Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Case of Missing Lawn Signs

Last Sunday, July 27, two police reports were filed regarding two incidents of destroyed property – “Recall Madison Nguyen” signs – on the busy street of King, the very border of Councilmember Nguyen’s District 7.

In one incident, the victim, an old man of 70, was able to partially witness the incident. According to his statement, at about 4:30 AM, while he was reading in his living room, he heard two very loud noises coming from the street. He ran out and saw that the recall sign was gone, while a car parked at the curb nearby zoomed away. Unfortunately, he was too late to be able to see the car’s license plate.

What is so special about the incident? And why does it take two loud impacts to remove a simple campaign sign?

The Recall Madison Nguyen on the old man’s house was not just set on a simple wire frame like the campaign signs you normally see on people’s lawns. According to the victim, he did have a simple sign like that at first, and it had been quickly stolen. After that, he put in a considerable amount of effort to make sure it could not be stolen again – well, at least that was what he thought at the time! The sign was permanently screwed on to a sturdy rectangular wood frame that was bolted to the brick fence around his house. He even pulled out a picture he took to show his work.


Not to be deterred, our valiant sign thief, with two hard punches through the wood frame, was able to remove the Recall sign – while leaving the frame intact. Well, one thing the old man can be proud of, I suppose, is that his wood-work did withstand the violence!

When asked if he is going to put up a third “Recall Madison Nguyen” sign, the old man sadly shook his head and said: “I am not sure, probably not. If you heard the noise this morning as I did, you would be able to feel the considerable amount of force that these people had to use, to remove the sign. And that thought scares me. I don’t know what would be next. Smashing the windshield on my children’s car? Throwing a brick through my living room window? Can my grandchildren safely play in the front yard? I would like to think that the violence would stop with the recall sign, but look at the faked petition submitted to the City Council with 92 forged business owners’ signatures. I don’t think these people have much respect for the law. And that scares me.”

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