Reported by Michael Harrelson, editor, HottyToddy.com
michael.harrelson@hottytoddy.com
A mistake by an employee during the replacement of a Mississippi state flag that had been torn by the wind resulted in the Confederate Battle flag flying briefly at the Mississippi State Supreme Court in Jackson, Mississippi, on Friday.
Oxford’s Christen Hemmins, a nationally known journalist and blogger for HottyToddy.com, was the first person to talk with Kevin Church at the Mississippi Department of Finance and administration following an incident in Jackson on Friday that witnessed the flying of the Confederate flag in front of the Mississippi Supreme Court.
According to an account that Hemmins sent to HottyToddy.com following a report of the sighting of the stars and bars at the state court, it was all an honest mistake.
Hemmins reports, “He’s just figured out what happened. “It was an honest mistake,” says Mr. Upchurch. The Mississippi flag that was hanging in front of the Supreme Court took a bad tear in a gust of wind this morning, so his office sent someone down to the flag store to buy a new flag. The first store was out. They went to a second store, and ended up buying the Confederate Battle Flag, simply not realizing it was not the state flag. “Our guys did not recognize it,” Hemmins quotes Upchurch as saying. “…there was certainly no intent, it was just ignorance on the DFA’s part.”
As reported by Cottonmouth Blog , the flag flew for an unspecified amount of time until the mistake was realized and the court asked that it be taken down promptly.
Lt. Hamilton, the Capitol Police officer notified to take down the flag, said Capitol police took down the flag as soon as they were alerted.
A later news report posted on the Rachel Maddow MSNBC blog site said the boxes containing the Confederate Battle flag had been labeled “Mississippi State Flag.”
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