It would be interesting to know whether the owner of the flag knew that he was violating any protocols for handling the flag. If the veteran approached the owner of the flags and asked them to correct the orientation of the flags before doing what he did, then I can see his position. Otherwise, his conduct was worse then theirs, especially with the way he threw the Mexican flag on the ground.
According to the website cited in the first post, the flag owner's conduct was not illegal, just inappropriate:
Quote:
Are there penalties for violating the Flag Code?
No. The Flag Code (see below) is intended as a guide to be followed on a purely voluntary basis to insure proper respect for the flag.
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http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html
Whether the flag owners held our flag in contempt before this incident is hard to say without knowng more about why they did what they did and what knowledge they had of our customs. Probably the only thing I would say is that if they had respect for our flag before, they probably don't respect it any more.