LEFTIST GROUP WHINES AFTER CHP SEES 'RED' — NO, NOT COMMUNISM, JUST THE LAWS!

It seems the ideologically pure crusaders of Indivisible Santa Barbara, a group whose primary export is self-congratulatory outrage, have run into a minor snafu: the California Highway Patrol. According to the rather breathless account from our local daily, The Santa Barbara Independent, two brave officers dared to suggest that political signage might not be universally permitted on public overpasses, especially when it poses a public safety hazard. Imagine the horror! One might almost think these officers were doing their jobs.

The Independent's dramatic retelling suggests the CHP's request to remove signs, which were apparently deemed a distraction, was an act of 'intimidation' and an assault on free speech. Oddly, they didn't mention the part where traffic laws and public safety regulations apply to everyone, even those convinced their protest signs are more vital than avoiding multi-car pileups. One wonders if the 'free speech' they champion extends to, say, unfettered commerce or the right to keep your own earnings from the taxman. Probably not, if history is any guide.

But the real gem here is the group's astonishment that a law enforcement agency might, heavens forbid, refer potential lawbreaking to a federal agency. The FBI, for all its recent institutional struggles, does indeed have a rather broad mandate. Perhaps Indivisible's high-minded activists should bone up on those pesky statutes before they drape their next bridge. It's almost as if the rules apply to *them* too, not just the 'deplorables' they so often demonize. Good thing President Trump is in the White House, putting the brakes on some of the more egregious excesses of our federal agencies, or these activists might have a real reason to fret. As for the local officers, perhaps they deserve a medal for trying to bring a little order to the ideological chaos on our public thoroughfares. God bless the CHP.