Hernando man insists Old Glory should fly higher than Canada's flag
By Joel Anderson, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, May 14, 2009
Walter Fallica, 62, explains his side of an altercation he had with the Brookridge Country Club over the height of a Canadian flag being flown in front of the club’s pro shop.
BROOKRIDGE — If pushed far enough, Walter Fallica says he is ready to fight.
It doesn't make much difference to Fallica if the conflict happens in Vietnam, in Iraq, in his garage, or outside the pro shop at the Brookridge Country Club.
"I've been fighting the system since I was a child," Fallica said Wednesday. "When I feel something is important, I will not back down. I'm like a pit bull."
Which might explain how Fallica found himself behind bars Monday, accused of trying to cut down the flag of Canada outside the Brookridge pro shop following a heated dispute about the U.S. Flag Code.
Fallica, 62, of Brookridge, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence in connection with the incident. He was released from the Hernando County Jail Tuesday afternoon.
A day later, sitting with a couple of friends on his patio, Fallica said he had no regrets about taking matters into his own hands.
"I felt like my back was against the wall," Fallica said. "I needed to get someone to hear my plea. I told them, 'Please do not disgrace my flag.' Especially when we've got boys out there fighting in harm's way."
A disabled Vietnam veteran from Long Island, N.Y., Fallica was one of several Brookridge residents to protest in March when the Canadian flag was raised alongside the U.S. flag outside the pro shop. Fallica and the others insisted the U.S. flag should be flown higher, particularly during a time of war.
The dispute, Fallica said, had nothing to do with Canada or the Canadian maple leaf.
"The last people in the world I want to insult are Canadians," Fallica said. "I have a lot of friends who are Canadian. I truly apologize to Canadian people."
But still upset that his complaints had gone unaddressed for weeks, Fallica said he decided Monday to lower the Canadian flag himself. Fallica said he called the club's security office a couple of hours in advance to inform them of his plans.
"I thought it was someone not paying attention and they ran the Canadian flag up too high," he said. "I didn't think it would be a problem to correct an unknown error in flag display."
From that point, Fallica's account of the confrontation differs from deputies with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
Fallica said he was merely going to lower the flag until he felt threatened by a group of golfers who had gathered around the flagpole.
"They started milling around with golf clubs," Fallica said. "I was outnumbered 20 to 1. So I said to myself, 'This is not cool.' If push comes to shove, someone is coming with me."
Over the protests of club assistant Cindy Claytor, Fallica pulled a knife out of his pocket and cut the rope that holds the Canadian flag.
Deputies later came to arrest Fallica at a friend's home, where he admitted to cutting down the flag and said he was willing "to die for this cause." Told that he was going to be arrested, Fallica put up a struggle before being subdued by three deputies.
Since news of his arrest made the rounds at the sprawling retirement community west of Brooksville, Fallica said he's been greeted with praise and gratitude from many residents. A strong patriotic streak seems to runs through the area, where U.S. flags are a popular front-yard accessory.
"He's 100 percent right," said Dennis Anton Sr., a friend and neighbor of Fallica.
"No flag should ever fly higher than our flag," said another friend, Richard Rupe.
But according to the U.S. Flag Code, when flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown from separate poles of the same height and the flags should be about the same size. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in time of peace.
Claytor, the club assistant, said the misunderstanding has been a common one since the Canadian flag went up outside the club.
"We have the flag code to back us up," Claytor said. "You can't please all of the people all of the time."
Fallica, however, still believes the club is flying the Canadian flag on the wrong side of the U.S. flag. Claytor disagreed, saying, "yes, it looks like it's on the wrong side, if you're looking at it from the street. But if you're at our club, it's on the left side."
For better or worse, Fallica said he's been fighting these sorts of battles for years. Looking every bit the part of a grizzled biker with his tattoo-covered arms and bald head, Fallica can run through a list of previous disagreements where he's threatened to split someone's face open, or rip someone's head off or do some grisly combination of the two.
When an argument gets heated, Fallica explains, he gets louder and his language gets a little more coarse. It's all part of a life spent in Long Island, he said.
But Fallica hopes to put this arrest behind him and pour his energy into opening a new motorcycle shop.
He also hopes to leave Florida, something he's been planning to do since his wife died following a bout with throat cancer in 2006.
"Georgia's looking a lot better," Fallica said. "You all have some strange laws around here."
Joel Anderson can be reached at joelanderson@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6120.
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