Anti-Semitic banner appears on I-20 overpass

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — From flyers scattered across Shreveport/Bossier City neighborhoods to now a banner.

And one local man wasn’t about to let its message of hate fly freely over an interstate in Shreveport.

It was not the kind of welcome sign he was expecting to see over the weekend.

On the heels of anti-Semitic flyers popping up in neighborhoods on both sides of the Red River, a large banner spewing hate toward those in the Jewish community appeared Saturday in a very high-profile area.

Above Interstate 20.

It’s unknown how long it had been out there hanging from the Fairfield Avenue overpass when the Shreveport man saw it, took the next exit, came back and tore it down.

KSLA News 12′s Doug Warner caught up with him just moments before he tossed it into a Dumpster.

The person responsible for the banner blames the many woes of the world on the Jewish faith.

Sadly, the person behind last month’s flyers hid behind freedom of speech and likely faced nothing more than littering if he or she were caught.

But for the man who cut down the crude but large banner, he feels this rises to a whole new level.

“I’ll continue to take it down if I see it. I would think free speech in your yard is one thing; but out on a public highway, that’s something different. I don’t think we have the right to put signs up on the side of the interstate.”

KSLA News 12 didn’t identify the man to prevent the person responsible for putting up the banner from targeting him for taking it down.

Late Monday afternoon, Warner spoke with Shreveport police to see if legally a line has now been crossed since the banner was out on the interstate.

► [RELATED: Antisemitic flyers distributed in Shreveport neighborhoods over Christmas; activists speaking out]

Copyright 2023 KSLA. All rights reserved.