GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Political tensions are high around the nation as the 2024 election is ramping up.
Anyone driving around can expect to see a lot of political signs over the next few months. In Ottawa county there are plenty out there from the national to local races. Someone decided they wanted to avoid seeing two of them on Thursday night or early Friday morning on US-31 Grand Haven.
"They're gonna get a lot of eyes on him this weekend, specifically, because the Coast Guard fest is tomorrow," Ottawa County Democratic Party Chair Larry Jackson said.
The corner where the signs are is a prime spot to get your message out.
"So one of the signs just said 'Democracy Over Hate,'" Jackson said. "Then the other one just had 'Harris 2024.' So, that was just two basic signs, red, white and blue."
Jackson explains that before the signs were stolen, they were targeted.
"The pole or the signs got vandalized. And then we heard this morning that the signs are just gone. So it's disappointing," Jackson said.
Grand Haven Public Safety is investigating. They add no further incidents of stolen political signs have been reported.
"They have their right to freedom of speech," Bill Bailey said.
Bailey is the man running a Trump booth behind where these signs were located.
"We are a Trump vendor. We follow the Trump rallies. Normally, we live here in the Grand Haven area. We have a store here in the Grand Haven area," Bailey added.
Despite having different politics, Bailey says there's one thing he can agree on.
"I do not condone the destruction of anybody's property for any reason. I would ask that people leave those signs alone," Bailey said. "In fact, those signs have been a benefit to us because it's actually drawing attention to our corner here. So it's actually been a good thing for us."
Friday afternoon, at least one sign was back up on a much smaller scale.
"Just bring them back. If you don't bring them back, hopefully, you do something good with them," Jackson added.
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