Sign waver facing possible charges

PALMER — A man well known for standing on the corner with a large political sign is facing possible criminal charges after a run-in last week with a group of handicapped students on a field trip.

According to a Palmer Police Department press release, officers drew up charges of fourth-degree assault and harassment June 30 against Sidney Hill, 54, of Palmer, and sent them to the district attorney’s office for review. Fourth-degree assault is the least serious assault charge and requires only that the victim feared injury at the perpetrator’s hands.

The Palmer Police press release says the students and accompanying school district staffers were trying to cross the street with them.

“He wouldn’t let them push the button to activate the crosswalk thing. Then he got real vulgar and nasty,” Cmdr. Tom Remaley said. “Then he called us and claimed he was assaulted.”

He said Palmer officers arrived on scene, sorted out the differing accounts and decided Hill was at fault.

Reached by phone, Hill spoke at length about his opinions on state and federal government and the Frontiersman newspaper, but had little to say about the incident in question.

“It was a very irate man who was trying to incite these children to make a scene,” Hill said, in a brief description of events as he saw them that day.

When asked to elaborate, Hill declined.

“I reckon I should be talking to an attorney because if you guys are planning assault charges against me…” he said.

When interrupted with a correction that it is the Palmer Police Department and not the Frontiersman that filed charges, he said in his view the police and law enforcement in general and the Frontiersman other and media outlets in general are in cahoots in a wide-ranging conspiracy to impose fascism in the United States.

“Why don’t you write a damn article about defending the First Amendment you piece of crap,” he said before hanging up the phone.

Scott Daugharty, the Mat-Su Borough School District’s Assistant Director of Student Support Services who retired July 1, was acting as principal for the children while they attended this year’s summer school session. He said he talked to the staffers after they returned to Cottonwood Creek Elementary. He said four students were on the sidewalk with four staffers.

“As portrayed to me, the perpetrator blocked our students and staff from crossing the street with a large sign, asked the teacher if he was teaching the students about the Nazi … Obama,” Daugharty said in an email.

A slur generally used against homosexual men was sandwiched between the words “Nazi” and “Obama,” according to Daugharty.

Daugharty said Hill reportedly also swore at the teachers and their students, at one point using a slur against developmentally disabled people to describe the children. He said the children ranged in age from 15 to 17, some with multiple disabilities.

“The incident that was portrayed to me is so egregious I will be recommending to my superiors that legal channels be pursued to guarantee protection of students and staff while in public,” Daugharty wrote. “If the above representation is accurate, this is the most flagrant verbal attack that disabled children could have witnessed or been subjected to in public.”

Hill and his sign, which bears an image of Obama wearing a Hitler moustache and points passersby to the website of Lyndon LaRouche, have become a fixture of Palmer just outside the downtown Chevron station. He briefly gained national attention on the Internet last summer when a video of Alaska State Fair security subduing him after he refused to leave the grounds made a splash on YouTube.

He shows up periodically in police reports mainly when he allegedly starts interfering with traffic or accosting people. But Remaley has said previously most every charge police file against him has died before making its way to court.

One that did wind up in court ended up getting thrown out because the “No Parking” sign near where Hill parks his pickup did not clearly delineate the zone in which parking was not allowed, Remaley said.

Other things that may seem like violations to the general public are not. For instance, when Hill got hold of a megaphone, he wasn’t actually breaking any noise ordinances, since those only apply at certain hours of the night and he stands there during the day.

“You can’t interfere with traffic, you can’t interfere with pedestrian traffic, you can’t interfere with a business,” Remaley said. “Occasionally, we get calls that he is and we go over and say, ‘Don’t be harassing people, don’t be blocking the sidewalk with your sign.’”

And sometimes those incidents do end up with police filing charges. But, for the most part, Hill’s actions are within the letter of the law.

“He’s standing in a legal spot and he’s exercising his First Amendment rights,” Remaley said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.