Paso Robles Post Office forced to strip wall of local soldiers' photos

[othermeans]

Source: KSBY News Paso Robles CA.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Reported by: Amber Lee

PASO ROBLES

A Central Coast post office is forced to take down photographs of local soldiers serving overseas.

Some are likening it to a wall of shame. Since 2001, pictures of men and women in the military have been a fixture of the Paso Robles Post Office until this morning.

"What happened to the pictures? Why were they taken down?" asked Shelley Reeger, who is a military wife.

All morning Paso Robles postal employees were answering tough questions.

That is because just before the post office opened its doors Friday morning, a board covered with pictures of local soldiers had to be taken down after a compliant was made to its Consumer Affairs Department.



Read more: http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=7239824

[trusty elf]

1. WTF?

:wtf:

What possible reason could there be for doing that?

We can't have anything that reminds people of the colossal blunders of this catastrophic shrubministration, can we?

[bigworld]

2. Post Offices aren't allowed to post any kind of community bulletin boards

Unfortunately, the freepers will be all over this.

[tabasco]

6. Freepers will be delighted.

They don't want any reminders of what chickenshit cowards they are. Freepers hated it when Newsweek magazine posted the faces of the KIA soldiers. They hate to be reminded of their own cowardice and the cost of their great leader's illegal war.

[kimmylavin]

3. So...

So they can post the 10 Most Wanted criminals in the country, but they can't honor those off fighting?
What happened? This war created so many pictures that they wound up blocking the door?

[atreides1]

5. Those are official government postings

And are in accordance with postal regulations.

[Ian David]

4. It looks like it was the miliatary spouses who were upset...

<snip>

But one military wife, who regularly mails care packages from the Paso office says it is almost too much to take.

"You know coming in as a spouse walking in and seeing your husband or wife up on that wall. It's huge," said Reeger.

But a spokesperson for the United States Post Office says regulations specify that only official postal announcements and other government notices can be put up on the walls.

More:
http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=7239824

[Quantess]

7. It is stupid, but, they may be covering their asses in a legal sense.

The Post Office is probably keeping strict order of their rules so that in case of a future lawsuit about allowing or not allowing something on their walls, they can say, "look- we have always followed the rules strictly, and we didn't even allow photos of servicemen/women on the walls."

If they allow troops on Post Office walls, then other groups could come in and demand that their posters get displayed, as well.