Trump backers protest in drive by mayor’s home
The group of people gathered in Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr.’s driveway was cheerful Saturday even wondering what to expect from protesters headed their way.
But any fears of tension or discord ended up unfounded as between 25 and 30 them — many of them former President Donald Trump supporters and claiming to represent the Young Conservatives of Southern Indiana — drove past his house Saturday afternoon in Hammond’s Woodmar neighborhood to protest his criticism of a South Hammond man who had been flying a flag with a vulgarity against President Joe Biden in recent weeks.
Clearly having fun, McDermott and the group smiled and waved at the passersby; most of them smiled and waved back, while a few shouted angrily at him as they passed.
“Where are the paddy wagons? At the end of the street? We’ve had this planned all along,” McDermott joked at the thought of the city arresting the protesters. “Have a safe ride home!”
Instead of attempting to get the homeowner to remove the flag through the courts, McDermott instead went to the man’s house this week to talk to him about taking it down.
McDermott did admit that he shouldn’t have brought Code Enforcement into his social media screed earlier in the week, but his feelings on the vulgarity remain.
“That was dumb of me to do,” McDermott said of his post, which said in part that the city “will keep up this pressure until the homeowner voluntarily complies with city ordinance.”
“He flies nine flags — one has vulgarity on it, and he’s flying it in front of a park where kids play. I don’t have a problem with the other flags. And he took it down, so as long as it’s not visible, he can fly it in his basement.”
A neighbor of McDermott’s, Tracy Gerig, brought her 8-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, and sat on the parkway across the street offering their support to McDermott.
“I think the flag is disgusting, and I’ve only seen him fly it during games,” Gerig said of the baseball tournaments held at nearby Riverside Park. “It’s embarrassing for our city. I’m all about free speech, but not that in the presence of children.”
Kane County, Illinois Precinct Committeeman and Trump supporter Anthony Catella, of St. Charles, Illinois, came down to participate in the protest because he originally was under the impression that the protest was a pro-Trump rally.
Once McDermott filled him in on what was happening, he agreed with McDermott’s complaint, he said.
“There’s a far larger problem of decency and respect, and we need to get back to where we look at each other not as enemies,” Catella said. “We need to get back to the days of Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan, where it was ‘Before 6, it’s politics, but after 6, we’re friends.’ ”