From North San Diego County the North County Times reports:
CARLSBAD ---- A 28-year-old Carlsbad woman was arrested Thursday morning after she admitted to removing campaign signs opposing gay marriage from a Carlsbad Village Drive median.
Someone called Carlsbad police about 8:30 a.m. to report the theft of several signs supporting Proposition 8, a statewide ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage, police spokeswoman Lynn Diamond said.
Kimberly Erlenwein, who was there when police arrived, admitted to taking the signs and was arrested on suspicion of petty theft, Diamond said.
Erlenwein said later that she was on her way to get coffee Thursday when she saw half a block of the median covered in pro-Prop. 8 signs. They upset her enough that she left the coffee shop, walked into the median and took 11 of the 22 signs to her car, she said.
"To me, it's the equivalent of 22 Confederate flags in the median," Erlenwein said. "Laws should be written to protect people's rights, not to take them away."
Erlenwein, who married her wife in July after the state Supreme Court upheld same-sex marriage earlier this year, said she didn't know it was a crime to take the signs.
"I thought that, because the signs were on public property, I had as much right to take them down as the other person did to put them up," she said Thursday.
Erlenwein said she would not have removed the signs if she'd know the city had issued a permit for them to be placed in the median near Interstate 5.
Less than a week before Erlenwein's arrest, Carlsbad-based Prop. 8 supporters reported that most of the 100-plus signs they put up throughout the city had disappeared.
Police said Thursday they don't know whether Erlenwein was responsible for those thefts.
Erlenwein denied any involvement, saying she wasn't aware of the earlier incidents until the man who called the police Thursday accused her of additional thefts.
Laurie Haslam, a local leader of the pro-Prop. 8 group Coalition to Protect Marriage, said it was her signs that Erlenwein took. She said she had mixed feelings about Erlenwein's arrest.
"I'm sad that someone feels like they have to take our signs down, because one of the things that I love about our nation is we have freedom of speech," Haslam said."But I hope this arrest will show people we're serious."
Petty theft ---- theft of property valued at $400 or less ---- is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail, according to state law.
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3 comments:
Perpetua, my sister, it looks like you've got your hands full out there on the Left Coast. I'd better be praying with ya, for a number of reasons, eh?
Interesting that the one vandal would equate the signs with Confederate flags- There are some who hold up their history books and insist that the Left's attack on that symbol is itself just such a kangaroo court of opinion, but anything used to communicate any resistance to "progress" is automatically demonised, whether it's flag, a sign, selected language, or, especially, a Book! Just ask a Canadian Christian, eh?
Hi Robert,
Yes, please do pray for me and all of us in California.
Regarding the Confederate flag, I think she is using it as a symbol of slavery. Gay rights activists win if they can make us think that the historical treatment of homosexuality is equivalent to slavery. They repeat this linkage as often as possible to reinforce the connection in our minds.
Here I think she is saying that advocating for a Yes vote on traditional marriage is equivalent to fighting to keep the tradition of slavery.
More on gay rights activists trying to make the link between the treatment of homosexuals and slavery:
See this post at MCJ and follow the links to see that this is about slavery, then read the third comment from Fuinseoig.
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