Tea Party group forced to move sign

WHITLEY COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) - A billboard displaying a political message has been relocated after demands from the owner of the property on which it was originally placed.

The Whitley County Patriots purchased sign space along U.S. 30 west of County Line Road from Perma Advertising Inc. back in August.  The company leases the billboard’s location from Steel Dynamics Inc.

The billboard had displayed a graphic of armed military personnel and the text, “the Navy Seals removed one threat to America… the voters must remove the other.”

SDI requested that the billboard be removed, according to the tea party group’s spokesperson, David Ditton.

The advertisement was installed in a new location Monday morning.  Crews relocated it to a space owned by Perma Advertising in Larwill, west of State Road 5 and U.S. 30.

The Whitley County Patriots posted a statement about the billboard on its website on Monday:

The U.S. Military takes an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies both foreign or domestic, AND THEY DO IT.

Legally registered voters must exercise their rights at the ballot box in a non-violent way to elect politicians who protect the U. S. Constitution from within our borders.

Our goal as Whitley County Patriots is to EDUCATE voters about politicians’ platforms, COMMUNICATE  the issues, and to ELIMINATE APATHY by getting people to WAKE UP.

Our Constitutional freedoms are at stake!  VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

A request for comment has been made with Steel Dynamics Inc.