That Slick-Fella's Yardsign

Well, my husband mentioned to the church council what had happened with regard to the candidate's yardsign on the church property. They all thought it was pretty rotten of him to do that, but they decided that nothing should be done other than phoning him and asking him not to do it again. So my husband did, and the man asked if he could come pick up the sign. My husband warned him that he will probably have to face an irritated woman when he comes to fetch the sign. :-) He was supposed to have come on Monday or Tuesday, and he hasn't shown up yet.

So on Monday I called the county clerk, the state elections board, and the sheriff's office, asking about the rules regarding signs. Two things amazed me. First, it seems generally agreed upon that candidates aren't supposed to place signs without asking permission, but apparently it's not a "rule." However, what seems much clearer than placement of yardsigns is that no one is supposed to remove a yardsign. The elections board even said that I should call the police and have them remove the sign rather than taking it down myself. Second thing that surprised me was that the suggested recourse (from both the elections board and the sheriff's office) was to charge the man with trespassing.

Doesn't having a guy arrested for trespassing seem a bit like overkill? I think people should know about his sleazy campaign practices, but having him arrested seems like it's going a bit too far.

I was stunned by how many people told me that it's "only common courtesy" to give the sign back. (I did find out, however, that the law does not require me to give it back.) Everyone who told me about "courtesy," though, seemed oblivious to the fact that the candidate hadn't used common courtesy in asking if he could put a sign in the neighbor's yard. And he didn't have common courtesy to honor my instructions that there be no sign in my yard. I guess they think that I should respond with common courtesy no matter what he does. I suppose that's why fathers aren't supposed to shoot intruders who drop through their ceilings in the middle of the night [see "Guns in the Home" from Sept 27]. I bet these are adults who scold a little child when he grabs his toy back from the bully.

Another thing that bothered me about the conversations is the general acceptance of the idea that we should never take matters into our own hands. We should call the police and have them take the sign down, have the police return the sign to the candidate, but WE ought never be so bold as to take down a sign ourselves, even if it was put in our own yard after we said "you can't do that." I was told a similar thing once before by police, when I was reported to police for making a child leave our property when she'd been vandalizing us. The policeman knew who the trouble-maker was in that incident, but he also knew the way the law worked, and he advised us always to call the police to handle even the smallest incidents. This country is going to go broke on trying to buy enough law-enforcement.