desecration is especially hurtful for the Barnett family as their son is currently serving his country in harms way.
There seems to be a pattern of lawless vandalism in the city of Greer. A Vietnamese War Memorial, that was dedicated a few years ago with much fanfare, has been abandoned in Greer due to the repeated desecration of the South Vietnamese flag and destruction of the memorial plaques.
Heartbroken by the inability of the city Greer to protect the monument and flags paid for by the Vietnamese-American community, American and Vietnamese veterans of the Vietnam War are in the process of locating a memorial in Greenville. The memorial will be dedicated to those American and Vietnamese veterans that sacrificed to preserve freedom for the people of South Vietnam.
Motivation of the vandals in Greer is not known. Similar senseless incidents are taking place across the nation.
In Norfolk, Virginia, Bishop E.W. Jackson condemned “flag burning” and threats to “shut down the country.” The bishop stressed that Christians “should not be participants in lawlessness such as burning flags ...”
Residents of Greer are prayerfully hopeful that the police will arrest and prosecute the culprits that desecrated the flag in Joe Barnett’s yard before violent destruction of personal property and desecration of our revered flag becomes commonplace.