These days, it often feels like veterans do not get the respect that they deserve in this country despite everything that they have sacrificed for all of our freedoms.

Unfortunately, yet another story is going viral this week about a veteran who is being disrespected by his fellow Americans in a sick way.

Larry Murphree is a war veteran who loves to proudly hang his American flag at his condo.

Unfortunately, his neighbors claimed that flying the flag violates the homeowner’s association rules, so they forced him to sell his condo because he won't take the flag down.

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“One day I was thinking about the country, and I put a small American flag on my front porch in a flower pot," Murphree explained. 

“It’s a small flag, but it stands for a big thank you.”

The veteran soon received a letter from the Home Owner Association (HOA) at the Tides Condominium asking him to remove the flag, but he refused to do so.

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“I got a violation letter that stated the American flag was an unauthorized object and for me to take it down," he said.

Murphree spent six years serving as an Air Force air traffic controller during the Vietnam War, so he had no intention of removing the flag that he risked his life for.

Murphree was fined $100 every day that he didn’t remove the flag, and when the fine amount totaled $1,000, he called in attorney Gust Sarris.

“We believe we have the right to display the American flag, we filed suit in federal court," Sarris said, going on to add that an agreement was reached by the two parties, allowing Murphree to keep the flag in his flowerpot.

However, things took a turn for the worse when the HOA reversed their decision to only allowing Murphree to fly the flag on a pole, rather than in a flower pot.

“Somehow they re-categorized it and started doing the same thing again, which was the same flag, the same flower pot, the same dirt and the same plant," Sarris said.

The legal battle continued for seven years, during which time Murphree said he was constantly harassed by the HOA, who fined him for every infraction they could including not parking in his driveway straight enough or having a window decoration up after Christmas.

He eventually learned that the HOA had been using his fee money to pay off the fines, allowing them to put a lien on Murphree’s property in 2014, when they insisted he had not been paying his dues.

In doing this, they forced Murphree to sell his condo so that he would not be foreclosed on.

"Sold my place at a tremendous loss and got out of here," he said. 

“Somebody had to stand up and say, ‘this is not right.’”

Despite the fact that Murphree has sold his condo, he has continued his legal battle against the HOA, with his newest lawsuit heading to trial in the coming months.

It's despicable that this veteran was treated so badly by his own neighbors!

SHARE this story if you think he should be allowed to fly his flag wherever he wants!

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