A Lafayette County man landed behind bars after he was arrested for disorderly conduct for waiving the Mississippi state flag in front of a local Confederate monument.

The altercation on Monday between Matt Reardon – a “God loving, gun toting, Constitution loving patriotic grassroots conservative” – and Lafayette County Sheriff’s Deputy Timmy Pruitt was recorded by Reardon and posted to Facebook.

Reardon was simply holding the state flag in front of a Confederate soldier monument at the Lafayette County Courthouse in Oxford, Mississippi when Pruitt demanded that he leave the public property because he did not have a special permit, the Oxford Eagle reports.

“You have to leave,” Pruitt said in the video.

“Can I ask you a question?” Reardon replied.

“No, sir. I’m going to ask you one more time to leave, if not I’m going to go you to jail, disorderly conduct,” the deputy said.

“Ok, I’ll leave and take this straight to my attorney then,” Reardon said as he began to walk away. “You can’t threaten me with my First Amendment rights. …

“This f**king city is ass f**king backwards,” he continued, making his way down the sidewalk. “Ass f**king backwards.”

Reardon then stopped briefly and turned back.

“Hey, what’s your badge number, by the way, Deputy Pruitt?” he asked, stepping toward the officer.

Pruitt then removed his handcuffs and strongarmed Reardon’s arms behind his back.

“I was leaving,” Reardon shouted. “I was asking you.”

“I was leaving,” he said.

Pruitt lodged Reardon in the Lafayette County Detention Center on a charge of disorderly conduct. He was later released on a $250 bond, the Eagle reports.

Later Monday evening, the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department issued a public statement on the incident.

“On 5-1-2017 the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department received a complaint concerning assembly on the Lafayette County Courthouse Lawn. Deputy Sheriff Timmy Pruitt responded and spoke to a Matt Reardon,” the statement read.

“Timmy asked Mr. Reardon if he had a permit to demonstrate or protest and he advised that he did not. It is against the law to protest or demonstrate without a permit on the Courthouse Square or lawn,” the statement continued. “Mr. Reardon was asked to leave because of no permit but he did not leave. Mr. Reardon became agitated and began using profanity.

“Therefor (sic) Mr. Reardon was arrested for disorderly conduct and not producing a permit to protest or demonstrate.”

Reardon later spoke with the Oxford Eagle in a live interview posted to Facebook.

“I was just … on the square and it was just something I wanted to do,” he said. “I saw the Confederate statue standing there lonely and I thought it should have a state flag in front of it.”

“It was just me, there were no other people out there with me standing around me,” he said. “A lot of people took pictures and video as they went around the square … but I just stood there in my place with my feet shoulder width apart holding the flag and looking straight ahead. …

“My goal was not to have any confrontation.”