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A vendor displays a flag with taped over offensive words after receiving a warning from a public works inspector in Mission Viejo, California, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. The city was warning vendors about an ordinance that prohibits showing profane or vulgar words or photos in the public view.

President Joe Biden speaks to reporters after meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Waldorf Astoria Jeddah Qasr Al Sharq hotel, Friday, July 15, 2022, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Despite complaints from neighbors, officials in a Connecticut town say they cannot force a local resident to take down a flag that profanely opposes President Joe Biden.

MANCHESTER — A local man who has been flying a flag that profanely opposes President Joe Biden says he will not back down in the face of neighbors’ complaints and police visits.

Matthew Cooke said Friday he told officers who have been to his home twice recently that he will raise the “(Expletive) Biden” banner when he chooses under protection of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

“It’s a civil protest against an administration that doesn’t seem to care about Americans,” said Cooke, a recently retired purchasing agent for an aerospace firm.

Assistant Town Attorney Tim O’Neil said another resident who was flying a similar flag shortly after the 2020 election took it down voluntarily after neighbors complained and police visited. But the town could not force any action against that resident or Cooke, O’Neil said.

“Someone suggested an ordinance, but it would not survive a Constitutional attack,” O’Neil said. “It’s free speech on private property, as offensive as it may be.”

The flags are widely available (a 3-by-5-foot version was on sale at Amazon for $7.95) and have caused controversies elsewhere in Connecticut and throughout the nation. Besides F-bombing Biden, some versions, including Cooke’s, say in smaller letters, “And (expletive) you for voting for him!”

In the Terryville section of Plymouth last year, residents raised a stir about a flag with the same message. Police Capt. Edward Benecchi said at the time that neighbors of the man, who displayed multiple anti-Biden banners in his yard, complained that children and students passing on school buses should not have to see such profanity, according to The Hartford Courant.

But Benecchi said police consulted with the state’s attorney’s office in New Britain and found “we are unable to intercede as it would violate (the resident’s) First Amendment right to free speech.”

“However crass,” Dan Barrett, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, said at the time, “a property owner’s ability to criticize the president is protected by the First Amendment.”

Cooke, 66, said police have relayed the same concerns about school children from his neighbors in the Porter Street area. Highland Park Elementary School is just down the street. But Cooke said school is not in session and his anti-Biden flag is not widely visible because of trees on either side of his front yard.

Officials in Roselle Park, N.J., took a resident to court over profane anti-Biden flags, citing a local obscenity ordinance that prohibited public display of the F-word. The local rule’s definition of obscenity included material that depicts or describes sexual conduct or lacks any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

A municipal court judge ruled the homeowner had violated the ordinance and ordered her to remove the signs or pay a $250-a-day fine. But the borough dropped the case in July 2021 after the American Civil Liberties Union intervened on behalf of the resident.

People opposed to former President Donald Trump also have raised homemade and manufactured banners with the F-Trump message. Those flags, hats and other items with the same or similar messages also are widely available from Amazon and other sources.

Manchester residents have been debating Cooke’s anti-Biden flag on community Facebook pages.

Some said free speech comes with responsibility.

“Children are the victims!” one woman wrote in a long line of comments about the flag. “Their world is already full of such hate and hostility, they don't need to see this crap!!”

However, another person wrote, “To teach your children that the privilege to ‘agree to disagree’ is one of the things that make this country a great place to live, and we would all be better to practice tolerance, kindness and courtesy (the flag bearer included). But no one has the right to force it.”

Cooke had a 13-star American flag flying in his front yard Friday, but he did not have the F-Biden flag up. He said he would raise it again when updated economic reports come out later this month and reinforce his message against the current president.