This is one of those only-in-America stories. A news channel in Utah reports on an ugly neighborhood battle:
A cardboard sign hanging in a tree, directed at a boy with developmental disabilities, and the boy’s mother, isn’t happy. … [The sign is] spray painted with the words: “Caution– Retards in Area.”
No doubt that’s offensive. And the reporter speaks with 13-year-old boy and his mother to establish the fact that the boy is a “good guy.” He also speaks with several advocates for the disabled to establish the fact that people shouldn’t say “retard.” As luck would have it, while getting film of the offensive sign, he also happened to catch the sign-hanger at home:
Sam Penrod, Eyewitness News: “Why did you put that sign up?
Neighbor: “I’ve been harassed for six months, my daughter has been assaulted.”
Sam Penrod, Eyewitness News “By who?”
Neighbor: “The young boy, we got pictures and everything and they would not press charges because he is handicapped.”
The neighbor claims Colton threw a rock at his young daughter. Other neighbors told us they have frequently found Colton wandering onto their property.
As a good journalist would, the reporter speaks with local law enforcement, from whom he learns that … they’re hard at work seeing if there’s something they can do to make the guy remove the sign. Oh, and there’s talk about “sensitivity training,” too.
But there’s no apparent concern for the boy’s trespassing and rock-throwing, either on the part of the mother or local law enforcement. If a private property owner has no recourse to the law when someone intrudes and threatens his children, then he is going to find another source of relief, and that generally isn’t going to be pretty.
