The City of Prescott recently learned of offensive and abhorrent signs posted at a local business. We absolutely reject the message on the signs, and similar rhetoric, however the City is bound to uphold the Constitutional rights of all citizens.
City Code inspectors spoke with the manager of the establishment, who moved the signs from the City sidewalk to their private property, but insisted on keeping the content as is.
The City is unable to regulate the content of signs on private property, regardless of how repugnant the content may be. These types of signs are considered temporary, and in accordance with city code, are allowed to remain in place for up to 90 days.
Speech regardless of how offensive, is protected by the 1st Amendment, and the owner of the sign has the same protections as the news media, demonstrators or those on social media.
Over the past several years, the City of Prescott has supported events that encourage dialogue and understanding, including most recently, the virtual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Other events sponsored by the City include a virtual town hall for teens, entitled Better Together, where local youth discussed raced, diversity and inclusion together in a professionally facilitated event. The Mayor continues dialogue with groups and citizens who are concerned about these matters.
The City of Prescott embraces, welcomes, supports and serves people of all backgrounds within the community and city organization. We champion diversity and welcome individual perspectives, backgrounds and opinions. In December of 2019, Mayor Greg Mengarelli and City Council Prescott received the Civic and Community Conscience Award from the NAACP Arizona State Conference. The City will be engaging in racial sensitivity training for our entire staff in the coming year.
[Editor’s note: The two signs in question were in a Twitter post and are shown below.]
9 thoughts on “City of Prescott’s Statement Regarding Offensive Signs”
If the City of Prescott is so appalled they should return any and all property and sales tax collected from this land owner.
Congratulations to the City of Prescott for their principled stand regarding the signs in question.
The true strength of our union is defending the right to express an opinion, no matter how outrageous it may be.
We must all have relearned that lesson over the past four years.
It is outrageous, offensive, and provocative speech that our Constitution demands be protected.
“Have a nice day” doesn’t require constitutional defense, at least it never has, but in today’s climate, who knows.
We all have the God given right to offend, and be offended. We do not, through our own efforts, or via our elected leaders have, the right to dictate those measures and statements of others, no matter how much we disagree.
We have a double standard here. Black pride is O.K. but white pride is somehow “racist”. The NAACP is an organization that profits and thrives on race baiting and pushing their racism narrative. Their very existence depends on creating a perception of racism.
By its very name the National Association for the ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE is a racist organization. But by some convoluted logic the NAACP is O.K. but an organization with a name like the National Association for the Advancement of White People is “racist.” So, it’s acceptable and even encouraged to have an organization that advocates for a specific racial group, in this case Blacks, but it is not O.K. to have an organization that advocates for Whites.
If you say Black Lives Matter you are lauded by the lying fake news media, but if you say All Live Matter or Blue Lives Matter or White Lives Matter you are branded an intolerant bigot. Again, the double standard is alive and well.
We do have racial discrimination in this country in the form of government mandated discrimination through the misnamed “Affirmative Action” programs which essentially discriminate against Whites. If we want to end discrimination in this country we should start by repealing the biased and discriminatory so called “Affirmative Action” programs. Of course this will not happen since these government programs discriminate against Whites, and discrimination against Whites seems to be the righteous and noble thing to do.
Thank you for sharing the truth!
I have been saying the same thing for years ! Thanks for putting it out there.
????and at the end of the we must each remember that all those things have always been a favorite weapon of exploitation through fear based mind control in order to divide otherwise rational people and keep them voting.
So they have the national association for the advancement of colored people. But if you refer to them as colored people you are sanctioned as a bigot and a racist. If you happen to be a public figure the media eviscerates you and calls for your resignation
How long are election signs and flags allowed? If on private property is that also considered free speech?
Let the racists expose themselves. The free market will take care of them.
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