SEE IT: Confederate flag in East Village window enrages neighbors

A rabble-rouser is raising the ire of East Village residents with a rebel flag.

Angry neighbors tossed rocks and hurled insults Wednesday at the windows of an E. Eighth St. apartment where a pair of Confederate flags were draped, backlit by bright lights.

Cops blocked off the area outside the building around 11 p.m. and were trying to talk to the tenant, according to Mike Schweinsberg, the ABCD block association president.

“We don’t want a riot here,” Schweinsberg said.

Dozens of neighbors crowded along lines of police tape to gawk at the banners.

A video obtained by the Daily News shows a man lobbing rocks at the sixth-floor windows of the building, on the corner of Avenue D, earlier in the day.

The NYPD said no arrests were made at the address.

The Confederate flags, joined by Israeli and American flags, have been hanging in the windows for more than a year, but recent violence in Virginia has brought new meaning to the symbols, neighbors said.

Lower East Side apartment sports a colonial flag, an Israeli flag and — most upsettingly for one neighbor in particular — a Confederate flag." src="http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.3418641.1502946267!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/flags.jpg" />The Lower East Side apartment sports a colonial flag, an Israeli flag and — most upsettingly for one neighbor in particular — a Confederate flag. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News)

“It’s disrespectful, it’s disrespecting the whole neighborhood,” said Mary C., 51. “It’s not about hating him or trying to hurt him . . . but we need to sit him down and let him know in this neighborhood it’s not a good idea.”

Schweinsberg said he hoped that the cops can convince the tenant to take down the flags — for the sake of the neighborhood.

“The cops went up there, there was absolutely no response to repeated knocks on the door,” he added. “So the idea now is that they’re going to reach out to the landlord and ask for something to be hung from the roof to cover it up. That way hopefully he will communicate.”

Longtime residents described the Dixie fan as a neatly-dressed man in his early 30s.

Another neighbor, Paul Bakija, 53, the guitar player for the seminal New York hardcore band Reagan Youth, said he’s been seeing the flags since last year.

“This is good that we’re all here complaining, because I live in the sixth floor and I see it every night,” he said.

Bakija’s band was known for their satirical album covers mocking the Ku Klux Klan and their anarchist political leanings.

furious man objecting to the Confederate imagery tries to hurl an object at the window where it is displayed." src="http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.3418638.1502946264!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/flag17n-5-web.jpg" />A furious man objecting to the Confederate imagery tries to hurl an object at the window where it is displayed. (Courtesy Janette Brown)

“I’ve seen him open the window, open up the screen, and yell N-word, S-word,” Bakija said. “When Trump came, he put the halogen lights and blared it.”

The musician decided to quote one of his band’s own songs to sum up his feelings on the situation.

“I just hate hate,” Bakija said.

A patrol car will stay in the area and monitor the situation, cops said.

But one law enforcement source said that cops’ hand were tied regarding the flags.

“They can’t knock the guys door down and say, ‘hey, don’t fly that flag.’ It’s not Nazi Germany,” the source said.

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