Wednesday, March 2, 2005 | 10:54 a.m.
With little fanfare and no protests, a white supremacy organization recently reinstalled a billboard with an anti-immigration message several hundred feet from the Strip on Sahara Avenue.
The group, the National Alliance, won the right to put up the sign after a District Court judge ordered Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc. to restore the billboard after the company took it down in July.
Clear Channel did not appeal the decision, said Robert McPeak, attorney for the company. He declined to comment on why the company did not appeal the decision, and company officials could not be reached for comment as to why the company did not appeal it.
Clear Channel, a national media company, sells or leases billboard advertising space in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
The billboard reads: "Stop Immigration -- Join the National Alliance." It is located at Sahara Avenue near Joe W. Brown Drive in a neighborhood frequented by Latinos and has been up since the first week of February.
It will remain in place for one year, as stipulated in a contract between the white supremacy group and Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc.
Greg Brown, a local resident who lives near the billboard, brought his concerns to Clear Channel shortly after it was erected in July. He said he asked Clear Channel Outdoor to "clarify its policies" regarding billboards.
"The billboard was clearly designed to make people uncomfortable," said Brown, an associate professor in the UNLV history department. He emphasized that he was never acting as a representative of the university when he brought his concerns to the company.
He said that the community where the billboard sits is very diverse and has a sizeable Latino population, which makes the anti-immigrant message on the sign all the more distasteful.
"If somebody says something insulting to me, I don't mind. But when people insult my neighbor I get upset," he said.
The National Alliance, however, doesn't believe the message is hateful.
"I don't think it's offensive to tell immigrants that they are not wanted here," said Michael O'Sullivan, a member of the National Alliance in Las Vegas. O'Sullivan referred to immigration as "the browning of America."
The West Virginia-based National Alliance is a white supremacy organization with chapters in most major cities in America. It claims to be "America's foremost organization working for the long term interests of men and women of European descent," and "favors a strong, proud, white America," according to a recorded phone message for the organization.
National Alliance has advertised on billboards across the country. In Salt Lake City, it has a billboard that reads, "The National Alliance. Securing The Future for European America."
A billboard by the organization outside Orlando, Fl., stated, "Who Rule$ Amerika?" and was criticized as racist by the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP.
"If this was a legitimate political group, it would be considered political speech, but since it is from a neo-nazi organization it becomes hate speech," said Cynthia Luria, Nevada regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Luria said that the Anti-Defamation League received at least 25 complaints about the billboard when Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc. first erected it in July. However, since it was put up in early February she said only one individual has objected to the League.
"Anything that is offensive to one group is offensive to all," Luria said. "The message behind the billboard is 'White power.'th"
Mariano Lemus, consulate general for the Consulate of Mexico, said the billboard is not a constructive way to address immigration issues.
"The billboard is not a good instrument to help solve the immigration issue," he said.
Rather than bar all immigration into the United States, Lemus recommended working within the framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement to find a more realistic solution to the immigration of Mexicans into America.
"Mexican migrants come to Las Vegas because of supply and demand, and we need to improve the lives of Mexicans living in rural communities," he said.
In that respect, a billboard calling for the wholesale prohibition of immigration into America is ultimately not benefitting anyone, he said.
The anti-immigration billboard doesn't address these concerns, he said, and Mexico and the United States are "partners."
O'Sullivan won the right to keep the billboard at Sahara Avenue after a six-month legal battle with Clear Channel Outdoor.
Last June the company signed a contract with O'Sullivan and the white supremacy organization to put up the controversial billboard.
In July, Clear Channel Outdoor tore the billboard down several days after it installed it because community members complained about the message on the billboard.
O'Sullivan filed a suit in District Court in August claiming Clear Channel Outdoor broke its contract with him when it took down the sign because the contract was for one year.
The company, however, stated that it had the right "to reject any advertising it deemed unacceptable for any reason," according to court documents.
Clear Channel Outdoor stated that if it were indeed found to be in error, then the courts should award O'Sullivan with a monetary damage rather than force the company to replace and re-install the billboard.
"Should (O'Sullivan) receive an award of monetary damages, it may apply that award...to procure billboard space from another advertising company," Clear Channel Outdoor argued in court filings.
William Kurr, president of Clear Channel Outdoor, said that the company did not know what the National Alliance stood for, and that it never supported the agenda of the group. The "Stop Immigration" message was ultimately approved because it didn't go through the proper approval process, he said.
He said that the account executive who approved the advertisement on the billboard "didn't understand what the message was. She thought it had something to do with Immigration and Naturalization services."
The account executive, whom he declined to identify, has since been transferred to a different job.
He said Clear Channel Outdoor has taken steps to ensure that such an incident does not happen in the future, including changing the contract process to allow Clear Channel to pay damages rather than have to reinstall a billboard.
In a sworn affidavit and court documents, however, Kurr stated that the company knew what the message on the billboard would be before Clear Channel Outdoor erected it, and the company tore the sign down after the company received complaints.
He said that Clear Channel Outdoor and its affiliates "prepared billboard artwork at the plaintiff's request" and then, after O'Sullivan selected a design he liked, the company posted it on the billboard, according to the affidavit.
"After posting the billboard, (Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc.) determined that plaintiff's billboard was 'offensive' and removed it," Kurr stated in the affidavit.
District Court Judge Sally Loehrer ruled in early January that Clear Channel breached its contract with O'Sullivan and ordered the company to re-install the billboard at the Sahara Avenue location or a different location with the same amount of traffic, ultimately dismissing the option proposed by Clear Channel Outdoor to pay O'Sullivan damages rather than put the billboard back up. Legal observers said that case law typically holds that monetary damages don't settle a free speech claim, meaning there has to be a remedy that restores the speech that was denied, such as putting back the billboard.
Shaun Walker, National Alliance chief operating officer, said the court decision "reaffirms the ability to express ourselves in this country."
Walker, speaking from the National Alliance headquarters in Hillsboro, W. Va., said the National Alliance wants to keep the "Stop Immigration" sign up at Sahara Avenue to gain interest for the organization with white Las Vegas residents.
"We're trying to target the white population who have to deal with the Hispanics," he said. "We don't want areas like Las Vegas to turn into neo-Mexican colonies."
Brown said that there is little that can be done about the billboard now that the District Court ruled the sign to remain in place. He expressed frustration that Clear Channel Outdoor hadn't acted more forcefully to remove the billboard.
"(Clear Channel) responded the first time because they thought it was the right thing to do. I just thought they would want a good reputation," he said.
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