State rejects anti-Trump license plate, ‘LOKHMUP’

The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS—Bill Moore would like to lock him up. The state has told him he’ll have to find another way to express those sentiments.

Moore, a Dallas resident, purchased a personalized license plate last year bearing the phrase, “LOKHMUP,” a play on President Donald Trump’s regular exhortations to “Lock Her Up,” referring to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Moore said the idea came to him after the 2016 election when accusations of possible collusion between the Trump administration and Russia began to spread.

Someone found Moore’s plate offensive and called the state to complain, according to KDFW-TV (Channel 4).

The state agreed and recently informed Moore he will have to scrap his plate for a new one.

Moore said he’s only expressing himself.

“So (Trump) can say lock her up, but I can’t say lock him up? I don’t understand the difference,” Moore told Fox4.

The problem, the state says, is that the plate is considered derogatory, which is defined as “an expression that is demeaning to, belittles, or disparages any person, group, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or refers to an organization that advocates such expressions.”

The Department of Motor Vehicles, when contacted by the TV station, said that “LOKHRUP”—presumably directed at Clinton—is also prohibited.

Moore plans to appeal. “I’m not inciting violence. It’s just my thoughts that (Trump) is a criminal and he needs to be locked up, just like at his rallies when he says that all these other people are criminals and they should be locked up,” Moore told Fox4. “It’s the same difference, only no one controls him. But yet I’m a citizen being told that I can’t do the same thing.”