At Issue: What should new DeKalb CEO focus on?

So the AJC asks DeKalb residents what you’d like to see Thurmond tackle first when he comes into office. Send comments to communitynews@ajc.com. Responses may be published in print and/or online.

At Issue: The Roswell police officer and the Confederate flag

A Roswell police officer, Sgt. Silvia Cotriss, was fired last summer after she flew a Confederate battle flag on the front lawn of her Woodstock home. Cotriss has sued Roswell in federal court, saying the city violated her constitutional rights by firing her. Was she within her rights to fly the flag?

Here’s what readers had to say:

We may question the purpose of the Civil War, but we cannot question that Confederate soldiers fought very bravely and proudly for five years under the beautiful Stars and Bars, earning that banner well-deserved honor and glory. Sadly, in the 150 years since, that same beautiful Stars and Bars has been prominently displayed at hundreds of cross burnings, lynchings, shootings, beatings, Klan meetings, and as a display of racial intolerance. Because of this usage of the Stars and Bars during the last 1½ centuries, I feel it would be both insensitive and inappropriate for employees of our government, especially law enforcement personnel, to publicly display this banner. That's just my opinion, and I understand others have every right to disagree. — Charles Davenport

I have been a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, based upon numerous Confederate soldiers who are my ancestors, since 1992. During that time, I have faithfully worn the SCV lapel pin, which incorporates the Confederate battle flag, on my suit and blazers. Also during that time, I have worked in ranking positions in two counties in metro Atlanta and have been a congressional staffer. No one has ever said a word about my lapel pin. However, if I had worked for the cultural Marxists in the city of Roswell, I'm pretty sure I would have been fired. Yes, Officer Cotriss should be allowed to fly the Confederate flag. — Fred N. Chitwood

First Amendment rights means not being prosecuted for speech that does not endanger. That America condones and supports the celebration of the failed insurrection against itself 151 years after its end is deplorably unpatriotic and unique to America. The police officer was not prosecuted but appropriately terminated for assertively expressing a racist and oppressive philosophy that directly impacted her duties as a law enforcement official. The objective of the Confederacy was and is to maintain a system of racial oppression against people of color, specifically Africans and African descendants. — Richard Rose, president, NAACP Atlanta Branch

I read your article on the Roswell police officer who was terminated for flying the Confederate flag at her home. First, it was not her flag; it was her late husband's. Second, she should not be held accountable for the flag being there. After 20 years serving the public on the Roswell police force, she was unfairly terminated. I hope she gets her day in court and gets her job back, and benefits. — Arty Chaddock

She has the right to fly a Confederate Flag on her property. To terminate her employment is ridiculous. Government should be protecting our First Amendment rights. — Tony Ashe

For African-Americans, the Confederate flag represents a very dark period of American history. There is no other symbol in the African-American experience that raises more fear and anxiety. According to historians, a central core of the Confederacy was to maintain the institution of slavery, while preventing equality for all and a bi-racial society. Confederate soldiers died for that cause, and secession from the Union was defeated. The Confederate flag flies for that purpose. It symbolizes, in the minds of many, 267 years of slavery, white supremacy, the KKK, laws prohibiting African-Americans from reading, the black codes, Jim Crow and a criminal justice system that overwhelmingly incarcerates African-American men. While flying the Confederate flag is within the First Amendment, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments need greater consideration and respect. With that history, it is difficult to understand how and why the Confederate flag needs to be flown. The Roswell Police Department acted with conscience. The Confederate flag for African-Americans is too painful to see. — Terry L. Carmon

We ask police officers to put their lives on the line every time they put on the uniform. Is this not enough? Should they also have to give up the same rights that the criminals they are sworn to protect us from have? Should they have to give up their rights to the Constitution of the U.S.A.? Wouldn't it make more sense to teach people who are so violently against the Confederate battle flag? It's not the flag of slavery; it's not even the badge of slavery. It was a battle standard that many, many men stood behind and died for. When the Southern states decided to pull out from the Union of states, it was not a great decision, granted. Many men on both sides died. Now the country is joined again, but in some ways, it's not united. — Barry Lewis

I'll skip over the stated inconsistencies and just appeal to common sense and to moving on. It would seem that Roswell could say, "Flying that flag is offensive to many people and doesn't reflect well on our police department. Please take it down." Sure, flying any flag and saying almost anything is protected by the First Amendment, but people in an official capacity should realize the effect that they have on others. — Noell Wilson

Let me first say that as a native Georgian going back for at least eight generations, I do not personally support flying the Confederate flag. I don't fly one, and I didn't support retention of the Confederate battle flag on our state flag when that was an issue. That said, I DO support freedom. I support the freedom of people to protest Obamacare, of the election of Donald Trump, of Black Lives Matter and of gay rights. Some of these causes I agree with, others I despise, but my personal feeling doesn't matter. What I support is the peaceful demonstration of free speech by every citizen in this nation. Like all these other demonstrations, Sgt. Silvia Cotriss has the right of free speech, regardless of whether what she says is offensive or not. The people who are offended should be proud to live in a nation that HAS this free speech. The civil rights movement would have died in the first year if they had not had the right to peacefully demonstrate. Sgt. Cotriss' right is the same as their rights, and to my knowledge, no police officer in the nation voluntarily relinquishes their constitutional rights when they are appointed. — Morris Devereaux

The Confederate battle flag is not a flag of slavery as falsely reported by the media and the civil rights industry. To portray the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of slavery and racism is to deny the historical fact that the War Between the States was fought for many reasons other than slavery. There was not one slave ever brought into the U.S. under the Confederate battle flag. Every slave brought into this country and sold was done so under the Stars and Stripes. Historically, during the some 224 years that slavery was legal in this country, the Confederate battle flag flew only four years, until the Confederacy was defeated, 1861-1865. Therefore, if you want to hate a flag of slavery and racism, then you should hate the Stars and Stripes. My hope is that the media stop portraying the display of the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of slavery or racism, but instead see it as a flag opposed to unlimited federal government – which, in the instance of Sgt. Silvia Curtiss, is an attempt by a local government to deny her First Amendment right of free speech. — Clifford I. Johnson

Why do modern-day liberals try to regulate what you live and think every day? Sure, Sgt. Cotriss is a police officer, but she is also a private citizen. When you are off duty and at your home, you are free to do as you feel as long as you don't break the law. The last time I checked, it's not against the law to fly a flag on your own property. Modern-day liberals want you to forget your past and your heritage so you can be included in their warped world. Well, if you have not heard it yet, safe-place liberal crybabies need suck it up, man up and get over it. We are not going to take it anymore. — Larry Deriso

It is my opinion that the battle flag of the Confederate states is a piece of history and should be in a museum. It was not THE flag of the Confederacy even though it has morphed into that. The Civil War was fought over the state's right to be a slave state. Displaying this flag shows the world you still believe slavery was right. A police officer cannot have beliefs that go against the common good. I'm not sure she should have been fired. Counseling would have been better. It is sad when a person who has promised "to serve and protect" allows their own personal bias to influence how they carry out their promises. Police officers should be held to a higher standard for two reasons: They enforce the law, and they are allowed to use deadly force. Displaying this flag is wrong, and if it is a public servant doing so, that is a big problem! — Shelly Moses

I think she should be allowed to express herself through her flag. "Black Lives" flags should be allowed as well. — Jerry Washington

"Conduct unbecoming a police officer?" You gotta be kidding me. With the U.S. Supreme Court giving "rights" to American flag burners, what is wrong with displaying a Confederate flag? All was well until the fiasco in South Carolina; then the political correctness police got involved, and an American icon was ordered down. The flag is a part of history, and the "new history" wonks are again trying to re-write the books. Roswell police administration should be ashamed of the unlawful termination of a sergeant, who by title only has invested a significant portion of her life defending the rights of others. — Ken Duvall

It's the officer's First Amendment right. The Constitution supersedes political correctness. Every time. — Richard Myers

They should've given the officer the chance to take it down. Was this a way to cheat her out of retirement pension? This flag is part of American history, and slavery had little to do with it. Ignorance prevails, and separatists whine about it like it was a personal experience. C'mon – ALL our ancestors were slaves at some point! It's not exclusive to black Americans! Get real! — Judy Matlock

As an enthusiast of history, law and civil rights, I am grateful for those who serve our communities faithfully and ethically. I read your article, and see the issue at hand as follows: A law enforcement officer, cop, deputy, etc., is a public servant. The public includes everyone. It is more likely than less that the officer, Sgt. Silvia Cotriss, knew good and well that the Confederate battle flag is in fact offensive to a large portion of society, including the majority of people of color, Caucasians, and true patriots of the United States of America. By Sgt. Silvia Cotriss using the First Amendment as a crutch for her display of rebellion and disrespect for the United States of America, can we then assume she thinks it's OK for public servants to display a Nazi swastika flag? An ISIL/ISIS flag? Maybe descendants of the former and latter should be able to display their symbols in honor of their dead too, no? Let's be realistic here; they are all symbols of hate, oppression and evil, regardless of personal, political or historical value. Though many people here in the South share a Confederate background, it was and is in fact a background which rebelled against our federal government and what it stood/stands for. Public servants should not support past nor present instruments of rebellion against our government and Constitution. If so, they are betraying the public trust; I would even reach to say it's downright treasonous. — Neben El

She has the freedom to fly the Confederate banner and should not have been dismissed from her job. She has broken no laws. If those who burn the American flag have the right to do so because of their freedom of speech, then she has the freedom to fly whatever flag she chooses at her home. — Mary Quiggle

I think it stinks of racism for people that don't understand that it was not a war over slavery; it was a war to take away the rights of the South to self-govern. The flag doesn't hate; people hate. Whoever complained needs to go back to school and learn the truth, and teachers need to do more research before they teach something. They have no idea what it really means. — David Myers

It's OK to burn the American flag; it's OK to not stand for our national anthem. But it's not OK to fly a Confederate flag outside your own home. Just saying! Free speech is OK if a liberal statement is made, BUT NOT FOR ANYBODY ELSE. — J. Bernhardt

Freedom of speech does not mean that the Heckler's Veto rules, especially when there is no previous complaint and the current complainer is unidentified. It is the bona fides of the anonymous complainer, not the officer, which should be questioned. There are so many race-baiting complainers and whiners out to promote their agenda of division since the Charleston murders that the fundamental principles of innocent until proven guilty and confrontation of the accuser should be observed, not the knee-jerk bandwagon of political correctness. Didn't we just have an election to assert that basic Americanism, not social justice engineering, is now reinstated as the norm? The Roswell officer should keep her flag and be reinstated with full back pay and substantial damages, to teach all public service authorities not to trample on Constitutional rights just to appease agitators and so-called community activists who want to fundamentally change America. — David McCallister

The former Roswell police sergeant should not have lost her job because of flying the Confederate flag. This punishment, in my opinion, was much, much too harsh! She should have been told to take the flag down and given a much less punishment. — M.S. Wood

The Roswell Police Department ought to be ashamed of what they did to Sgt. Silvia Cotres. I think she has a right to fly whatever flag she wants at her home. They need to realize this is America. They need to hire her back with all back pay and have to pay a fine for what they did to her. — Mark Sussmann

This is an African-American response to the At Issue column concerning letting a white police officer fly a Confederate Flag. There is a no reason that in 2016 we should allow a Caucasian police officer to fly a Confederate flag. The Confederate flag represents the enslavement and oppression of African-American people here in a white racist country. The fact that the police officer said she did not know this Confederate flag was offensive to African-American people speaks volumes of her disqualification to even be on the police force. At our home growing up, our parents and grandparents frequently discussed the history of African-Americans here in the United States of America. The American Civil War was a very prominent part of that history. A child in elementary school knows that fact. Yet here we have a Caucasian police officer whose job is to protect all the people, including African-Americans, who says she does not know something as basic as that. We do not believe her, and that disqualifies her from being a police officer. Either she is lying or she is ignorant. Either way, she needs to be off the police force permanently. If the white cop had flown a swastika, would she allowed to stay on the police force? Don't be ridiculous. Of course not! — Thomas Anthony Jones Sr.