A Democratic city council member who voted against flying the “Thin Blue Line” flag in memory of a slain state trooper in Wethersfield, Connecticut, said he called police because he and his family have been receiving threats.
Miki Duric, a city council member in the small, historic farming city just south of Hartford, told The Washington Post on Friday that she voted against raising the flag earlier this week for procedural reasons, not substantive ones.
But that doesn’t stop “all the hate, all the threats that I’ve received personally over the past few days,” he said.
“I and my family received threats. I called the police,” Duric said. A 39-year-old Bosnian refugee with a wife and four children..
The City Council, which will flip from Republican to Democrat in 2023 after four years of Republican control, voted 5-3 along party lines Monday against temporarily flying a pro-police flag in front of City Hall.
Democratic Rep. Emily Zambrero He spoke to local media The flag “represents racism and hostility to many people.”
“Even if you don’t personally believe that, if you fly in your own home and you think it means something to you, that’s a much more positive thing. It’s just that a lot of people don’t feel that way.”
“Our flag policy prohibits hateful conduct, so it is inappropriate to fly the flag at City Hall.”
Republican City Councilman Rich Bailey had proposed flying the flag in memory of state trooper Aaron Pelletier, 34, who was killed last week after being struck by a hit-and-run driver following a traffic violation.
The city council had already voted to fly the LGBTQ flag in honor of Pride Month in June.
“It’s very disappointing,” Bailey told The Post on Friday about the disrespect shown to the police flag.
Asked if he was surprised by the poll results, the politician replied: “Oh yeah.”
“My father was a police officer for 32 years,” Bailey said. “This is truly unfortunate.”
He said his late father, who retired as a lieutenant in Weathersfield, “would be very disappointed.”
“They risk their lives for us every day. I just can’t comprehend it, I can’t understand it.”
Bailey added that his heart goes out to the widow of Officer Pelletier, a hero.
“I feel so bad for her,” Bailey said. “She has to read all of this.”
Duric declined to comment on whether he supported the “Thin Blue Line” flag, which has been associated with the Blue Lives Matter movement and emerged as a response to the controversial Black Lives Matter movement.
Duric said council policy states that if anyone wants to fly a special flag at City Hall, they must apply 30 days in advance.
“The bottom line for me is that it’s not about the flag itself, it’s about our policy, which outlines exactly how proposals should be presented,” the politician told The Post.
He argued that Republicans’ demands for the flag to be raised were simply an attempt to “incite hatred.”
“It’s not to honor the officers, it’s just to give us [Democrats] “It looks bad,” Duric said.
But Republican City Councilwoman Brianna Timbro said, “Honestly, [the vote] That would be a pretty simple question, given the tragedy and the entire state behind it. [Pelletier].
“The language used to describe the flag and what it represents was really ignorant and very biased,” she told the Post.
Timbro said the outpouring of support for city council members who supported raising the flag had been overwhelming.
“My phone has been ringing off the hook since Monday night’s city council meeting,” she said, “and I think that says a lot.”
“I received a message from a high school classmate I hadn’t spoken to in years thanking me for voting for him.”
Additional reporting by Caitlin McCormack
