Campaign signs removed, defaced

NLR mayoral candidates denounce racist vandalism

The North Little Rock Police Department has spoken with the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the vandalizing of mayoral campaign signs within the city leading up to Tuesday’s runoff election.

Vandals have stolen or defaced a number of political signs related to North Little Rock’s mayoral runoff between Tracy Steele and Terry Hartwick.

Joseph Green, a spokesman for the North Little Rock Police Department, said the department is taking the criminal acts seriously and investigating accordingly. He could not provide Wednesday the total number of police reports that had been filed related to the incidents.

“We have spoken with the FBI about the vandalism to the campaign signs belonging to mayoral candidate Tracy Steele to see if any federal laws may have been violated,” Green said.

Steele and Hartwick were the top vote-getters among the four mayoral candidates in the Nov. 3 election. The race also included Alice Kunce, a teacher at Dunbar Middle School in the Little Rock School District, and Debi Ross, a City Council member who represents Ward 1.

Campaign signs have disappeared or have been vandalized across the city.

Police responded to the 400 block of Meadow Park on Tuesday in reference to criminal mischief. A resident told police that sometime during the night someone had removed one of Steele’s campaign signs from another location in North Little Rock and dumped it in his driveway.

The resident, who said he is a volunteer for Steele’s campaign, told police that someone had written “No n***** mayor” on the sign

with a red marker and had drawn an X on Steele’s forehead on the sign.

Green said another incident is also under investigation, but he said he couldn’t release details regarding this incident at this time.

Steele said in an interview Wednesday that he isn’t sure what is going on, but about 1,000 of his signs have disappeared or been destroyed during the campaign period.

“I ride through every night to look at my signs throughout the city,” he said. “We put them up, and they come up missing.”

Steele described the incident that included the racial slur as disheartening. He said he believes this is an act of a person or a few people, and that it shouldn’t be a reflection of the entire city.

“This is not North Little Rock,” he said. “North Little Rock is a great place to live, and a lot of great people live here. I don’t like this type of image.”

Hartwick’s campaign also sent out a news release condemning the vandalism.

“The Terry Hartwick Campaign condemns in the strongest terms this despicable act on Mr. Steele’s campaign signs,” the statement read. “There is no room in our society for this kind of hatred. The police must investigate who was behind this act and if determined to be a hate crime, turn this over to the FBI for further prosecution.

“This type of behavior has no place in our community,” Hartwick said in the release.