Texas police confiscate political yard sign showing elephant with trunk up girl's skirt

[pstokely]

Source: Star-Telegram

A campaign sign in Central Texas this week drew the scorn of an elected state official — and then it was confiscated by police.

At issue in the small community of Hamilton was a homemade yard sign featuring an elephant decorated in red, white and blue with its trunk up the skirt of a female saying the word “Help.” The sign said “Your vote matters.”

Other signs promoting Democrats from U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke to Agriculture Commissioner candidate Kim Olson were in the background.

This “is supposed to be Judge Kavanaugh’s young daughter,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller posted along with the photos on Facebook this week. “The Democrat sleaze knows NO bounds!”

Read more: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article219551530.html

[dchill]

1. It is Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller...

who knows no bounds.

[Gothmog]

2. Sue the police

[SunSeeker]

25. +1

[djg21]

47. It's quite clearly a 1st Amendment Violation.

Where is the ACLU?

[rdking647]

3. that sign should be spread far and wide.

especially on sid millers facebook and twitter pages...
https://twitter.com/MillerForTexas
https://www.facebook.com/MillerForTexas/

[MontanaMama]

13. Miller proudly describes

himself as a Deplorable on his a Twitter page.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Politically protected speech

Perhaps Sid felt politically threatened by the sign.

[PoliticAverse]

5. That's a future free-speech lawsuit loss right there for the government. n/t

[cstanleytech]

6. Well the police just set their department for a major 1st amendment lawsuit now.

[Midnight Writer]

40. And if it moves all the way up to the Kavanaugh Kourt? Wonder how that will work out?

[LiberalFighter]

7. The police need something up their ass.

[RhodeIslandOne]

8. This "is supposed to be Judge Kavanaugh's young daughter,"

What a bizarre projection.

[riversedge]

16. It comes from vile Sid Miller!!!

[RhodeIslandOne]

26. He sounds like a pervert

An investigation as to why he thinks something like that may be in order.

[NCjack]

9. Repugs can serve the real thing, but can't take a sign. nt

[Samspadesnark]

10. So, not only did the police stupidly set themselves up for a First Amendment lawsuit

but now, unless a lawful zoning ordinance has been violated, these signs will be selling like hotcakes all over the United States, raising money for the dems. Only in Putin's Russia do the police get the final say over what signs you place on your own property.

[riversedge]

17. I am not certain that is so. Perhaps even the headline

is wrong. Not clear--for me --from the article if the police just took it or the owner asked for it to be taken.


.....Even so, Miller’s Facebook post drew attention to Stanford and her sign, prompting countless reactions, including those that called for her to be arrested.

Police did show up at her home.

Some say she was told to remove the sign or it would be confiscated. City officials said police visited Stanford’s home and she asked them to take the sign.

Either way, the sign is gone.

Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article219551530.html#storylink=cpy

[skylucy]

11. I want one of those signs!!!

[Farmgirl1961]

52. Me too!

Let's make 1,000 of them!

[iluvtennis]

12. Don't we as homeowners have the right to put whatever we want on

Our front lawns. I know I can’t do it on the part of the front yard that is considered a public easement, but the core yard is mine as the homeowners. Enough of this big brother bullshit

[Separation]

22. The second you join a HOA, you just signed away pretty much everything

Up to and including your house.

[dbackjon]

31. Not Political speech

[Separation]

34. Unless

Its deemed offensive by the H.O.A.

Look, I'm not saying it an offensive sign. I'm saying that H.O.A's. are known countrywide to suppress anything they deem that goes against their charter.

AFTER EDIT: I'm sure that there is a very good 1st amendment case against any HOA that would try it. I'm sure there have been cases in the past that have used the same argument. Ya just don't hear about HOA's losing that often.

[Tarc]

35. Even if it violates an HOA rule, that is a civil matter, not criminal

The HOA tells the homeowner to remove the sign. He refuses, they fine him, he refuses to pay, they take him to court. That should take months-to-a-year to wind through a local court. At no part in this process should law enforcement be involved.

[Separation]

36. I agree with you, you're preaching to the choir.

Obviously, somebody else thinks otherwise. At least here, its the police confiscating the sign (if they did vs. her just giving it to them to not have to deal with it) and if so there will be a definite 1st Amendment case.

I was responding to a person who made a comment about being able to place whatever they want in their yard, to which I countered unless they have an H.O.A. No, they can't, which I will still stand by. No matter how much I disagree with it.

[LeftInTX]

38. We have laws in Texas protecting political signs from HOAs

I have no idea why the police were involved in this............

I can see a HOA asking a sign be removed because of the content.....they can also be removed if they are too large

[iluvtennis]

39. Agree about HOA...that was case when I owned a condo. With my house, no HOA.

[MontanaMama]

14. Private property rights?

You’d think those would be sacred in TX.

[Fred Sanders]

18. Free speech? First amendment? The wannabe Nazis really need a Civics lesson.

[riversedge]

15. She sad it was echoing a cartoon by Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post.......

And of course the Repugs made an issue of it.


Marion Stanford, who made the sign, told the Dallas Morning News she did paint it after watching Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testify before Congress. But she said the female on the sign was not Kavanaugh’s daughter.

She sad it was echoing a cartoon by Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post.

Link to tweet

Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article219551530.html#storylink=cpy

[Mr.Bill]

19. The date on the tweet indicates

it has nothing to do with Kavanaugh or his daughter.

[Separation]

23. The projection and optics

Couldn't be clearer for anyone of us not living in bizarro world.

It's just the Trump acolytes that project that this is somehow Kavanaugh's daughter. It will piss off the acolyte base, and give them something else to cry about.

I've never seen bigger snowflakes when it comes to Trump and those that suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

[marieo1]

20. More craziness

I thought police were actually law enforcement!!! Isn't this a country where, on your own property, you can do what you want if you are not putting other peoples lives in danger. Different laws in Texas apparently!! We are letting a nominee for the Supreme Court off the hook for sexual abuse and we also have DJT in our WH who has bragged and laughed about doing sexual things to unsuspecting women. Because of this, I think this sign was completely appropriate.

[Mr.Bill]

21. October 5th, 2018.

The day they started sending the police out to confiscate political signs from the opposition.

[duhneece]

24. R for rapists R for Republicans

Would my sign be too over the top?

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Kavanaugh's publicity photos of his daughters do not show them in pigtails

so it is from the Telnaes cartoon, and not about his daughters.

[Liberty Belle]

28. Call the ACLU - sounds like a perfect case for them.

[Duppers]

32. Reminds me, I need to make a donation.

They're going to have to hire more attorneys to carry these caseloads.

[LisaL]

51. My thoughts exactly.

[rogue emissary]

29. The elephant should have been painted like the Russian flag.

[dbackjon]

30. POLITICAL SPEECH IS FREE SPEECH

Lock every single one of those fuckers up in jail, and never let them out.

[gtar100]

33. So pointing out the truth is "sleaze" but the actual act is not.

Tragic how republicans live with their heads up their own asses. I know both sides go tit-for-tat with insults but I cannot fathom how they can justify some of the things they defend - sexual predators, greed, prejudice, fear...tRump. My sympathies to everyone who has to live in republican-infested areas. Their stupidity is their own damn fault.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

37. Sign failed to pass Texas religious purity test.

Quote from Miller:

“I’m glad that I called out this offensive campaign sign and am pleased that hundreds of others did so as well,” he said. “It’s vulgar and just plain wrong and it had no place in someone’s yard visible from the street.

Sanctimonious asshole. If it had been a caricature of tRump with his hand up a girl's dress, it would have been celebrated......

Sounds pretty evangelical and anti-American to me.....

[xor]

45. They would be celebrating it if it was a picture of Bill Clinton's hands under the dress

They are allowed to do stuff like that, but not the other way around. Just to be clear, if someone made similar picture of a donkey or Clinton/Obama/Any democrat, then I would have the same opinion about their right to post such sign. This isn't a graphic sign.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

46. Their hypocrisy is endless and 24/7.

The best example is non-stop lies and deception throughout their media, speeches and campaign propaganda.

Yet, they claim attachment to - and support from - a large number of churches in the US where lying is supposed to be a sin.

.....

[joshcryer]

50. How do people like this sleep at night?

[KY_EnviroGuy]

53. They say their Faux prayers before bedtime!

.........

[Vinca]

41. Sounds like a lawsuit to me.

[onetexan]

54. yeap, freedom of speech

[MrModerate]

42. Another "How stupid are the cops? THIS stupid." story . . .

There are so many.

[Drahthaardogs]

43. It's just an artist' s rendition of "Grab them by the pussy"

GOP can't be offended. They're okay with that shit, right?

Fucking hypocrites they are...

[xor]

44. It's bothersome how quickly people want to censor and silence others...

People calling for the person who made it to be arrested? Like wtf is going through their heads? These are the same folks who get upset over "political correctness gone amok", but here they are taking things to the extreme themselves. Fascinating.

[Norbert]

48. I had to endure a neighbors Killary sign almost a year after the election

but this lady's sign is offensive.

[Socal31]

49. My first id reaction would be to confiscate it as well.

And promptly display it myself!

[Scurrilous]

55. ...