During the summer of 2020, a resident of south main street began a peaceful protest against the BLM movement through the use of hand-painted signs in her yard and asking vehicles to honk to show support for her opinions. By the summer of 2021, she added other political and local topics to her repertoire of yard signs. Lori Arnold’s yard had signs about the “Biden border crisis,” asking Goshen Middle School to fire a certain teacher, saying fair elections matter, saying we need to end socialism and marxism, et cetera. Though Lori was within her rights to protest, her signs were violating city zoning ordinances and she was taken to court after ignoring the city’s orders to take them down.
Lori and her husband, Arnold, were fined $10,800 and given 150 days in jail for contempt of court. Lori claimed that the city was discriminating against her for her political views and told the court that the protesting was “a Lori project. This was a Lori protest.” She said her husband had no part in the protest, and therefore should not be punished. The judge denied the accusation of discrimination and came to an agreement with the Arnold’s; In exchange for avoiding jail time, they need to take down the signs that violated the guidelines and stay in compliance with the city zoning ordinance. The judge took the advice of a city attorney and agreed that their compliance from here on out would be their payment toward their fine. Additionally, each month they follow these guidelines, $300 will be taken off the fine’s total.
Since the trial, the couple has taken down the signs in violation and added smaller signs and flags in their yard. Lori said that she took the signs down only for her husband’s sake, and said it was a “low blow” for the city to prosecute her husband. For now, though, her yard is within the Goshen city zoning ordinances and she is not currently facing any true consequences.