EDITORIAL: Trump sign is an expression of free speech

When government does attempt to take away rights, it doesn’t often do it in one large sweeping gesture or threat. It’s often a slow erosion — police interference in a peaceful protest, intimidation of speakers at public meetings, tighter government restrictions on where and when people can express their views. And before you know it, the people begin to fear speaking out, and their right of free speech is lost.

One such example of this drip-by-drip erosion of the right of free speech is happening in the city of Amsterdam, where government officials there have for months put up legal impediments to a local businessman trying to express his political point of view with a large sign atop an old factory.

At issue are two enormous political signs created by Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino touting his admiration for Donald Trump.

Last year, he won a skirmish with the city to install a 100-foot-long, 7-foot tall lighted “VOTE FOR TRUMP” sign atop the old Fownes building on Elk Street.

City officials tried to use the zoning code and the excuse that the sign might distract drivers on the nearby state Thruway to quash approvals for the sign.

Yet for years, the word “FOWNES” occupied the same exact space on the building above the Amsterdam skyline, without a fuss and without mass vehicle pile-ups on the highway.

Now Constantino is seeking permission to put up a new “AMERICA LOVES TRUMP” sign where the previous Fownes and Trump signs stood.

The city’s opposition to the new sign again centers around adherence to the town’s zoning codes, although like the last dispute, it appears the message of the sign is more troublesome to city leaders than the actual sign itself.

We understand and respect local codes, especially those regarding sign regulations. Some communities don’t want large lit signs dominating the landscape. Without sign ordinances, every small community risks looking like the Las Vegas Strip.

Yet the Fownes sign didn’t inspire any upswell of community outrage while the company operated there.

That leaves one to wonder whether the issue is the sign specifically promoting Trump and whether a sign featuring another message or another individual would inspire the same pushback from city officials. And that raises questions not about zoning codes and driver distractions, but about government interference of a citizen exercising his right to free speech.

In a free country like ours, government officials should be looking for ways to encourage their citizens to express their views, not looking for ways to suppress and discourage them.

If there’s no legitimate public interest justification to deny Mr. Constantino’s application, then the right thing for city officials to do, the American thing for them to do, is to let him have his say — and his sign.