Post office caught flying US flag upside-down — and locals react strongly: 'Embarrassing\

What happened?

• An American flag was flying upside-down in front of the U.S. Postal Service’s main facility in Martinez, California, on Monday, the East Bay Times reported.

How did observers react to the upside-down flag?

• Commenters on a local Facebook page reacted strongly to a photo of the flag, the paper said.
• “Seems absolutely appropriate for the times we’re living in," one noted, the Times said. "After all it’s a distress signal …”
• Another commenter said, “A mistake is delivering someone’s mail to the wrong mail box …. " and that "it reflects on the city and is embarrassing,” the paper reported.
• “I wish people would put as much effort into helping veterans as they do complaining about the flag,” another commenter added, according to the Times.
• Other chalked it up as your garden-variety gaffe, the paper said.

What the the postal service say?

• “It was just a mistake, probably an error by the person who raised the flag in the morning,” Postal Service spokesman Augustine Ruiz told the Times. “No one would have done something like this intentionally.”
• The paper said the upside-down flag could have been flying for much of the day, photos were taken of it over the lunch hour and that it came down by day's end.
• Ruiz told TheBlaze on Friday the postmaster was notified about the flag issue on Monday and that it was "corrected" that same day, but he said he's not sure what time the correction occurred. Ruiz didn't immediately reply Friday regarding whether the flag was re-raised before the end of the day.

What does the U.S. Flag Code say about the upside-down position?

• "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property," the code reads.
• The Times said an upside-down U.S. flag is commonly acknowledged as a form of political protest.

Has this happened at post offices before?

• Yup. In fact, an upside-down flag was reported flying at a Pleasanton, California, post office in June.
• TheBlaze reported about a flag flying upside-down at a Dallas post office in 2015.

(H/T: The American Mirror)