Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Billboard advertising white supremacist group to remain in Central Fla.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/flo...la-news-florida
ORLANDO -- A billboard advertising a white supremacist group continues to stand along Florida's Turnpike in Sumter County despite residents' complaints and the removal of similar signs elsewhere in the state.
With a plain black lettering and big block letters, the sign appears to mimic the style of the ``Got Milk?'' advertising campaig
, and reads in part: ``WHO RULE$ AMERIKA?'' The sign gives the Internet address of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group based in West Virginia.
``Obviously we don't want people as
soci
ating Sumter County with this group. I'd be a fool if I wasn't concerned,'' said Benny Strickland, chairma
n of the Sumter County Board of Commissioners. ``But I don't think we have the power to do anything.''
National Alliance billboards were removed in Old Town last April and in Tampa in 2001 after advertising companies found out that the group advocates an all-white, non-Jewish society.
But Jerry Sullivan, president of Micanopy-based Sunshine Outdoor Inc. that put up the sign about 35 miles from Orlando in August, said he had no intention of taking down the sign as long as it is paid for.
``It's free speech. Do you know what free speech is?'' he said, adding ``I don't believe in Nazis, but no, it don't bother me none. There's
no law against it.''
Robbie Rogers, Sumter County's director of planning, said that despite numerous complaints received by the county office, advertising for a club _ even an unpopu
lar one _ is
not against the law.
``We don't have anything in place that can deal with this,'' she said.
Shaun Walker, Chief Operations Officer for the National Alli
ance, said the sign's purpose is: ``To raise public awareness of the political reality we live in today.''
``I'm a white American and we'd like to return the reins of control to white people,'' he said.
No one from the National Alliance's two Florida chapters in Orlando or Tampa was interested in speaking to reporters, Walker said.
**************
Free speech, we can't have any of that in our neighborhood cause divershitty is our strength.
T.N.B.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/flo...la-news-florida
ORLANDO -- A billboard advertising a white supremacist group continues to stand along Florida's Turnpike in Sumter County despite residents' complaints and the removal of similar signs elsewhere in the state.
With a plain black lettering and big block letters, the sign appears to mimic the style of the ``Got Milk?'' advertising campaig
, and reads in part: ``WHO RULE$ AMERIKA?'' The sign gives the Internet address of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group based in West Virginia.
``Obviously we don't want people as
soci
ating Sumter County with this group. I'd be a fool if I wasn't concerned,'' said Benny Strickland, chairma
n of the Sumter County Board of Commissioners. ``But I don't think we have the power to do anything.''
National Alliance billboards were removed in Old Town last April and in Tampa in 2001 after advertising companies found out that the group advocates an all-white, non-Jewish society.
But Jerry Sullivan, president of Micanopy-based Sunshine Outdoor Inc. that put up the sign about 35 miles from Orlando in August, said he had no intention of taking down the sign as long as it is paid for.
``It's free speech. Do you know what free speech is?'' he said, adding ``I don't believe in Nazis, but no, it don't bother me none. There's
no law against it.''
Robbie Rogers, Sumter County's director of planning, said that despite numerous complaints received by the county office, advertising for a club _ even an unpopu
lar one _ is
not against the law.
``We don't have anything in place that can deal with this,'' she said.
Shaun Walker, Chief Operations Officer for the National Alli
ance, said the sign's purpose is: ``To raise public awareness of the political reality we live in today.''
``I'm a white American and we'd like to return the reins of control to white people,'' he said.
No one from the National Alliance's two Florida chapters in Orlando or Tampa was interested in speaking to reporters, Walker said.
**************
Free speech, we can't have any of that in our neighborhood cause divershitty is our strength.
T.N.B.