Remember when America used to be the land of free speech? Well, in Trump’s America it looks like all that could be changing. Burning signs and flags, while controversial, have long been considered protected under the law. But now burning Trump signs can be considered hate crimes. At least that’s what one police officer in Princess Anne, Maryland, attempted to charge two 19-year-olds with after they set fire to a Trump billboard.
D’Asia Perry and Joy Shuford, 19-year-old friends, were charged Tuesday with a slew of crimes including second-degree arson, trespassing, and committing a hate crime for setting fire to a large Donald Trump billboard displayed near a family sporting goods store.
In the charging documents, Princess Anne Police Sgt. Robert Smith laid out his justification for the hate crime charge: “The intentional burning of these political signs, along with the beliefs, religious views and race of this political affiliation, directly coincides with the victim.”
Charging these two women with a hate crime for burning this sign is ludicrous and no small matter. And it assumes a whole lot about the intentions of the alleged perpetrators with regard to political affiliation and race—especially given that the owner of the sporting goods store is Republican and white and the two women are black. And let’s face it—couldn’t it be that people just really hate Trump? After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened, even in this very rural town.
The town is home to only 3,325 people, according to the 2015 Census estimate, and Somerset County voted for Trump over Clinton 57.7 percent to 39.7 percent. Maryland overall voted for Clinton 60.5 percent to Trump’s 35.3 percent.
[Sporting good store owner Robert Wink’s] sign has caused controversy before, even in this conservative pocket of the state.
It was previously set on fire in October 2016, and has been vandalized on multiple occasions and stolen twice.
As of Thursday, both the hate crime charges and the second-degree arson charges were dropped. However, both Perry and Shuford still face charges including malicious burning, trespassing and destruction of property. But thankfully, burning someone’s political sign isn’t considered a hate crime. Hopefully these two young women don’t end up doing hard time. Although in Trump’s America you never know. We should probably set up some kind of fund for them just in case. They actually did us a favor and just might be the next heroes of the resistance movement. One sign down, a few million more to go.