“The flag flying on the city of Hartland fire truck becomes the city of Heartland statement just like that flag in our parade has unfortunately become a statement about Albert Lea and our parade. Neither of those things should apply, and the only way to avoid that is to not do that”, said Kehr. “It was my decision and I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, but boy was I wrong”.
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Brian Nielson, a volunteer with the Hartland Fire Department, told the Associated Press Sunday the fire chief told him he’s suspended pending an investigation.
“More than likely I’ll probably be asked to step down”, Nielsen said.
“I will out of respect for them, yes I will”, he said. The male shooter had a lot of pictures online with the Confederate Flag, with one picture of him on the hood of a car that features a prominent Confederate Flag on the license plate. He said a woman wearing a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party patch came up to him and criticized the flag before the parade, but other spectators stood up and clapped as the truck flying both the US and Confederate flags passed by. The firefighter plans on attending this week’s Albert Lea chamber of commerce meeting in order to formally apologize for his actions.
The Confederate flag, flown over southern troops who took up arms against the United States as they fought for the right to keep slaves, was viewed as inappropriate on a day when Americans were celebrating independence, with the event organizer calling its inclusion “unfortunate”. “And you have to go”, he is said to have told his victims at the church.
Nielsen said he would resign from the fire department if he was asked to do so.
“I feel bad for the families down there but it wasn’t the flag that did it”, Nielsen said.
This comes as politicians have called for the Confederate flag to be removed from public places, and retailers have pulled them from store shelves in the weeks since nine black churchgoers were killed in South Carolina by a white suspect who claimed he was trying to start a race war. “My belief is that “politically correct” is going too far”.
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“The city of Albert Lea is named after a Confederate soldier”.
