Sununu stands ground as bickering erupts over Police Memorial Day flag flap

Old Glory flies at full staff on Saturday despite Gov. Chris Sununu's order that they fly at half staff to honor police officer killed or injured in the line of duty. (Rochester Voice photo)

Governor Sununu's condemnation of President Biden's 11th-hour reversal on flag placement for Peace Officers Memorial Day touched off a firestorm of political bickering on Saturday.

It all began late Friday night when the president of the United States sent out an executive order directing governors to fly the American flag at full staff on Saturday, countermanding his own order to fly them at half-mast earlier in the week.

Sununu and other governors took the latter decree as a slap in the face to police officers, who suffered staggering numbers of injury and death in 2020.

Gov Chris Sununu's statement to the media Friday night

Governor Sununu overrode Biden's Friday proclamation and ordered all flags in the Granite State to be flown at half-staff.

Rochester Police and Fire as well as the city post office all had their flags at half-staff on Saturday, while the Milton Post Office flag flew at full staff. An employee there said they had not been told to lower the flags by USPS district officials. The flag remained at full staff throughout their hours of operation.

"Late tonight Joe Biden quietly tried to reverse his Peace Officers Memorial Day Proclamation, hoping no one would notice they are no longer calling for flags to fly at Half Staff across the USA honoring our men and women in blue," the governor tweeted on Friday. "This is outrageous and precedent breaking."

The White House on Saturday refused to comment as to why the change was made.

According to the nation's flag code, Old Glory should be lowered to half staff on May 15 for Peace Officers Memorial Day unless it coincides with Armed Forces Day, which is the third Saturday in May, in which case it should be raised to full staff to honor those who served in the military.

But the explanation came far too late for Sununu, who ordered flags lowered to honor those officers killed or injured in the line of duty.

"New Hampshire will continue to honor the men and women who have died or been injured in the line of duty by flying flags at half staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day as we have always done, and as is right," Sununu said in the statement. "The Biden Administration's reversal of their earlier proclamation in the eleventh hour is shocking, and our men in women in blue, along with their families, are owed an explanation for this sudden reversal. I call on New Hampshire's congressional delegation to join with me in rejecting this disrespectful decision."

Meanwhile, the chair of the state's Democrat Party chided on what he called Sununu's "faux outrage."

"Governor Sununu's faux-outrage is offensive to our veterans and those in the armed services," he said in a statement. "Governor Sununu should immediately apologize for sending a politically charged and factually incorrect tweet to score partisan points. Sununu should comply with federal law and put the flag at full staff to honor our armed forces."

Sununu answered critics by saying even if there were a flag code precedent, Biden's reversal with no public explanation was reprehensible and an insult to New Hampshire's police officers.

"The fact remains that it was a disrespectful act by the president to reverse his directive to lower flags at 6 p.m. the night before, without even an explanation to law enforcement or their families who were expecting for their losses to be honored today, and with no reference made at all to Armed Forces Day," he said.

The members of New Hampshire's all-Democrat Washington delegation all tweeted thanks to members of the armed forces, but said nothing about Peace Officers Memorial Day.