LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A picture of the Fallen Firefighter and Police Officer Monuments spread on social media, causing anger for people upset that the American flags were not at the monuments. The President of the Lexington Fraternal Order of Firefighters says that the whole thing is one big misunderstanding.
When people saw the bird's eye view of the monuments, they noticed that the American Flags were missing. People called city offices, accusing the mayor and other officials of disrespecting the flag, a perceived slight at their hometown heroes.
Turns out, they were calling the wrong people...and the entire situation was a social media misunderstanding.
"Social media tends to do this," said Todd Houston, the President of the Lexington Fraternal Order of Firefighters. "When one person has an opinion, everyone else piles on, and blames people, and points fingers, without actually figuring out what's going on, or figuring out why things are the way they are."
Houston said that his organization, as well as the Fraternal Order of Police, oversee the monuments, not the city.
He also said that taking down the flags was never meant to be disrespectful, but had to be done a couple of weeks ago because of a drainage project.
"They had to dig a trench around the wall, and in order to do that, they had to disconnect the lighting, and you're not supposed to fly flags at night with no lights. So, we took the flags down until the project was complete," said Houston.
He said that it slipped his mind that the project would coincide with the Fourth of July Parade.
"I wish I had remembered, and then all this would have gone away," he said.
Houston said that it was a simple oversight and nothing malicious.
