Fung sign removed from noose on Glocester man’s property

PROVIDENCE (AP) — After harsh criticism, a Rhode Island homeowner on Tuesday removed a campaign sign for the state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee that was hanging upside down from a noose in his yard.

Homeowner Ray Izzo of Glocester took down the sign after Allan Fung, the GOP candidate for governor, called the display disgusting and hateful.

“Think about the message that this is sending to many of the kids in that neighborhood,” Fung said.

“This hateful symbol which many of us hopefully had long forgotten is reappearing in this campaign and it has no place in our modern society and it’s just shameful.”

Fung, who would become the state’s first Asian-American governor if he wins, is challenging Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo in November. Joe Trillo, who chaired President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign in Rhode Island, is running as an independent.

The homeowner’s lawn also displayed signs for Trillo and for Robert Flanders, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate — but right side up.

Izzo said he’s upset that Fung, the mayor of Cranston, didn’t participate in the typical series of debates before the primary, according to WJAR-TV. He said it’s not about race, it’s about taxes. Izzo told WJAR he would have hung Raimondo’s sign too if he could’ve gotten one.

WPRO-AM posted a photo Tuesday on Twitter of the upside-down sign, which Izzo brought to Fung’s campaign headquarters late Tuesday afternoon after removing it from his yard. Fung wasn’t there at the time.

Trillo and Flanders both said they don’t condone the conduct.

“I’m disappointed that some people choose to express their feelings in that kind of manner,” Trillo said. “It’s an unfortunate situation.”