Ohio Thought Police suppress talk of impeachment

A man in Kent, Ohio was ticketed for placing a sign reading "Impeach Bush" in a public place.

A soft-spoken teacher posted the words "Impeach Bush" in a public garden, and Kent police cast him as an outlaw.

Today Kevin Egler is fighting that in Kent Municipal Court, and the case is emerging as a free-speech issue of interest well beyond the boundaries of placid Portage County.

Police ticketed Egler for unlawfully advertising in a public place because he put up a free-standing sign near the intersection of Haymarket Parkway and Willow and Main streets.

Egler said the officer who cited him July 25 asked: "Why don't you put the signs in your own yard?" Egler said his response was that he's a taxpayer and views the public space very much as his yard.

[...]

Egler said that when he was stopped in Kent, he asked the police officer how his sign differed from Realtors posting signs on public property saying "This way to the house for sale." He said the officer asked, "You don't know the difference?" but never explained what it might be.

Columbus attorney Bob Fitrakis, Egler's lawyer, said there is a difference: The real estate sign is commercial speech, and Egler's sign is political. Commercial messages do not have anywhere near the legal protections that political speech does, he said.

You don't know the difference?

Can't you just hear it?

Obviously, a municipality has the right and responsibility to set guidelines for the use of public property, but suppressing political speech would seem to be at the outer edge of those responsibilities. The officer's rhetorical question in response to Egler's inquiry about the difference between his sign and a realtor's sign suggests very strongly that there is more at work here than a desire to reduce clutter in a public space.