The Pavilion Takes Down The American Flag

In an unceremonious way, management took down the American Flag, , rolled it up into a ball and put it in a plastic bag.

After two weeks of incessant complaints from one man, Jim Rallis, a neighborhood resident and a retired captain of the FDNY’s Ladder Company 122, the theatre finally took it down on Sunday.

An employee climbed a ladder and took the flag off its pole.

“They then placed the flag in a crumbled ball and placed it in a bag and threw it from the marquee,” Rallis wrote to Patch in an E-mail.

He also mentioned that the flag touched the ground multiple times, another violation of US Flag Code.

“What a Disgrace of an operation!!!” Rallis wrote.

There many be other flags that are not treated with the upmost respect and proper etiquette, but proximity is the issue at hand here, on Prospect Park West between 14th and 15th Streets, and is why this flag, some say, must be treated properly.

The small section of road where The Pavilion stands was renamed “” after LCpl. Julian T. Brennan, who lived on this street and , on January 24, 2009, after his Humvee ran over a roadside bomb. He died instantly. He was 25. 

Julian’s father, Bill, said how The Pavilion has been treating the flag is a disgrace.

“It’s callous indifference to the veterans who that area is named after, my son included, and others,” Bill said, who still lives in Park Slope with his wife. “And it shows disregard for living veterans.”

Bill said the business needs to be responsible for how their flag is being treated and he is glad to hear that they took it down.

But still, he asked:

“Why have a flag if you’re going to show callous indifference to it?”