Confederate Flag Flies Outside Home of Port Washington Cop on Fourth of July

American flags are a common sight around Port Washington on the Fourth the July, but the flagpole at one home on Irma Avenue held a different flag on Saturday: the Confederate flag.

The home belongs to Paul Faulk, a longtime Port Washington police officer.

A local resident spotted the flag outside the home Saturday morning and snapped the pictures above. The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he finds the flying of a Confederate symbol a concern for the community.

“It makes me upset to see a local police officer whose job is to protect everyone in the community display something that would make me feel that he would be less inclined to help certain people,” he said, referring to a flag that many consider a symbol of racism.

The negative buzz around the Confederate flag intensified after Dylann Roof, 21, was charged with killing nine people during a Bible study inside a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., last month.

Since then, many have called for the removal of the flag from public places, retail stores and internet shopping sites. Even Walmart announced it will clear the flag from its shelves.

A woman in late June was arrested after sheclimbed a flagpole near the South Carolina Capitol, snatched the Confederate flag and climbed down with it.

Lawmakers in South Carolina voted Monday to remove the flag from statehouse grounds in response to these complaints and acts of protest.

In light of the recent events, one resident who lives around the block from Faulk said it’s “really just an odd choice” to hang a Confederate flag in New York on the Fourth of July.

“I would like to know what [his] thinking was,” she said, referring to Faulk.

Faulk, a member of the Port Washington Police Department’s Traffic Safety Enforcement Unit, did not respond to multiple Patch requests for comment regarding the flag, but he has written on his Facebook page that he is a “son of the Confederacy” and “proud of what [his] family did to stop government tyranny even though they lost.”

Asked about the flag outside Faulk’s home, Port Washington Police Chief James Salerno said he had no comment.

One local resident, speaking with Patch, said he was told by his wife, “[Faulk] has every right to fly that flag, and you have every right to be offended.”

The man who snapped the picture said he believes ordinary residents have the right to express their own opinions, but a police officer should have thought twice about displaying a flag that is a deeply divisive symbol.

Another resident said, “If I were an African-American, I would be concerned if the police were treating me fairly.”

The Confederate flag debate shows few signs of simmering down nationwide.

In Minnesota, a firefighter was suspended after he attached the flag to a fire truck during an Independence Day parade on Friday, July 3, in what he said was a stand against political correctness. The firefighter, Brian Nielsen, told TV Station KARE: “Me raising that flag had nothing to do with slavery. It had nothing to do with disrespect towards our vets.”