Hate flags were flying again in Corvallis. A resident at an apartment complex on NW Garfield Ave. and near NW Division St. decided to hang both a Confederate flag and a Nazi flag in his window.
Another resident of the complex outlined the history of this problem. Things began to go badly in late September when an anonymous letter from an antifascist group told residents of this complex that one of their neighbors was a Nazi. The letter included the name and photo of a man in the complex.
The outed man responded to the letters by hanging various flags and signs in his apartment window with LED lights illuminating them “as though they wanted to advertise all of this to the world.”
Residents contacted the property management company, and while they agreed that this was unacceptable, they didn’t seem to find a way to stop the man from continuing to hang signs.
This man had hung a Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me” flag – once used in patriotic displays and by the military, and recently co-opted by the modern Tea Party Movement and gun rights activists. He also hung a Gonzales “Come And Take It” flag – used as a symbol of defiance; a White Lives Matter flag – both a symbol of the white supremacist movement and a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement; and an anti-vaccination / anti-masking flag.
On Dec. 12, the offending tenant decided to raise the stakes and display the Confederate and Nazi flags – again, surrounded with LED lights as if to catch someone’s eye. Also on the 12th, The Advocate was contacted by a concerned reader, which is how we learned about what was happening.
We then contacted Alisha Moore of At Home Property Management about this issue. She said that the complex’s policy is to not allow anything in the windows of units. Concerning this issue in particular, Moore said, “We are working to resolve this. He has been asked to take down the flags immediately. We 100% do not support this.”
As of Dec. 13, “all of the signs and flags have been removed from the aforementioned apartment, and their blinds are drawn,” our contact said. Adding “however I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to pop back up again in a few days.”
By Sally K Lehman
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