WINTER GARDEN, Fla., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A mayor in Florida was so outraged by one man's refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, he had police to remove the unknown offender.

Winter Garden Mayor John Rees excused the man's self-expression when he refused to stand for the prayer that opened the city commission meeting, but had no tolerance for his refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.


"I did not make him stand for the prayer," Rees told the Orlando Sentinel.

"But the Pledge? Even school kids stand."

Fed up, Rees told the man to take his silent protest elsewhere, demanding the man "'either stand or go in the hallway.'"

"So I told him, 'You have two choices: You can stand or go outside ... It wasn't premediated. I just reacted. It hit me. I said it. I gave him an option...Life will go on."

When the man refused to comply with Rees' ultimatum, Police Chief George A. Brennan approached him, demanding to know, "What are you going to do?"

The man then left without further incident.

Mayor Reese was elected to a third three-year term in March 2014.