At border wall prototype, signs briefly warned against bats, bottles and ‘implements of riot’

The signs appeared Tuesday, steps from where President Trump’s administration built prototypes of the border wall he touted all the way to the White House.

The area just east of San Diego’s Otay Mesa neighborhood would be under restriction from Friday morning until Wednesday night, they warned, citing a County of San Diego law.

“Items below are prohibited,” said the notices, listing would-be weapons including guns, knives, ice picks, baseball bats, slingshots and bear spray. “Persons violating this Restriction WILL BE PROSECUTED.”

Also prohibited: glass bottles or containers, chains, hose lengths and other items “generally considered an ‘implement of riot,’” according to the signs.

Then the signs were removed Wednesday. Soon thereafter, a county spokeswoman explained in an email:

“The county had received information about possible protests planned for this weekend, so crews began noticing for a possible Temporary Area Restriction since restrictions have to be publicly noticed in advance of an event,” wrote spokeswoman Alex Bell.

“We have since received information that the protests will not be materializing, and we have decided not to issue a TAR,” she added. “My understanding is that crews have started removing those signs.”

The restricted zone identified on the fliers included the west side of Enrico Fermi Drive from Airway Road to Via de la Amistad. It also included other portions of Enrico Fermi Place, Siempre Viva Road and “Unnamed Public Road.”

The postings appeared the same day Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen visited the border area where the wall prototypes were erected last fall. The unannounced visit was closed to the news media.

Discussing the prototypes, Trump told his Cabinet members at a meeting last month, “I may be going there very shortly to look at them in their final form.” It’s not clear whether his hinted visit might have spurred talk of protests.

The TARs, or Temporary Area Restrictions, were authorized by the county Board of Supervisors in late September at the request of Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer.

At the time, Robbins-Meyer, Sheriff Bill Gore and other county leaders were afraid the border region just outside San Diego city limits would become the next Charlottesville, Va., where a woman had been killed in August at a white nationalist rally. They cited similar protest rules in place in Berkeley.

“Construction of prototype border wall segments in the unincorporated area of San Diego is imminent,” the ordinance said. “It is reasonable to expect the arrival of persons intending to engage in conflict and non-peaceful conduct.”

McDonald writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.