Stafford BZA to Confederate flag protestors: You have no case

STAFFORD — Two people who complained to Stafford County’s government about a Confederate battle flag high over Interstate 95.

One of them is a Stafford County resident Patricia Joshi who lives about six miles from where the flag flies over a home on Truslow Road and can be seen 80 feet over the highway. 

The other is Spotsylvania resident Thomas Jones who lives about nine miles away from the flag and passes it twice daily during his commute to and from his office in North Stafford.

Attorney Clark Lemming argued before the Stafford County Board of Zoning Appeals that his clients and the more than 50 mostly black residents who came to the hearing have an “acute sensitivity” to the flag.

Joshi and Jones argue the flag is a sign, not a flag, that is too tall, and should be removed from the public right of way.

The two filed a complaint with the county’s zoning office in on September 27 alleging the county failed to follow its zoning ordinance. County Zoning Administrator Jeff Harvey told the BZA that he followed up on the complaint, went out to take photos of the property, and found no violation of the code.

Flags are not considered signs under the ordinance. But Lemming argues that this flag is not one of a “geopolitical entity” and that it isn’t protected by the ordinance.

“This is not the official flag of the Confederacy. It is the flag of the Army of the Potomac,” argued Lemming. “This is not a historical flag we’re looking at, and it has come to mean many different things to many diff people. It’s a flag that imposes a threat to safety as we’ve seen in this state.”

He noted the flag was used by the KKK during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and again last summer when a group of white supremacists came to protest in Charlotteville.

The crowd cheered lemming as he spoke before the nine-member board.

The complaint filed last year by Joshi and Thomas was filed just days after then Stafford County Attorney Charles Shumate said the Board of Supervisors had no legal right to force the owner of the flag to remove it or lower the pole.

“I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but I don’t think this falls within the scope of the BZA,” said sitting board member Danny Kim.

And that, except one board member Ernest Ackerman, was the mutual feeling of the board that night. Ackerman was the only dissenting vote as the BZA decided Joshi and Thomas had no case.

The BZA argued the two complainants have no financial ties to the private property on which the flag sits, and are no different than the millions of people who drive up and down I-95 who may also be offended by the flag.

Lemming told Potomac Local he could push to take the case to court. There is also the possibility that someone who lives at an adjacent property to where the flag sits today could file a complaint with the zoning department, and they could have a case before the BZA, he added.

The BZA closed the public hearing without allowing members of the public to speak, prompting chants of “let them speak, let them speak..”

Crowd members also held signs that stated: “Hate never made any nation great.”