ATLANTA – A metro Atlanta business owner has posted a controversial sign outside his bar and restaurant that uses a racial slur to refer to President Barack Obama.
The billboard, in front of the Georgia Peach Oyster Bar in Paulding County, Georgia, uses the “n-word” to refer to the President. His attention-grabbing sign reads, “Do not support the ni**er in the White House.”
Bar owner Patrick Lanzo said in an interview with Fox 5 News, that he’s been posting contentious signs outside his business for 26 years. Mr. Lanzo, who claims he is no racist, also said he has the right to practice freedom of speech.
“I don’t feel bad about anything whatsoever,” he said Lanzo. “Therefore, they can go out and put their own sign in their own yard and I will not be offended.”
However, residents in the small Draketown community have by and large been outraged by the “offensive” sign. “He needs to wake up and realize it’s 2012,” said Dexter Murr. Another person said, “I think it’s terrible.”
Paulding County Administrator, Mike Jones, said he is aware of the sign and considers it repulsive, embarrassing and offensive. He said if there was something they could do about it, it wouldn’t be there.
This is not the first time Mr. Lanzo has been in the news. He made headlines a few years back when he put a sign outside his bar which read: “Is Michael Jackson not guilty because he is a ni**er or money.”
In 2009, he decided to go after the president with a sign about Obama’s health care reform, “Obama’s plan for health care — ni**er rig it.” In another instance, one of his notorious signs posed the question, “A monkey, Obama. Is there a difference?”
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