Things have been getting vicious. Someone send suspicious packages to President Barack Obama’s home, to President Bill Clinton’s home, and to the CNN office in New York. Not only that, the day before, someone sent a pipe bomb to major Democratic donor George Soros. Then, this happened to the man running for Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) seat, the charismatic candidate, Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-TX).
Police Sergeant Kevin Perlich said the department recorded three phone calls, all within a 30-minute time period. People were reporting that someone had lit O’Rourke and Colin Allred yard signs on fire. Allred has been campaigning for Representative Pete Sessions’ (R-TX) seat in the 32nd congressional district.
One couple was startled when their dog began barking. Then, a man from the fire department rang the Terry’s doorbell to inform them that their yard signs were on fire. Terry took pictures of the burned signs.
Although someone had stolen one of Terry’s yard signs before, setting them on fire was another matter. She said she was shocked and upset over the blazing signs:
‘I want to draw a mustache on the Ted Cruz sign, but I won’t, because the ability to support who you want to support is a pretty basic tenet of the architecture of our democracy. And it’s private property — you don’t just step in someone’s yard and light their sign on fire.’
Paige Hutchinson, Colin Allred’s campaign manager, said the campaign had not known that someone was burning signs. Allred’s campaign manager, Paige Hutchinson, said the fires were news to her, too. She asked people whose signs were vandalized to call the campaign office, and the candidate would deliver a replacement himself:’
‘I would just say it’s a real shame to hear that this is happening.’
Chair of the Dallas County Republican Party, Missy Shorey said lighting the signs on fire was “unacceptable:”
‘People need to keep in mind that harming signs is against the law, end of story.’
Chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, Carol Donovan, said there was a malicious intent behind setting the signs on fire. This was new to her.
The Richardson Fire Marshal’s office is looking for leads on who might have set the fires, Fire Marshal Wesley Caskey said. He added that the department suspected that the same person or group of people was responsible for all of the fires. People in his office have been canvassing those who lived near the crime scene to see whether they saw, heard, or had seen on their outside videos that might have captured the crime in progress.
Caskey said he had worked in the fire marshal’s office over a decade, but he had never seen this type of crime. He said in more than a decade at the fire marshal’s office, he had never seen campaign signs lit on fire. The fire marshal said the crime did not qualify for an arson charge, just criminal mischief, which is quite serious, too:
‘Whoever is responsible would likely be charged with criminal mischief — not arson, a charge used in cases where homes or buildings are set on fire.’
Perlich said regular vandalism and stealing of signs was not uncommon.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
