Upside down & out in Midtown
Judge-flouting flag-flier ‘flips’ over ruling
A Midtown man who was ordered by a judge to stop displaying an American flag outside his condo window is refusing to surrender.
Eddie Desmond, whose father fought in the Korean War and whose grandfather served in World War I, has instead turned Old Glory on her head — flying his flag upside down in protest of the judge’s ruling and saying it will remain that way until a building official comes to take it down.
“When you fly the American flag upside down, it’s a distress signal,” he told The Post.
“Like, if you’re in the Alamo, and you’re out of ammunition, and you have no way to contact your guys because your radio is dead — it’s been shot to pieces — you fly the flag upside down and say, ‘You gotta come help me, this is it!’
“It’s not to be used lightly,” he said of the gesture. “It’s life and liberty that are at stake here.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Franc Perry on Friday sided with board members at Desmond’s building, at 516 W. 47th St., who had sued the 58-year-old union electrician and Trump supporter to remove his 2.5-by4-foot Stars and Stripes.
The board claimed that the flag violates the building’s rules against putting anything in “common areas,’’ including the building’s exterior.
Desmond’s flag flies from a pole fastened into the casement outside his third-floor windows. He said the space belongs to him, while the condo argued that it belongs to the building.
Justice Perry ruled that the area is a “common element.
“Every man may justly consider his home, his castle and himself as the king thereof,” Perry wrote, citing a case from the 1980s about a Greenwich Village man who lost a bid to move a building steam pipe to renovate his kitchen.
“Nonetheless, his sovereign fiat to use his property as he pleases must yield, at least in degree, where ownership is in com- mon or cooperation with others,’’ the judge said. “The benefits of condominium living and ownership demand no less.”
Justice Perry noted that Desmond “is free to display his flag within the confines of his unit.”
He said Desmond must allow a board agent — likely the build- ing’s superintendent — into his apartment to remove the flag and dismantle the flagpole.
Desmond said he doesn’t plan to barricade his apartment door, though he will appeal the ruling.
“It’s the American flag,” he said. “To me, there’s nothing more important. Good men have died for this flag. You can’t let them die in vain.”
Board lawyer Bruce Cholst would not respond to a question about when the flag will be removed, saying, “I have no further comment, as Justice Perry’s decision is very clear and speaks for itself.”