Quote from: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24528824-2682,00.htmlNazi flag flyers admit they made mistake
MATT NEAGLE
October 21, 2008
AN Adelaide man who flew a Nazi flag on his South Rd, Croydon, property has spoken to AdelaideNow about how it was originally put up as a party joke.
But the act has been slammed by RSL national president Bill Crews, who described the act as "sickening".
The Croydon man, who only gave his name as "Will", said the Nazi flag went up as a joke at a "drunken" house party a few weeks ago.
"It's the funniest story around... well I found it funny, apparently the community is not finding it too funny," Will said.
"We meant no offence, just a drunken party, bit of fun, never took the bloody thing down, caused a whole heap of offence, we're sorry about that, but you know..."
When asked by AdelaideNow if he knows the symbolism of the flag, Will replied:
"Not really, no."
Earlier this morning, state Attorney-General Michael Atkinson rode his bike, with an Australian flag attached, onto the the man's property to talk to the resident.
Mr Atkinson told media he spoke to the man and explained to him why the flag is offensive to people in Australia, including Polish immigrants.
He also said to the man it would be best to take the flag down - which was attached to a pole in the man's backyard.
Around 10am, the flag was brought down and replaced with an Australian flag.
Will said Mr Atkinson "told us where we stand, where our legal rights are, and we told him what we wanted, which was not to cause all of this offence in the community, and (that) we wanted to remove the flag and put the Australain flag back up."
Will said he hoped the community could "get past" the incident.
"There's no point to persecute someone for a mistake," he said.
"The Australian (flag's) the one that belongs there, that's why I built the flag pole."
Mr Atkinson earlier told ABC Radio that while the flag was in very bad taste, the issue was one of freedom of expression.
"I assume that the tenants are that one per cent type people who just like to shock and disgust, like they've managed to do,'' he said.
"Unless one can argue that it incites racial hatred, then I suspect it's a matter of free speech, free expression.''
Major General Crews, RSL national president, said the Nazi flag was the symbol of a regime that took the world to war in 1939 costing millions of lives, including those of 40,000 Australian servicemen and women.
"It's quite sickening to hear there are people in the community who are so ignorant and objectionable to fly this flag," Major General Crews said today on Nine.
"Australians will be rightly offended by this and most veterans are grossly offended by it."
Please note AdelaideNow cannot publish comments that are racist or incite hatred.
If that hypocrite of an Attorney General comes bicycling onto my property, I'll spit in his face and throw him out with his wheels wrapped around his neck.
@Cailen.
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