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DMV Stifles L.I. Man's 'Get Osama' Campaign

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Nov 19, 2007 6:39 pm US/Eastern

DMV Stifles L.I. Man's 'Get Osama' Campaign

Hauppauge Resident Prepared To Fight For 'Free Speech'

By Scott Rapoport, CBS 2 HD News
NEW YORK (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Arno Herwerth's 'Get Osama' campaign is demonstrated here on this New York State license plate. The DMV has denied his request to have license plates made with such a slogan.
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There's a $25 million reward out for his capture, so it's no secret the United States government wants to get Osama Bin Laden. But when a Long Island man wanted to express that thought on his license plate, he got more than he bargained for.

He's the most wanted man in the world, or as President Bush once put it: "He's wanted dead or alive."

Just like the president, Arno Herwerth of Hauppauge on Long Island wants to get "Osama" also, and he's making it known.

Herwerth sports a "Kill Bin Laden" T-shirt, and one look at his boldly adorned vehicle will tell you his campaign against the 9/11 mastermind is at the forefront of his patriotic-led life.

"I feel the man's a mass murderer. He should be killed. He should be dead," Herwerth told CBS 2 HD.

So when Arno, a retired NYPD sergeant, ordered personalized "Get Osama" license plates from the DMV, he said he thought he was being patriotic.

"It's the only way to deal with him. He's killed thousands of people. The man is akin to Adolph Hitler," said Herwerth.

But now he told CBS 2 HD, the DMV has put the brakes on his plates, claiming they are offensive.

In a letter addressed to Herwerth, the DMV said they "prohibit the issuance of any license plate combination that is, 'in the discretion of the commissioner, obscene, lewd, lascivious, derogatory to a particular ethnic group or patently offensive.'"

Arno points out, however, there is a little something called "free speech" in the country he so adamantly believes he is supporting.

He claims the president's September 2001 speech in which he announced Bin Laden was "wanted dead or alive," should not be forgotten, and if it was okay for the Commander In Chief to say, then the same words on license plates should be permitted.

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