Monday, December 9, 2013

Update - Sheriff Arpaio Won't Lower Flags To Honor Mandela's Death

Posted By on Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 12:00 PM

Earlier this morning I shared news from KTAR.com that Sheriff Arpaio refused to lower the flags in honor of Nelson Mandela's death. Here's the original post that I accidently removed instead of unpublished:

Guess who's ignoring President Obama's order to lower all the flags in the memory of former South African President Nelson Mandela?

A spokesman confirmed that Sheriff Arpaio was ignoring the order that all flags be lowered to honor Mandela, who passed away late Thursday at 95.

I don't think it's out of character, but I find this very disrespectful on various degrees. This is almost as bad as gloating about serving inmates 58-cent Thanksgiving dinners.



Someone informed me the link to KTAR link was down, so I called their KTAR newsroom to figure out what was going on. The newsroom representative stated that the Sheriff's department requested that the story would be pulled from the website, but the KTAR newsroom rep was unable to give me a reason as to why. I sent an email to the Maricopa county public information officer asking them why they requested the story pulled from the site. The PIO replied, "Because the story was totally misleading and completely inaccurate."

I'm still waiting for a response on what about the story was inaccurate and if the flags have been lowered. There is a sheriff in South Carolina refusing to lower the flags. CNN reported that Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark has refused to lower the flags because Mandela wasn't born in the U.S.

"It's just my simple opinion that the flag should only be lowered to half-staff for Americans who sacrificed for their country," Clark told CNN affiliate WHNS.

I know when to admit when I'm wrong and publish a correction, but not until I get confirmation that the flags have been lowered. 

UPDATE:

Lisa Allen, Maricopa county media relations, finally responded: 

"The Sheriff was told about the presidential order late Sunday afternoon by a reporter who called him on his cell," Allen said. "Flags were ordered half staff til Monday sunset."

(via Talking Points)

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