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Health & Fitness

Sign Sign Everywhere a Sign (Can't You Just Read the Sign?)

Defacing political yard signs is a despicable, cowardly act done only by someone who does not have the courage of his convictions to stand up for his own views.

After posting on Facebook and Patch how most of my Gary Murphy for Town Council signs were stolen Sunday midnight – Monday 7:00am, I received this on my Facebook by a concerned citizen of Montville. This letter is right on target.  

My independent voice has made me a few enemies along the way, but stealing 35 of my yard signs reaches a new low.

I am offering a reward of $100 for information leading to the arrest of these low-life crooks.

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                                                                                                                                                    From: The News & Advance, Published: October 21, 2008:

It’s a pathetic — but predictable — part of every political campaign season. Some small-minded people who disagree with a candidate’s yard sign deface it — or worse, steal it altogether.

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Defacing political yard signs is a despicable, cowardly act achieved only by someone who does not have the courage of his convictions to stand up for his own views. The most courage that person can summon up is to slither like a snake into someone’s yard — their private property by the way — in the dark of night and deface or steal the yard sign.

It’s our right to have a choice; it bothers me that people would do this.... It is sad that there is this kind of thinking in this country. It would never cross my mind to pull somebody’s sign up. If you want to support a candidate, do it by putting up your own sign. Don’t take other signs down.

The act is also illegal. Taking a political sign amounts to larceny, Larceny is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine. Those who mar or damage signs can be charged with vandalism, which is also a Class 1 misdemeanor.

That yard sign is as much an expression of the owner’s political views as the spoken word or the written word in letters to the editor, for example. That freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution. It’s a basic right of all Americans.

So let’s stop the thefts and defacing and let voters have their say with yard signs and other expressions of support for their candidates. The signs are part of the political process that deserves to be protected by all voters representing all views across the political spectrum. Anyone who would steal or deface them is not only spineless; he does not understand one of the most basic freedoms of that process.

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