News & Observer | newsobserver.com | Photos show fair's most unwanted list

Published: Oct 18, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Oct 18, 2007 05:14 AM

Photos show fair's most unwanted list

The drunk, the idealistic and a guy they say tried to swipe a toy zebra

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RALEIGH - Inside the Gov. James G. Martin building, the headquarters for State Fair security, stands the most interesting attraction fairgoers won't see.

They call it the Wall of Shame. It's a cubicle partition where the police post information about the 25 people, as of Wednesday, who have been banned from the fair.

From the Polaroid stapled to each report, it's pretty easy to tell who was booted because of drunkenness or drugs. But they don't begin to tell the vast variety of ways one can get kicked out of the fair.

One guy had brass knuckles. Two people jumped the fence instead of paying admission. A teenager was tossed and accused of "attempted larceny of a stuffed zebra."

Andy Silver was booted Saturday for carrying a sign that called for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Silver is with the Grassroots Impeachment Movement.

"I was told I can never come back to the State Fair," Silver said. "They said they needed to expel me because my sign might anger people and that someone might attack me. I was told I would be arrested for trespassing and taken to jail if I came back."

Police say Silver got the hook when he refused to give up his sign.

"It's not so much what's on the sign. It's that he didn't go through the proper procedure," said Capt. O.D. Baldwin of the state Agriculture Department police.

Anyone who wishes to hand out material or set up a sign or a booth needs to get permits. The same goes for anyone who wants to perform music. On Monday, three young guys set up a musical performance for tips. When one posed for his Polaroid, he held up the troupe's sign, which profanely proclaimed their sexiness and added, "Give dollars."

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