Flag’s caretaker won’t waver with protesters

MONTROSE — The removal of the American flag from its post over the Vietnam War memorial in the Montrose Shopping Park is an ongoing concern for anti-war protesters, who have been passing out leaflets and posting fliers expressing their opposition to the Montrose Shopping Park Assn.’s decision on when the flag should fly above the memorial.

Montrose Peace Vigil members, who oppose the war in Iraq, have been holding weekly anti-war rallies for more than two years at the war memorial on the corner of Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard. For many months, Bill Dodson, a former Glendale firefighter and the longtime caretaker of the memorial, has removed the flag from the site during the anti-war rallies in protest of where the demonstrators have chosen to make their political statement.

This spring, the board of the Montrose Shopping Park Assn. — the organization that maintains the war memorial, including the flag that’s part of it — voted that the flag should not fly during any public demonstration, unless the demonstration is about veterans, such as on Memorial Day or about the Vietnam War, said Dale Dawson, the president of the association’s board.

The board’s decision is rooted in the fact that, until the current conflict in Iraq, the memorial site has never been the locale for any kind of political protest, Dawson said.

As such, the association is not saying that it’s against the anti-war protesters specifically, but rather that it doesn’t view the war memorial as a fitting place for political demonstrations, he said.

“It’s not a corner for political protest,” Dawson said.

But some members of the peace vigil view the decision as a strong commentary on their specific political views.

“They’re deciding our political speech isn’t worthy of the traditional rights of the flag,” said Roberta Medford, one of the founders of the Friday evening Montrose vigils.

To Jeanne Lavieri, who has participated in the anti-war protests regularly for about a year and a half, the absence of the flag during the peace vigil is conspicuous.

“I disagree with it,” Lavieri said. “I like to think of that flag as something that we can all share.”

But while the protesters clearly have the right to free speech and assembly on the public land at the intersection, they don’t have the right to require that a privately owned flag be present during their protests, said John Drayman, Glendale mayor and former president of the shopping park association.

“I don’t believe they have the absolute right to have that flag flying over their head,” Drayman said.

Over the past few weeks, Medford said she has posted fliers on street signs around the shopping park and has passed out leaflets encouraging patrons to question merchants about their position on the issue of the removal of the flag during the anti-war protest.

A section of one recently distributed leaflet reads, “As you shop or dine here, please ask proprietors where they stand on the flag. And let them know that you prefer to support free expression with your consumer spending. They may not know what their association has decided on their behalf,” Medford said.

Medford said she is not calling for a boycott of stores in the shopping park. Rather, she wants shoppers and merchants alike to be aware of the decision.

While the shopping park association certainly could reconsider its decision on the flag if there was a groundswell of support for permitting the flag to fly during political protests, that doesn’t appear to be the case so far, at least among merchants, Dawson said.

“We haven’t heard a peep out of our membership,” he said.

Posting fliers about the issue around town is a response that Dawson said he considers to be inappropriate — it amounts to unsightly litter in the neighborhood, he said.

Some of the fliers were posted in a way that violates city municipal code, Drayman said. Posting materials on places like street signs and parking meters is illegal, he said.

In late June, a community liaison to the police department noticed fliers around Montrose from two apparently opposing groups — one against the flag removal, another rebutting that flier’s points, Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

Staff members from the city’s Neighborhood Services Department were sent out to remove the fliers, Lorenz said. While a police report on the matter was filed, it’s not clear if the city will press charges on any of the alleged violations, he said.

 ANGELA HOKANSON covers education. She may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at angelahokanson@latimes.com.