After recent mass shootings at high schools in Texas and Florida, President Trump ordered American flags across the country lowered to half-staff to honor the victims. He did the same after killing sprees in Las Vegas and in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
However, the city of Annapolis confirmed to NPR that the president has declined a request for a similar show of respect for four journalists and a newspaper sales representative killed by a gunman last week at The Capital.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed, you know? … Is there a cutoff for tragedy?” Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley wondered aloud after he says the White House said no to his request that the slain newspaper staff be so honored.
“This was an attack on the press. It was an attack on freedom of speech. It’s just as important as any other tragedy,” Buckley said, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan ordered the state flag flown at half-staff on Friday through sunset on Monday.
But Buckley, a Democrat, tells the Sun that the scope of the tragedy at the city’s newspaper merited more than that.
“It’s not as noticeable when a state flag is down but you still have your main flags at full mast,” he said.
Buckley said he had thought of ordering American flags in Annapolis lowered, but that his wife talked him out of concern that it would “polarize people,” he said.
The White House could not immediately be…
