Enfield democrats steal signs

The related article, don’t really care how people feel about the signs. They all look like crap.

But two adults, one who is a lawyer stealing signs in front of a business at 10pm is pretty trashy and childish.

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I honestly wish we had laws limiting where these signs could be. Fall is the most beautiful time of the year in New England & every year, the landscape is increasingly littered with political signs. Last week, I tried to take a picture of my son at a Halloween event in town and I could not get an angle where there weren't political signs in the background. These signs never change who anyone votes for & they're absolute visual trash. I can't wait for them to all be taken down.

I agree. Do people honestly think a sign saying they personally support candidate X has changed anyones mind or convinced someone to vote for their person ever?

At worst, it makes a portion of the population think you’re a blazing idiot for supporting whatever candidate.

Stealing or tampering with signs is wrong and illegal, and such acts must be universally condemned and prosecuted.

What's alarming is that Republicans don't feel the same way about their attempts to steal elections.

The Republican candidate for Secretary of State -- the office charged with overseeing election integrity -- has tweeted 'stop the steal' bullshit. You can't ensure election integrity, after proving that you have no integrity to begin with.

[Edit: I see downvotes but not refutation of the tweet I linked]

Despard said that they also received permission from Panchal to put their campaign signs on his lawn and did so. Despard said that when they saw the Republican campaign signs, he asked Panchal if he had given them permission and was told “no.”

“He said they didn’t … What we did is we picked them up … [the GOP signs] and delivered them to the Republican town committee headquarters, which is Ms. Kelly Hemmeler’s house, apparently that’s the public address for the headquarters,” he said. “And we left the signs there with a note that said ‘these are believed to be placed without permission and so we are returning them to you.’ That’s what happened.”

Despard also said that he feels it is disingenuous to say that the signs were taken, as they returned them seven minutes after they took them out of the ground.

“At the end of the day, it sounds like … people had different information. So that’s, that’s all the story as far as I’m concerned, okay. Nothing nefarious [was] going on,” Despard said.

Hopkins agreed.

“For me, it’s pretty straightforward. I’m assisting Matt with his campaign. We got permission to put signs at the Jug Shop. So, we put our signs up and then saw a few days later that there were a bunch of Republican signs as well,” Hopkins said. “So the Jug Shop owner was asked and he ultimately said, ‘No, I didn’t give them permission.’ Matt and I took those signs down, pursued his direction and took them to the RTC headquarters and left them there … on the the front yard with a note noting that we had done this. Now, I guess they’re claiming that these were stolen.”

About his response to the calls for him and Despard to resign, Hopkins said that he thinks this is being brought up because the election is less than a month away.

“I think they’re omitting the fact that these signs were returned. And that they didn’t have permission there originally. It’s easy to say, ‘you should resign,’ but I think that’s pretty ridiculous,” he said.

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Make Connecticut great again

They’re stupid political signs. This sounds like the biggest waste of the courts time and state money to go after.

Someone in my apartment complex in Stamford has started putting up political signs and it's so fucking miserable. The signs are on the sidewalk so its technically public land. Couldn't even have a little bit of reprieve.

These signs are horrible. A cancer. Just more single use plastic that goes straight to a Landfall.

Lots are illegally placed on both public and private property.

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Has any one ever driven down the road going hmm who will I vote for oh look a Ned Lamont sign I’ll vote for him …. I think the only time signs have a purpose is when there is alike a charter questions or some kind of question on vote cause a lot of time people have no clue about that stuff so seeing a sign may cause people to do research on topic

I'd like to see where that's allowed?

So if I was trashy enough to put signs near the curb of my yard, you think it's acceptable to take them if they're within arms reach?

I think they can be useful to make names familiar - if you're generally inclined to vote D/R but don't follow local politics much, you're less likely to omit (or cross parties for) a local candidate from your party if you've seen their name in a bunch of places. There's also the social permission thing - lets you know that you're not the only person around who votes this way.

That being said, they come out way too early, are often larger + visually louder than they need to be, and the benefits of signs for statewide / federal races are harder to justify; nobody needs to read a sign to know who Ned (or for that matter Bob) is.

Being unaffiliated is fantastic, no one even asks if I want a sign.

I think billboards on the sides of highways are gaudy & hideous. Having a handful of cheap plastic signs in everyone's front yards is even worse. And they won't sway a single person to vote one way or the other.

Meanwhile, my kid asked to put American flags along our property for Memorial Day one year & they all (I think it was 30 or so) got ripped out overnight & thrown alongside the local roads.

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Trespassing & stealing someone's property is legal?

I think the signs are trashy. I think the people mentally ill enough to steal said signs are oxygen thieves.

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I think the loser should have to pick up theirs and their opponents signs the day after the election

It’s a nuisance if it is located within the public right-of-way.

Here is the full story. Enfield Republicans are unfortunately misrepresenting things right before the election because they can’t run on the issues..

https://mattdespard.com/statement/

So the "full story" in your mind is simply the other guys side of the story? Got it.

I had a large sign vandalized on my property - doubt we'll find the culprit. The candidate's face was adorned with- eh you know. He decided to report it, which was fun because he used to be a cop himself. He was going to take it as a loss but returned the next day, his photo removed from the sign leaving only his name and the words Cop, Dad, Veteran. I honestly think it's more effective and folks that saw the vandalism are more apt to vote for him now. Here's hoping, his opponent is one of the hateful eight that posts anti-democracy memes on FB.

By that logic it should be legal to steal bicycles locked to phone poles because they're on public property

Has anyone ever seen one of these signs and then changed their mind. I think they serve the sole purpose of when you walk into the voting both you recognize a name and probably know nothing else about the candidates.

This! Just gross

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No, the full story is the truth. I was present for it.

Sure.