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RIVERBEND - With less trash on Highway 143, Rusty Wheat and his one-man Chain Gang are focused on new topics that affect the Riverbend region.
In a recent episode of “Our Daily Show!” with host C.J. Nasello, Wheat spoke for the American flag and against what he perceives as the widespread “desecration” of flags. Wheat pointed to the Blue Lives Matter flag and the Pride flag as two examples of flags that go against the U.S. Flag Code. He argued that flags like this should not be hung in public buildings like police stations and libraries.
“I’m fresh out of causes. I don’t have a whole lot to do, so I look at things I used to write about and I think, well, I’m going to talk about some of the things that I perceive that’s wrong with America today. And one of the things that I perceive wrong is what I consider the desecration of the American flag,” Wheat said. “When it comes to public buildings and publicly-funded events, publicly-funded vehicles and such, I think at that point in time we just have one flag, and that’s the American flag.”
Wheat noted that the Blue Lives Matter flag previously signified “a memorial for fallen officers” before it was “kind of hijacked by the police union” to represent “significant bonding” between officers. He noted that in Urbana, Illinois, the police officers removed Blue Lives Matter flag decals from their cars after a complaint from a citizen.
But Wheat emphasized that he supports police officers and is not necessarily advocating for the removal of these flags. In fact, he believes it would be “sacrilegious” to insist on the removal of the flag when it can represent fallen officers. Instead, he is arguing against these flags in public buildings.
“There’s a bond between officers, it’s ‘back the blue.’ And there again, I’m not against it. But it doesn’t need to be in public-funded buildings,” he explained. “If they have a memorial and they want those flags out, that’s fine. But to walk into a police station, why can’t they just have the American flag presented? Why do they have to have an American flag with a blue line through it? I know it’s their police station and someone probably donated that as a memorial, and sympathetic I could not more be. But it’s one for all and all for one. We should all just have one flag.”
Wheat added that he does not mean to “pick on the police.” He has the same argument about the Pride flag, the firefighters’ flag and others.
“I have friends that work in all of these areas and all these capacities, so each of these people feel they’re entitled to some extent to have their flag flown,” he said. “It’s hard for me to say because I’m not trying to create a stir or anything. I’m trying to call people’s attention to your rights, and they’re slowly being violated and disintegrated.”
Wheat also spoke about a recent video that circulated in Alton where a City of Alton employee hit the “panic button” when a First Amendment auditor recorded in City Hall. Wheat said the auditor’s First Amendment rights were violated when police officers asked him to leave the building. He said he believes it was “racist” because the auditor was a person of color.
“Had he been a white guy, I don’t think they would have hassled him like that,” Wheat said. “At least one of the three [police officers] knew they were violating his rights. Surely they did. In this day and age, they can’t be so uneducated. If the police officers in Alton, Illinois are that uneducated, we have a serious problem here. They need to be updated on the First Amendment, on auditing and things of that nature.”
Wheat ultimately encouraged people to watch the video and decide for themselves what they think. He closed by saying that he supports police officers.
“I just think that officers are like us. They want to put their best foot forward,” he added. “And there again, it goes back to everything I was talking about earlier. I’m not anti-cop, and I don’t want to get a ticket on my way home.”
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