‘Hate Cops?’ billboard taken down following complaints

The message was on an electronic billboard in Indiana, above a liquor store.

“Hate cops? The next time you need help call a crackhead,” the sign declared in giant letters.

Megan Thomas noticed it Saturday and said the message was “vulgar, discriminatory to many different classes of people in our city,” according to the Star Press.

She posted the image to Facebook, calling it “outrageously offensive and covertly racist.”

“We have no local in-patient addiction treatment center, yet we have money for this?” she added.

Thomas called on people to contact the owners of the billboard. Chris Johnson, the general manager of the liquor store near the billboard, told the Star Press the owners of the billboard said the sign would be taken down immediately and reworded.

“This is not us, this is not our mentality, this is not how we feel,” Johnson told the Star Press.

Thomas also noted that a planned protest of police brutality was going to start a few blocks away from the billboard.

The message stopped appearing in the rotation that evening, according to Thomas, and by Monday afternoon showed different messages pertaining to law enforcement.

One read “Love, Respect, Support Law Enforcement,” and the other “Love, Support, Support Law Enforcement,” according to the Star Press.

It has not been determined who paid for the sign. A sergeant with the Muncie Police Department posted on Facebook that the department, the city and the Fraternal Order of Police had no connection to the sign, according to the Star Press.

Tensions pertaining to police brutality against black people and violence against police officers have been high recently. Widely circulated videos have showed two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, shot and killed by police officers. Following those incidents, five police officers were killed in Dallas and three were killed in Baton Rouge.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 11:19 AM with the headline "‘Hate Cops?’ billboard taken down following complaints."