Officers in a South Shore city proceed to scold a resident for displaying a Trump brand on a water tower after the previous president gained Tuesday’s presidential election, reiterating that the motion violates city bylaws.
A Hanson resident who hadn’t projected a “Trump 2024” message on a town-owned water tower in weeks got here again Wednesday, displaying a brand new picture – a purple “Punisher” cranium adorned with a Trump haircut, social media posts confirmed.
City officers put up spotlights to dam the unnamed resident from placing up the “Trump 2024” brand, leaving them in place via Election Day.
“Regrettably, the party involved in the image projection resumed projecting today,” City Administrator Lisa Inexperienced mentioned in a press release Wednesday night time, “and as a result we have had to yet again take measures to block the projected image.”
Hanson voters favored Trump, with the president-elect receiving 54.7% of the general vote on the town, surpassing the 43.5% for Kamala Harris, unofficial outcomes present.
“We would like to reiterate that the Town of Hanson does not endorse any political candidate, party or platform in any election,” Inexperienced mentioned in her assertion, “and that Town bylaws prohibit the display of political symbols or signage on government property.”
“The Town is duty-bound to enforce those bylaws,” she added, “and is committed to taking whatever action is necessary to prevent future violations.”
The “Punisher” is an antihero from Marvel Comics, with the character depicting an Italian-American vigilante who “hunts down criminals and kills them in brutal ways.” His outfit consists of a picture of a giant cranium.
Just like the “Trump 2024” brand, Inexperienced didn’t explicitly describe the picture that popped up on the water tower Wednesday. She referred to as it solely a “political sign.”
After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the city’s zoning enforcement officer on Oct. 12, the resident stopped displaying the “Trump 2024” brand. As a result of the resident “declined to agree in writing” to by no means put a picture up once more, officers mentioned they discovered themselves in a “stalemate.”
“The unnecessary situation endured by the Town of Hanson by a single resident trying to make a political statement has … caused an undue financial burden on the Town,” the Choose Board wrote in an Oct. 22 assertion.
The Choose Board highlighted how the “deeply unfortunate and unnecessary situation” prompted “at least one threat” despatched in a voicemail towards a city official and a “number of inappropriate and vulgar phone calls and email messages to Town employees who are just doing their jobs.”
The cease-and-desist order that the city issued the resident carried the “maximum fine of $100 per day” till the emblem was now not seen, Inexperienced mentioned in an Oct. 12 assertion.
The wonderful, nevertheless, would “likely not cover” bills that the city put into addressing the scenario together with “attorney fees, overtime to pay Highway Department workers to turn the spotlight on and off each day, and the potential for having to rent or purchase stronger lighting equipment.”
