New Jersey businessman and top Democrat operative George Norcross is blasting the “rent-a-cop thugs” who removed him from Lincoln Financial Field during the Eagles-Cowboys game Sunday because he draped an American-Israeli flag over the ledge of his suite.
The 67-year-old political powerbroker has confirmed that while he was in a private suite at the stadium, he was approached by security because of the flag.
Video of the incident shows Norcross engaging in a short but heated discussion with the security guards before being escorted out of the box. He was also booted from the stadium after being removed from his seat.
In an interview with Newsmax (via Mediaite) on Tuesday, Norcross described more of what went on over the incident and noted that he was “applauded” for displaying the flag — not just by fans but by Eagles officials.
But soon enough, that support evaporated, he said.
“Apparently, now the leadership of the Eagles and the NFL have decided that that flag, an American flag, Israeli flag, is considered obscene under their terms,” Norcross told Newsmax’s Wake Up America. Well, I’m sorry to say that Americans are not going to support the fact that the United States flag and an Israeli flag is deemed obscene.”
Norcross, who says he is still an “enthusiastic fan of the Philadelphia Eagles,” went on to say that he is considering a lawsuit against the security guards who “forcibly removed and assaulted” him. He added that one of the “rent-a-cop thugs” had “decided to grab me and put my arm behind my back and start to drag me out of the box.”
Officials, though, say that it is Norcross who was abusive and that he was not kicked out solely for displaying the flag.
In a statement supplied to the Philly Voice team spokesman, Bob Lange pointed the finger at Norcross.
Our stadium policies expressly prohibit signage containing any kind of non-game messaging to be hung from a stadium suite. Stadium staff repeatedly asked Mr. Norcross to remove the sign he hung outside of the suite. Instead of complying with the request, Mr. Norcross became physically and verbally abusive. Mr. Norcross was ejected from the stadium only after his abuse toward numerous stadium staff members continued. He was escorted from the suite level to the stadium’s ejection point, just as anyone else would be after engaging in abusive behavior in violation of stadium policy.
The video depicting Norcross’ encounter with the security guards was shot by Eagles fan Hailee Paige.
“I was like, I’m a proud Jew. This is great to see, especially at the Eagles game,” Paige said Monday. “I started recording and zoomed in so I could see more of what was happening. I thought he was getting arrested.”
Paige also felt Norcross was mistreated.
“I started getting a lot of reactions from it like, ‘What is going on? Why did they do that? Why did they kick him out? Why are they treating him like that?'” Paige exclaimed. “Personally, I think there’s a bunch of ways they could have handled that situation differently. Maybe security needs to be better trained so they know how to handle situations like this by talking things through before escalating it and embarrassing someone who didn’t do anything wrong or hurt anyone, or put anyone in harm’s way. I just think that type of treatment needs to get fixed.”
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