‘B1DNSUX,’ ‘JAN 6 DC’ license plates on Ohio roads

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Two license plates spotted by NBC4i viewers passed Ohio’s censors at the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles this year, while other plates with similar sentiments were rejected.

Patricia Ritchie took a photo of the JAN 6 DC plate in Chillicothe. She said in an email to NBC:

“I was shocked to see an Ohio vanity license tag clearly supporting the January 6th insurrection, a shameful event that has resulted in many participants being charged with crimes — misdemeanors and felonies –including charges of seditious conspiracy against the United States Government.

“How this could be approved by the Ohio BMV is beyond me. I was also disturbed that anyone would drive around blatantly showing such disrespect for the rule of law,  but I guess that’s where we live now.”

A second viewer from Delaware snapped a picture of a truck that had the plate B1DNSUX. He didn’t want to be named but asked: “I would like to know if the BMV still reviews vanity plate requests for inappropriate content?”

The viewer said that he once was asked to sit on the license plate review committee — and although he did not have time to do that, he was shocked this plate got through.

“The committee was so hard-nosed about everything,” he recalled. “Do they even have that committee anymore?”

This isn’t the first time political opinions have circumvented the censors. In 2017, an Ohio woman was able to get a covfefe license plate, based on then-President Donald Trump’s mysterious tweeted typo.

A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Public Safety confirmed the plates were in circulation. Repeated requests as to how plates are refused or approved did not receive a reply.

There was also no reply as to why these two plates were approved for circulation while hundreds of others, such as FKB1DN, were not.