Saturday, October 18, 2008

Prop 8 Signs Vandalized

I called an old friend in Santa Rosa (in Sonoma County, CA, north of San Francisco) to tell her about the Ruth Institute Home Party Kits. The first words out of her mouth were, "we're doing great up here, but people keep stealing our Yes on Prop 8 signs."
The Orange County Register reports it as well.
After watching the political signs in his Fountain Valley neighborhood slashed and their replacements disappear, Jeff Carr knew what he had to do.

A contractor by profession, Carr built a two-by-four frame box around the flimsy plastic sign that reads "Yes on Prop 8." The box, with plexiglass and low-voltage lighting, has legs sunk two feet into the ground.

"You can kick this thing or try to cut it. It's indestructible unless you drive over it," Carr said. "It's my First Amendment right to have a sign in my front yard, for God's sake."

In downtown Huntington Beach, Kui Gomez held a late-night stakeout and unsuccessfully ran after someone who'd stolen his "Yes on 8" sign before jumping into a van.

He said nine to 11 signs on his neighbors' front yards have also been ripped up or slashed.

"We have signs galore," Gomez said. "I'll put out the same I had plus two."

The Irvine Police Department has reported the most Prop 8 sign vandalism by far. Since Oct. 8, eight Yes on Prop. 8 signs have been stolen or spray painted. Two of those incidents ended in citizen's arrests for petty theft, Lt. Rick Handfield said.

Shu-Chih Yuen, an Irvine resident, said she's resorted to displaying her "Yes on 8" sign on the window after one was stolen and two tagged with "no" over the "yes."

"Irvine has been rated as the safest city and I never thought this would be happening in the city," Yuen said. "Not just is my property being violated but my right to speak is being violated. It's kind of scary, you feel like people are attacking us almost."

9 comments:

emi. said...

yes on prop 8!

http://prop8discussion.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

Start doing stake-outs. We've busted five people this week in Irvine and had them charged with petty theft, a misdemeanor under CA law. This is serious and deserves a serious response. Our signs still don't last more than 2 days, but they are lasting more than 2 minutes like they used to.

Just post a few signs in an area where you have experienced theft, hide out with a video camera and cell phone in hand. Once you see the theft, get it on tape and call the cops immediately (note, the cops will take the tape as evidence, so bring a blank and extras). Don't physically restrain the thieves, but you can follow them or ask them to stay put. Try to delay them until the cops get there. Tell them that running would be fleeing from the scene of the accident.

It's a lot of fun. We let a kid off tonight because he seemed sorry and promised to help us spread the word that stealing signs is bad (didn't charge with petty theft), but the police officers are going to work with the school officer to make sure he gets community service.

The No on Prop 8 signs stay up for days, but we can't keep our up for 2 minutes. Some tolerance.

Anonymous said...

These signs leave a real bad taste in my mouth. This is the first time in my life I have been tempted to steal or modify campaign signs (and I'm 46). To me they have the same impact as if I saw a sign that said 'Proud Member of the Ku Klux Klan' or 'Hitler had the right idea'. They smell of hatred and intolerance and I feel like the sign itself is an offense against humanity. Note: I am not gay and I grew up a devout Christian, going to church three times a week. I have not problems with anyone's personal belief systems, but I can't stand to see anyone, whether it's Bill Graham or Bill Maher, trying to impose their belief systems on others.

Jennifer Roback Morse said...

Incredible, Jeremy. You think advocates of traditional marriage are the equivalent of Nazis. I can't believe you are serious. We are not here to hurt anybody. We don't think Prop 8 is a referendum on whether we like gay people. We think Prop 8 is about marriage: whether marriage is a child-centered, gender-based institution, or whether it is going to be an adult-centered, genderless institution.
Which part of that is an offense against humanity?

Anonymous said...

You would be better served starting a petition to ban divorce in California. Divorce is a far more serious threat to the institution of marriage than gay marriage.

I fail to see how gay and lesbian marriage does anything to lessen the importance of marriage. As a matter of fact, allowing people who love each other to marry and raise children seems like the right thing to do from any healthy perspective.

Why reserve marriage for heterosexuals? Is there a law preventing sex offenders, even pedophiles from getting married? No, despite the fact that they might be an abomination against all that is human, they are allowed to marry just like non sexual deviants. Is there a law against those convicted of felonies from getting married? No, in fact a convicted felon, even a serial rapist or murderer, could get married while in prison. Doesn't this call into question the legitimacy of marriage? Doesn't this taint the concept of marriage? Should two children in their teens be allowed to get married after they've known each other a week? They won't be married long, but the practice is not called into question by statewide propositions.

There are far more dangerous threats to marriage than allowing same sex marriage. By the way, when a spouse decides to stay with a transgendered individual post-operation, shouldn't that be immediate grounds for dissolving the marriage? What about the many thousands of men who quietly find they are gay after years of marriage. Is it right for them to be married to a woman?

Actually, let me ask that question: should a gay man be allowed to marry a woman? I guess Prop 8 doesn't care about this situation.

Unknown said...

Marriage is not redefined by two people getting married that you happen to not agree with. When interracial marriage started to come to the forefront lots of people came out against that for reasons that sound very similar to the ridiculous notions of prop 8. We do not need laws that reduce the rights of people. Laws and amendments should be created in order to instill rights. Too many people seem to think because they don’t agree with or don’t like something, that it means other people should be restricted from their human rights. Marriage will remain marriage, my wife is a elementary school teacher, she has never and will never teach marriage, gay or straight. Her sister is a high school teacher, she has never and will never teach marriage, gay or straight. They do teach lessons of tolerance, but that has nothing to do with the specifics you are looking to quash. Why is it that you feel what other consenting normal adults want in their lives which has absolutely no affect on anyone else is anyone’s business except for the individuals involved? This whole issue seems made up in order for insecure ignorant people to feel safe from their fears.

Jennifer Roback Morse said...

Jeremy
You are picking on the wrong person. I have spent the better part of the last 10 years working to lower the divorce rate and the rate of out of wedlock childbearing, precisely because I think those things are detrimental to children and to society. If you look at my main websites, www.jennifer-roback-morse.com, you will see much more material on divorce and other strictly hetero issues, than on gay marriage.
The sad truth is that we were making some progress in convincing the public that marriage helps people cross the gender divide and that fathers matter to children, and that marriage is the best context for both sexual activity and childrearing. And now, along comes the gay marriage steam roller, trying to convince everyone that the opposite of these things are true. The same sex marriage issue is taking up all the oxygen in the room. We should be paying attention to these other issues, but we are distracted by ssm, which threatens to establish into law that marriage has nothing to do with gender or children, and that mothers and fathers are interchangeable.

Unknown said...

Jennifer,

You said, "along comes the gay marriage steam roller, trying to convince everyone that the opposite of these things are true".

You put puzzle pieces together that only fit through your eyes. I see gay marriage as something good for gay people. Why people like you imgaine an army of gay people attacking your children is beyond my comprehension. The puzzle you have put together to try and justify your arguement is one sided, discriminatory, and outright disgusting. It's to say that the beliefs you have in something should be thrust upon others just because you feel that in your view of society it harms your delicate sensabilities. In the real world outside of your security bubble what other consenting adults do has no impact on your children. If it does, then you are not communicating with your children correctly. The only thing children have to do with gays getting married is that they are being innapropriately used as a tool to help religious individuals and institutions make a false arguement in favor of stealing rights and labeling bigotry as a good fight. Intolerance for innocent needs of people who happen to not agree with you is foul and not the direction this country should head.

Anonymous said...

I PROPBABLY STOLE YOUR SIGNS.


aBOUT 50 OF THEM ACTUALLY.
YOUR IGNORANT AND STUPID.





EQUALITY FOR ALL.