Firefighter suspended after flying Confederate flag in parade

“The flag flying on the city of Hartland fire truck becomes the city of Heartland statement just like that flag in our parade has unfortunately become a statement about Albert Lea and our parade”. Brian Nielsen, a almost 10-year veteran with the department proudly flew the flag, saying it had nothing to do with slavery.

There may be repercussions from the parade Friday in southern Minnesota where a Confederate battle flag was flown from a participating fire truck.

Mr Nielsen, who’s been with the department for about 10 years, flew both the Confederate and American flags from the back of the truck. He, himself, has a family member who is black, he said. He told reporters he is not racist, but that he’s standing against political correctness.

It is not known if Nielsen will be penalized in any way for the Confederate Flag, such as a dock in pay or anything on his work record, and it’s also not known whether the Chamber of Commerce will accept the apology from Nielsen for something he considered to be a non-issue. He said that the controversy was a “difficult situation” because it is “within [Nielsen’s] right” to fly the flag, which he agreed was “a part of history”. But the growing push to remove the Confederate flag from publicly owned buildings after the Charleston, S.C., church shootings is not one of those occasions.

He told WCCO the chief is upset about the negative attention the town is getting because of the incident.

“It was my decision and I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal, but, boy, was I wrong”, he said. It’s a part of history.

Nielsen said he didn’t think flying the flag would draw as much flak as it has.

Parade rules distributed to entrants say “all vehicles … must be decorated in either a patriotic theme or according to the parade theme”.

Kehr chuckled a bit and acknowledged that the Hartland fire truck was “probably not” in compliance. “It truly is”, Kehr said. “Everyone is entitled to exercise their right to freedom of speech”.

He apologized for his actions and said race was not a driving factor.