Outrageous reason family of fallen Iraq war hero were told to remove their Memorial Day tribute
An Arizona woman was told by her HOA that she needed to take down a banner honoring her soldier brother who died in Iraq because it was a 'nuisance.'
Kendall Rasmusson has flags, banners and other patriotic decorations on her front lawn in Surprise, a suburban community near Phoenix.
The most important of her Memorial Day adornments is a poster depicting her late brother, Sgt. John Kyle Daggett.
Daggett, 21, died on May 15, 2008, roughly two weeks after he sustained serious injuries from a propelled grenade attack while fighting in Baghdad.
This didn't matter to her new HOA management company, Trestle Management Group, which sent her a letter on May 7 telling her she needed to take it down.
In the letter obtained by AZFamily, the company said the banner showing Daggett violated an HOA regulation on property 'nuisances.'
'They put it in comparison with dead plants, dead trees and bushes, and it was kind of offensive to have it be in this comparison of what they're calling a nuisance,' Rasmusson told the outlet in an interview.
The letter also appeared to compare the banner to 'rubbish' and 'debris,' while also calling it 'unsightly.'
Frustrated, Rasmusson posted about this on a local social media page, which then prompted Trestle to send her another email seeking to defuse the situation.
In that email, the company further clarified that its intention was 'not to cause frustration or overlook the significance of the display'.
Trestle also claimed that its representatives had noticed that the poster of Rasmusson's brother had been up for several months.
This is what caused them to classify it as a permanent exterior feature instead of a decoration. Under the HOA's rules, decorations can go up 30 days before a holiday and must be taken down 10 days after.
Most HOAs have regulations similar to this in order to maintain a uniform look in the community, with some even restricting the size and specific placement of decorations.
This isn't the first time Rasmusson has been asked to take the banner down. In 2018, her old HOA management company fined her $500 for keeping it up too long.
But after she launched an online petition, she was allowed to keep it up on other holidays such as Independence Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day.
Rasmusson said the new management company doesn't seem to be aware of the prior arrangement she had or isn't willing to honor it.
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