Free Speech Bill Sponsor Caught Stealing Anti-GOP Sign

BROOKFIELD, WI — A Republican lawmaker admitted on Friday that he stole an 80-year-old man's anti-GOP sign from the State Capitol Building under the guise of upholding the "decorum" of the building.

State Rep. Dale Kooyenga, a Republican from Brookfield, was caught on Capitol surveillance footage removing the 80-year-old Donald E. Johnson's legally permitted sign in May.

Kooyenga went public with the heist by releasing the police report to the public — but said he only did so because Democrats were "trying to obtain the [same] report and he wanted to get out ahead of them."

The sign read:

Never Forget: Scott Walker, Paul Ryan and many WI republican legislators support a corrupt, treasonous health care wrecking, lying incompetent, unethical, narcissistic, immoral tax and draft-dodging, sadistic, racist and confessed serial groper who thinks nothing about spending millions of taxpayer dollars for his golfing and luxury family vacations and even more billions for a senseless wall, a bogus voter fraud study and excessive military buildup all while cutting taxes for giant corporations, himself, his family and his billionaire buddies at the expense of millions of people on ObamaCare, veterans, veteran's children, education, the elderly, the poor, school lunches, environmental protections, national parks, wildlife, scientific research and so on and We the people be damned!

“In my view, the sign was inappropriate in several ways and I felt it should not be in plain view of the scores of schoolchildren who were touring the Capitol at that time,” Kooyenga said in a statement. “It was not my intention to cause harm to the owner of the sign and I returned it immediately when I was asked for its return.”

"I am sorry I took the sign without permission," the statement continued. "However I am not sorry for trying to uphold appropriate decorum in our State Capitol."

According to a Chicago Tribune report, Kooyenga told a detective that he didn't believe taking the sign was a "big deal." He said he took the sign as a joke and because it contained the words "groper" and "damn" and children in the Capitol saw it.

In an ironic twist, Kooyenga, an avowed proponent of free expression, is the co-sponsor of the "Free Expression Within the University of Wisconsin System" bill, aimed at safeguarding the range of political speech at Wisconsin campuses.

The reads in part: "An institution must strive to ensure the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression. 2. [It] is not the proper role of an institution to shield individuals from speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, including ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive."

Patch file photo