Round Lake Park Homeowner Furious After Police Take Down Signs He Put Up To Protest Insurance Company
ROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill. (CBS) -- This is a story about free speech with its share of ups and downs.
As CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reported Tuesday, a Round Lake Park homeowner who was frustrated with his insurance company put protest banners in his front yard, only to have the mayor order police to take them down.
On Tuesday afternoon, the banners were up again. They were about as big as some of those "Happy Graduate" or "Look Who's Turning 50" signs. But in this case, they have a deeper message - a message the homeowner feels he has a right to express on his own property.
The mayor did not agree.
This is the second time in less than a week that Vince Testa has put up the signs, which he calls protest signs, on the lawn of the rental home he owns in Round Lake Park.
"I wanted to protest on behalf of not just me, but the neighbors," he said.
Since a fire gutted his property in 2016, Testa said he's been unable to settle with insurer Country Financial, so he placed the company's logo and "pay up" on signs on the street side of his property. That was last Thursday.
"I feel bad for me and the neighbors they have to see this," Testa said.
But a day later, the signs were gone. Police officers had been called to the house to remove them.
"I asked you, 'Who told you to take those signs down?' and the commander said, 'The mayor,'" Testa said.
The village attorney said even a sign reading something like, "We support our hospital heroes," could require a permit and could be removed without one. But Round Lake Park police said the only signs they were asked to remove were Testa's.