Natasha Vaughn-Holdridge reports for Columbia-Greene Media that Columbia County resident Emily Nooners tore down two White Lives Matter banners over Interstate 90 on May 14. The banners read, “Stop White Replacement” and “Wake up White New Yorkers.” The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center both call the White Lives Matter group racist. “I’m driving down the highway and I just see these banners up and I immediately felt sick,” said Nooners. “I almost didn’t believe that that was what it had said because from a distance it was quite small. I just kind of notated where I thought it was, being familiar with the area. Then I saw a second one, and I was like, Oh yeah, we’re going to get those. I could just not fathom the idea that some people would have to drive under them.” One of the banners was on the overpass in Chatham and the other on the overpass near Exit B1. “I had no idea that at the very same time that I had been compulsed to cut these down the shooting was happening in Buffalo,” Nooners said. “I returned to my house around 2:40 p.m., which means I was pulling those banners down just before and during. Which I didn’t find out until later in the evening.” Ten people were killed and several others wounded by a gunman in Buffalo who posted on online screed with the same conspiracy theory about white replacement mentioned in one of the banners. “I have a really sick feeling. The shooting happened in Buffalo. These signs were posted along 90, and 90 is the route that leads to Buffalo,” Nooners said. “Some people kind of thought that maybe it might have been a trail. It’s just uncomfortable to think about the proximity, it’s so close to our community, it’s disturbing.” Read more about this story in HudsonValley360.com.