MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Missing, vandalized, damaged campaign signs in the Bluff City are catching it in the weeks leading up to the general election.
People running for office are saying someone had been spray painting their signs.
The campaign signs at the corner of A.W. Willis Avenue and Front Street were a few that were vandalized, but it’s happening across the city.
Council member Berlin Boyd, who is running for re-election, said he removed the seventh sign Wednesday. He said someone spray painted bold letters on his sign.
“This whole entire campaign season we’ve been dealing with missing signs, but I think this is taking it a little too far with people defacing signs, and they have messages on them of Herl,” Boyd said.
He isn’t alone; someone also spray painted the same message on Thurston Smith’s sign. Smith is running against Boyd.
Boyd said he did a Google search to find out what the message means.
“I heard that the word could mean that you’re sick or you’re throwing up or somebody could be disgusted, so it has various meanings,” he stated.
“I think those are probably people that think they’re being funny,” Memphis resident Crystal Norment said.
Norment said she hopes whoever is doing this goes to jail.
“When you vandalize that sign and change it to make it say something hurtful or stupid, then it’s like you’re making a statement against the candidate, which that isn’t part of the political process.”
