Evansville man plants Nazi flags outside town hall
Officials remove Pride flags in response
CASPER — The mayor of Evansville on Sunday removed the Pride flags on display outside the town’s Municipal Building to placate a resident who planted Nazi flags at the same location in protest of the city allowing the Pride flags to be displayed.
After reaffirming his desire to do so in the morning of June 11, Jeremy Brown planted swastika flags beside the Pride flags displayed on the town hall’s lawn that evening. They remained up for about 7 minutes before a passerby removed them, said Brown and Evansville Mayor Candace Machado.
“Safety is going to be of the utmost importance when we’re trying to find middle grounds,” Machado said of her motivation for finding a compromise with Brown.
Machado declined to comment when asked if she or other city officials had received any credible threats to their safety.
Machado said she extended an “olive branch” to Brown last Wednesday evening by agreeing to take down the flags by Sunday evening and by working with him directly to write an ordinance to address Brown’s concerns regarding the town’s endorsement of what he described as an ideology that is “projecting hate.”
Machado described the Pride flags as a show “supporting unity, love and compassion for all constituents in the town, not just some constituents in the town” on June 10, the day after Brown drew the swastikas on the town hall’s sidewalk.
In accordance with their agreement, Machado said she removed the Pride flags from the municipal building’s lawn Sunday shortly after 3 p.m.
This week, Machado’s office window is sporting iridescent multicolored streamers, a rainbow piñata and multicolored pinwheels.
In a series of replies to Machado’s Facebook posts since, Brown has called for the mayor’s resignation and noted “the games are just beginning.”
Machado on Tuesday said she will not resign.
The tense and increasingly confrontational dialogue between Machado and Brown began June 9, when Brown spoke out at a town council meeting against the display of Pride flags. He called the council “so toxic it’s almost like a cancer” and said he holds “a tremendous disdain” for the Pride flags and what they represent.
“You have now pretty much opened Pandora’s Box,” Brown said at the meeting. “It opens the doors, because then I can put my swastikas, because it’s like a free speech thing,” he said when asked how Pride flags are hateful.
Brown is the only person who has claimed responsibility for the flags, though a handful of others have expressed support for his actions on Facebook. The majority of comments on Machado’s Facebook posts appear to express support for the mayor.
On Tuesday, Machado said Brown has repeatedly contacted the council to air grievances over the last 16 months or so. The exchange that resulted in their agreement last weekend was the first respectful message he’d sent to her in that span.
Though the ordinance hasn’t been drafted yet, Machado said the town will send a draft to Brown directly. The town’s next regularly scheduled meeting is set for Monday at 7 p.m.
This story was published on June 19, 2025.
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