Update, Aug. 30: This article was updated to more clearly reflect Lane County Sheriff's Office responses to Marr.

The Eugene-area neo-Nazi who hung anti-Semitic banners over Interstate 5 as peak traffic drove to see the solar eclipse won't face penalties.

Deputies from the Lane County Sheriff's Office weren't called to respond to Jimmy Marr or his banners in the lead up to the eclipse, said spokeswoman Sgt. Carrie Carver. Sheriff's Office dispatch records show that deputies haven't fielded complaints that named Marr in the last two years, Carver said.

Though sheriff's deputies weren't notified about Marr's banners, Oregon Department of Transportation staff said they fielded several calls about them. But by the time agency staff arrived at the overpasses Marr hung the signs from, he and his banners were gone, said spokeswoman Angela Beers Seydel.

Transportation Department staff only call the police to report unauthorized overpass banners if the person displaying them gets rough with staff sent out to remove the banners, according to Beers Seydel.

If Marr had been reported, an investigation might have been launched, Carver said.

"If a crime or violation occurred within our jurisdiction and we were made aware of it, as resources allow, we would investigate it just as we would any other report and take appropriate action," she said in an email.

It's not a crime to harbor repugnant views. But it is a misdemeanor in Oregon to intimidate others because of their religion, obstruct pedestrian traffic or create a "hazardous or physically offensive condition" with the intent of causing "public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm."

Marr has garnered local, state and national media attention over the years for his offensive public displays of racism and anti-Semitism. He lives in Springfield, has been arrested for loudly blasting his messages from his home and tweets as @GenocideJimmy. Before the banners timed to get attention ahead of the Aug. 20 solar eclipse, his most recent public stunt included driving a truck around the Eugene area emblazoned with a swastika and the phrase "TRUMP: Do the white thing."

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman