Florida County Votes To Re-Hang Confederate Flag After Hiatus

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Bucking the national trend of removing the Confederate flag from public spaces, one Florida county voted Tuesday to put the stars and bars back up after a brief hiatus.

Marion County, Fla. officials took down the Confederate flag that flies at the county government complex last week, temporarily replacing it with a flag bearing the county seal, News 13 reported. The County Commission unanimously approved a move to fly the flag again days later, saying members would meet with historians to discuss placing markers by the flag to “explain its historical significance.”

One Confederate flag supporter told the station: “We live in America, and the last time I checked it was a democracy. So, here in Marion County, which has, what, 300,000 people, how can one man decide to take it off a flagpole?”

Interim County Administrator Bill Kauffman had made the decision to remove the flag because of the “perceived connotations” of flying the Confederate flag at government buildings after suspect Dylann Roof allegedly shot and killed nine parishioners in a black Charleston church last month.

Watch raw video of the flag going back up below, via WFTV:

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