SMH: Illinois Business Owner Posts a Controversial Sign ‘Congratulating’ Michael Brown...

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http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-08-13/business-sign-causes-stir.html
Business' sign causes a stir

FARMER CITY — A local business owner with a penchant for controversy set his sights on Ferguson, Mo., this week.

"Congrats Michael Brown one year with no criminal behavior," the sign outside Schmidt's Welding and Machine Shop in Farmer City read Tuesday and early Wednesday, days after the one-year anniversary of a Ferguson police officer shooting and killing unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

Phil Schmidt, who owns the sign and the business, was unapologetic, saying the message was similar to others he's put up over the years outside his shop at 824 E. High Street.

"It is what it is — all these people in Ferguson going crazy over a guy that broke the law three times that day, tried to ? a cop, tried to get his gun, it's crazy," Schmidt said Wednesday morning when contacted by The News-Gazette.

He added: "What they're doing to cops makes me sick."

City officials said they have no recourse to remove the sign, which Police Chief Andrew Denno said had been changed by 2 p.m. Wednesday, when he drove by and saw a message skewering BP oil spills and the government.

"That is absolutely sad," Farmer City Mayor Mike Jenkins said, noting he hadn't been made aware of the sign until Wednesday.

"When you do something like that, unfortunately it paints a picture of our entire community," he said. "There's no reason for that."

Schmidt said the country has lost a "moral compass," and the sign is his attempt to speak frankly on matters.

"I'm not going to dance around somebody because I might hurt somebody's feelings," he said. "Everybody knows the way I feel about these things."

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