On July 10, Wild Bill’s Old West Trading Company in Elk Grove, California, took down its Confederate flag after allegedly receiving death threats.
According to CBS Sacramento, store manager Jacob Shockley said, “I took it down because of safety reasons.” In the flag’s place he put up a sign, printed in capital letters, that says:
WE CAN NO LONGER FLY OUR CONFEDERATE FLAG DUE TO THE SO-CALLED “TOLERANT” LIBERALS THREATENING THE STAFF AND THIS BUILDING.
Some of the threats were allegedly specific, but Shockley said some were just general threats toward the store. Things like, “Watch the building; it’s going to come down; you guys are racists; you guys are intolerant.”
Wild Bill’s originally put the flag outside after the Charleston church attack as way to fight against what they viewed as an assault on the First Amendment. Shockley told The Sacramento Bee, “We decided to fly the flag outside because we’re not going to let people take away our rights. They’re already taking the TV show ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ off TV because of the flag. They’re taking down everything because of the flag.”
Wild Bill’s then moved the flag inside after protests by “Black Lives Matter” were launched. And the flag continued to fly inside until July 10 as a way for Shockley and the rest of Wild Bill’s to press back against those whom they viewed as “caving in” and blaming the flag for actions of alleged gunman Dylann Roof in Charleston.
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