Jacksonville, FL Powersports Dealership Cited for Flying Military Branch Flags

Jaguar Power Sports, a motorcycle and powersports dealership in Jacksonville, Florida, was cited by a city employee for flying military flags. On Monday, Melinda Power, a city of Jacksonville inspector, issued a warning citation for the display, saying the military flags were in violation of city code.

Jaguar Power Sports for years has been flying two American flags, a Jacksonville Jaguars flag and one flag for each branch of the military. To make matters worse, Power entered the dealership, and insulted and mistreated a customer who is an Army combat veteran, allegedly asking, “‘What did you do for this country?”

He replies, “I took three bullets to the leg. I almost lost my life for this country. I’m retired. I’m a veteran.”

Powers gets in his face pointing a finger and allegedly says, “You did nothing for this country,” and leaves.

The dealership’s owner posted a video to Facebook describing the situation, requesting and encouraging people to share it and make it go viral – and it did. Jacksonville’s Mayor, Lenny Curry, has since intervened and is allowing military flags to be flown and treated the same as the American flag. City inspector, Melinda Power, has also issued an apology – a rather insincere sounding one. Jaguar Power Sports will be allowed to continue to display their patriotism and fly the flags.

I don’t understand where someone like Power gets the idea that (allegedly) disrespecting a veteran like that is in any shape or form appropriate. It’s downright insulting and shouldn’t be tolerated in anyplace at anytime, in my opinion. She’s lucky the veteran handled it as seemingly calmly as he did. What do you guys think?

For the full story with the videos, check out the Action News Jax article here and ABC7 News’ coverage here.