Vietnam Veteran Removes Confederate Flag At Wayne's Paris Inn

WAYNE, NJ — Even though it wasn't his flag, Stewart Resmer knew he had to do something.

Resmer, a Vietnam veteran, was driving on Alps Road Tuesday morning when he looked up and saw a Confederate flag flying high on a flagpole outside the former Paris Inn restaurant.

No way, he said to himself.

"When I see what is going on in this country with the alt-right and then someone comes along and puts a Confederate flag up, well I'm going to do something about it," Resmer said. "It was my First Amendment right countering their First Amendment right."

Resmer pulled over, got the flag down, and threw it away, he said. Then he went back home and got an American flag. He hoisted it to the top of the flagpole.

"Being a Vietnam veteran is the hardest thing I've done in my life," Resmer said. "I'm morally bound to stand up for something like this. My father, he was Polish Catholic kid who escaped the Nazis during World War II. I can't do anything about a guy hanging a Confederate flag on his truck, but this, this was fair game."

Donna Brooks, who lives next to the Paris Inn, saw the flag Monday and was incensed.

"My husband is black and I don't want a Confederate flag outside," Brooks said Tuesday morning.

The flagpole is on Brooks' property, although it is a few feet from the Paris Inn property line. She said when she came out Tuesday morning at 8 a.m., the Confederate flag was still there. A little while later, the flag was gone and an American flag was flying in its place, she said.

"I looked out and expected to see the Confederate flag, but it was gone," Brooks said.

The Paris Inn property was sold in April at a bank-ordered auction to a restauranteur for nearly $1 million. The Paris Inn restaurant closed in March 2017.

Brooks reported to police Tuesday morning that the flag was still flying. A Wayne Police detective went out to the scene Tuesday morning and spoke with Brooks.

Wayne Police Lt. Chris Wittig and Mayor Chris Vergano could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The American flag that now flies on the flagpole outside the former Paris Inn restaurant on Alps Road. (By Daniel Hubbard, Patch staff)

Related:

• Paris Inn Property Sold For $990K At Auction
• Paris Inn Restaurant Closes After 50 Years

Email daniel.hubbard@patch.com

Photo: The Confederate flag that flew outside the former Paris Inn restaurant. (Courtesy of Donna Brooks)