New San Antonio city ordinance legally authorizes vigilante sign-removers

Heh. How's that for hyperbole? I don't really care one way or the other, I just saw a chance to write my own vastly overstated headline, just like a professional journalist.

San Antonio, TX:

Residents tired of seeing a forest of signs tacked to utility poles in their neighborhoods now have the legal muscle to do something about the situation.

Thanks to a revised city ordinance, San Antonio residents can tear down so-called 'bandit signs' attached to utility poles or stuck in the ground in a public right of way.

The signs--with messages about garage sales, home businesses and lost pets--are illegal, but before the revised ordinance went into effect June 19, only city staff legally could remove them.

The ordinance, passed by City Council on June 9, states that the signs are 'abandoned trash that may be removed and discarded' by anyone without informing the person who placed the sign.