Homeowner Refuses to Lower Nazi Flag Flying on Property

A homeowner has hung up a Nazi flag on his property and is refusing to remove it until someone solves a mystery of who’s been hacking into his computer.

“It’s a distress call,’’ Preble resident Jody Fish said. “It’s to get attention so I can tell people what’s going on and that someone is hacking me.”

He told The Post-Standard that he was not a Nazi; he was just using the attention to tackle his problem. Over 400 people have signed a petition asking town officials to do something about the Nazi flag.

Town supervisor Jim Doring said he asked Fish a few weeks ago to take down the flag, but he would only agree to do so if Doring intervened in his hacking dispute. Doring said he told him that’s not the town’s role.

Doring contacted National Grid because the flag is flying from a wire attached to the utility pole. National Grid also declined to remove the flag, Doring said, so he asked the town attorney for advice.

Roy Gutterman, an associate professor in the newspaper and online journalism department at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, said the homeowner is within his rights.

“This is private speech on private property, and it is certainly protected,’’ he said.