The Burien Police Department is reporting that they have arrested a local man for running over campaign signs in another resident’s front yard.
Officers were able to locate and arrest the owner of a suspect vehicle, who admitted to running the signs over.
The suspect was charged with two misdemeanor counts – ‘Political advertising, removing or defacing’ and ‘Malicious Mischief,’ punishable under RCW 29.A.84.040.
The victim – Andrew McNair – told us that this wasn’t the first time the suspect drove over election signs in his front yard. McNair lives in Burien’s Gregory Heights neighborhood, near St. Francis of Assisi Parish and School.
Police add that the suspect stated in the arrest report that the reason he ran over the signs was to “retaliate” for McNair’s posting of a link to a document obtained from King County Elections. McNair posted a link to this public domain document (which has been distributed elsewhere) on The B-Town Blog’s Facebook page. It includes names (but not addresses) of those who signed a petition aimed at getting a Proposition on the Nov. 7 ballot to vote on Burien’s ‘Sanctuary City’ status. That proposition was denied by a King County Judge on Sept. 14.
“(The suspect) advised that he was angry at McNair for distributing people’s identity online and felt he had to retaliate for what he did,” the police report states.
The criminal case has been referred to the city prosecutor with a recommendation that the suspect be charged with Malicious Mischief.
McNair said that he is also filing a protective order against the suspect, with a hearing set for Nov. 7, which ironically is Election Day.
Here’s McNair’s account of the first incident, which happened Oct. 9:
I didn’t initially react to seeing a silver 4-door sedan traveling southbound (the far lane from our house) cross the median and slow down, aiming for the shoulder at around 5 p.m. on Monday night, Oct. 9. I figured he was going to park there. What was completely unexpected was that he would continue driving another 3-5 feet to arc onto our lawn, said arc coinciding entirely with all four of our signs, before returning to the southbound lane and driving off without any hesitation. After he did this, I went outside, but was too late to do anything besides straighten my signs. I called the police and filed a report with as much detail as I could recall.Here are photos showing the suspect vehicle’s path and the aftermath of his crime (click images to see larger versions):


