Man accused of stealing political signs pleads 'not guilty'
VANCOUVER, Wash. - A man accused of stealing political signs around Vancouver pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge on Thursday.
John Ellis is facing a charge of removing or defacing a political advertisement.
Ellis could end up in a diversion program if he changes his plea to guilty by his next court date, which is Nov. 1. He is currently being screened for the diversion program.
Ellis was charged after a political group got tired of signs for a Republican candidate disappearing and set up a camera to catch the suspect. Police went to talk to Ellis after seeing a video clip from the group.
So let's waste tons of public time and public money 'directing" this anti-freedom of speech fool to the inevitable diversion program? What a little man this fool is.Â
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Does he really "think" he can alter people's minds by choosing to remove the rightful signs of others? Is he that dumbed down - and anti-American?Â
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Of course this country is free and open for him - in regard to all options being available to assist him (after the fact) in regard to the very real legal conundrum he finds himself in. Of course...
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Hey, dude - a got a nice little sign to place in my yard about how I feel about YOU and other dumbed down like minded anti-Americans embitttered fools just like you...
If you want to place a political sign in your yard, that is your legal choice. If you place one on public property it is an illegal act and should be removed. I don't care what the sign says or what political party sponsors it.
 @Freedom1267 So the "authorities" know all the details in regard to placement of signs - and they are proceeding ahead with legal consequence against him - and they know exactly and expressly where those signs were placed? What's that again - about him being "free" to take signs down - where he did?Â
This is as bad as the school teacher telling a student she couldn't be in her class because she was wearing a Romney T-shirt. That teacher needs to be fired.
Isn't he the president of the "Keep Our Neighborhood Clean of Nutjob Propaganda" club?
Really, Ellis? Are you that juvenile that you sink to stealing someone else's signs because you don't like them, or what they represent? You are sinking to a new low, and you give bicyclists a REALLY bad name as well.Â
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Nicely done!
I love the fact that it is a liberal on a bike that is doing this.Â
I want to be on that jury...........
Who cares, thoses signs are a nuisance anyway. Plus most of those signs are in illegal spots, such as the one he is pulling up in the picture
 @LostSoul So you are in favor of breaking the law, instead of using the law.
 @onceagain  @LostSoul If the signs are placed illegally, then they can be removed. In some areas the city/county may do it, but often times they don't have the resources and may just tell you to take down the signs yourself.Â
 @Jenni S.  @onceagain  @LostSoul Jenni - Legal authorities are pursuing consequence against him and they are fully aware of where the signs were placed. I am not so sure the signs were "illegally" placed at all. How do you presume to know?Â
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Until and if there is proof this (inflammatory anti-freedom of speech) cyclist can show proof he inquired about the legality of where these signs were actually placed before he deliberately removed them - me thinks he has no legal foot to plant his tamping down of freedom of speech of others upon - at all.Â
@onceagain do two wrongs make a right?
This behavior is more typical of the left. They try to silence the opposition as much as they can.
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To them free speech is only for those that they agree with.
 @RalphCramden Sorry, Ralph. At all points of the compass, if you go far enough out, you'll find people who engage in this type of activity. And regardless of what their views are, they always blame the liberals. I remember reading about the British blaming the liberals for wanting freedom in the Colonies. Pretty sad. But the nice thing about living on a quasi-sphere, is that if you go far enough in a straight line in the direction of your choice, you'll always end up where you started. It's all a matter of perspective. Ah, life is grand.
 @RalphCramden Once again Ralph..your comments prove your ignorance.  This behavior is happening on both sides.....may I refer you to the article about the tomatoes being thrown at the Obama supporters yards in the Couv.....oh, how bout the hanging chair?  And yes, please tell me that is not racially motivated.  If it isn't...then who did it is a complete and utter moron.  Why not just put it down in the yard.
you just had to throw in the race card, how sad.Â
 @PD1202  @onceagainÂ
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Also if you remember the liberal press and liberals called Bush a "chimp" and equated him with monkeys. This can be taken as a double entendre comparing the "idiot Bush" to black people.
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I found the cartoons and comments to be very racist and offensive. But because Bush was a conservative everyone got a pass on that.
 @PD1202  @onceagainÂ
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And 0bama and the liberals have made race a big issue. I am now very aware of all races and look at them in a different light than before 0bama was elected.
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One of my co-workers is black. I have known him for 20 years and he is a good man. The other day I was chatting with him and all of a sudden realized that he is black. I never looked at him like that before. It was rather startling.
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Now I see race in everything.
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I remember eating banana cream pie as a kid. I loved it. I told my wife one day and she started making it way too often. Now I am not interested in ever having another piece for the rest of my life. Before it was a treat, then it became regular fare. It was no longer special.
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The word "racist is the same way. When people call me racist for posts I make I just don't give a $^$^ anymore. The word racist is as common as the word "the". It doesn't mean a thing anymore.
So now, since we have a HALF black president there can be no disagreement with his policies? No one can "not like" his fracturing of the nation, even more than when he came into office, along economic, social, and racial lines without his acolytes screaming racism?
I just don't care for him: his policies, his czars, his obvious dislike for America - siding with Muslims constantly, his appointees not performing their jobs/oaths to the constitution properly - Eric Holder and his non-prosecution of voter intimidation and the whole fast & furious gun running debacle/scandal (to name a very few in a long list of illegal behavior, his constant golfing, his inability to speak coherently without a teleprompter; he's like Jimmy Carter only less intelligent.
 @onceagain The race card??  So, you can't see the double meaning here with that chair hanging from a noose with Obama's name on it???  Pahleez!  Now that's sad.  Since the day he was elected the true colors of many conservatives came out....monkey's depicted as the pres, voodoo witch doctors with his likeness, numerous effigy's hanging from trees with Obama's likeness....Shall I continue??  This Presidents race has had as much to do with his policies in regards to the rights hatred of him.....Now that is very sad.
 @PD1202Â
Ignorance? Maybe you need to check your reading abilities.
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If you read my post it says "This behavior is more typical of the left.". Never once did I say that the right does not do it.
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The right doesn't mess with signs much because the right is not the type to interfere with others often. They tend to keep quiet for the most part and often called the silent majority.
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What does the hanging chair have to do with stealing political signs?
 @Altazi  @PD1202Â
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It's the filters they use. Many have biased filters and read stuff into things that are not there. All because of their faulty filtering process.
 @RalphCramden  @PD1202 No matter how carefully you choose to word a statement, there will be fools who misinterpret what you said.
What the heck do you do with used political signs..???
 @margay1 Oh, they're great with chipped beef!
 @margay1 Save them for the next election.
@margay1 We make our hungry, will work for beer, homless vet, signs out of them. looking at the sign when holding it up helps us remember why we are homeless, hungry, out of work.
 @Pvpbw  @margay1 And at the rate Obama is destroying the economy, the more people there will be holding these signs....
@Pvpbw I use them as toliet paper. Its a little rough though. But oh the skid marks.!! Oh, by the way, I put them back when Im done
@LostSoul You know what they say, " no job is finished until the paper work is done!" And replacing them after you use them leaves no doubt about how you feel about the candidate.
Dude!!!! They have you on Video!!!!!
 @dkgiovenco From what I gather, the signs he was caught taking in the video are in illegal locations. So it makes it harder for them to claim theft when he's removing signs that were placed illegally.
So if I park my car at an illegal spot, then someone has the right to take it? I can have ticket, I can have my car towed, but nobody owns it but me. Taking anything that don't have ownership is stealing.
 @tptpttp Why do you compare a sign to a car? The sign is more similar to trash. So, if I pick up your trash on public property, am I breaking the law? You might not like liberals, that's fine (I hate liberals and conservatives). I want you to consider this objectively though. If someone wants to put a political sign on public property without permission, they are the ones who should be fined and anyone else who takes it down shouldn't be punished.
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If this guy is suspected of taking signs off of private property, he should definitely be charged with something. That's completely inappropriate.
What a boner! Can't he see that both Robama and Romney are controlled by the same groups and interests? We will be voting for the lesser of two evils!
 @portlandborn83 Interesting how you mangled Obama's name but not Romney's. I guess we know which evil you'll be voting for.
 @Mikey Actually I am not voting this year!
Typical liberal. Â Intolerant and bigoted.
 @sortbait Yes, I must agree that you are. Thank you for pointing that out to us.
 @sortbait I'm sorry....you have one political party confused with the other...intolerance and bigotry go hand in hand with the Republican party.  Nice try.
How do you know he was a liberal? Maybe he was a die-hard Tea Party dude that didn't like that particular candidate?
Well, he's on a bike, wearing yellow! That's a good indicator! LOL
 @sortbait With all due respect, the very definition of bigotry is intolerance and narrow-mindedness toward any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own; isn't that what your statement just displayed?Â
Nope!
No, the author does not display what you accuse them of. The comment is based upon a long list of perceived infractions of others' rights to debate reasonably any topic. In this instance a bicyclist removing a sign promoting a Republican candidate.
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What the article does not attempt to provide is the bicyclist's reason(s) for removing the sign. We, most of us anyway, assume that it was politically motivated - based largely on the story line and the video evidence that he's removing the sign is indisputable, however, his reasons for doing so remain a critical mystery at this point.
What would really be ironic is if he still pleads non-guilty on Nov 1 and is then tossed in jail...thus not being allowed to vote on Nov 6.
"Ah, That's not me.. I don't have a lunch box."