flag ruffle otherwise-peaceful event friday hundreds locals descend upon open space love trump hate rally marshall collins jr. traverse city raise fist air truck circle event.collins black late confront white man drive truck park restrict zone sip bud light crowd grow around vehicle say man deny flag history steep racism division mean lot people like collins say mean hatred photograph incident circulate social media follow confrontation police chief jeff brien saturday confirm man depict officer michael peters 18-year veteran department say sergeant conduct internal investigation start monday traverse city police department represent brien say provide protection everybody confederate flag something consider oath office take oath office constitution confederacy personally feel flag stand hate hatred peters reach comment.a woman arrive peters another man ryan salisbury former grand traverse county sheriff deputy hold anti-hillary clinton sign nearby local businessman andy mcfarlane confront trio along collins say attend rally felt trump use racist sexist rhetoric.the confederate flag support bigoted stances say reason powerful reaction symbol denial right portion population mcfarlane said.collins grow split time northport florida say flag-emblazoned truck like peters frighten sight days south vehicles force collins sister bush bed fear prowl ku klux klan members.he speak experience crowd rallygoers peters nerve tell experience flag collins said.salisbury deny saw peters participate protest although two park next could see together say arrive stand fair election felt insenstive hold rally veterans day think americans right demonstrate peacefully said.salisbury say confederate flag symbol racism.peters stay 10 minutes finish beers drive rumor circulate among protesters peters local law enforcement officer collins know sure saturday.collins say feel safe know someone suppose protect right would fly flag say brien condemnation hit nail head hope hold peters accountable say need hold accountable brien say officer constitutional right free speech also code conduct internal policies say sergeant monday look whether peters violate rule well local prohibitions people openly drink alcohol internal investigation see policy violate said.traverse city police officials recently shift toward community police model officer encourage develop local tie community brien say peters apparent behavior represent department try hard build relationships community brien said.via record eagle break off-duty police officer suspend drive butt-hurt trump-haters confederate flag truck