GRAND RAPIDS, Ohio — Editor's note: The owner of the sign, Tom Gray, has updated the iconography on his sign to have obscured any Nazi-related imagery.
Gray sent us this statement: "I think it sends a clearer message. And yes, the Nazi symbol as well as the SS symbol projects hate, which is exactly what the Nazi regime was all about in addition to fear." An updated picture is included below.
A Harris/Walz campaign sign in Grand Rapids is causing concern in the community because its owner has used graffiti to cover it with swastikas and other Nazi symbols.
"I can't even stand looking at it. Who would even go that far as to do something like that?" said one resident who lives near the property on River Road.
WTOL 11 knocked on the door of the home, but no one answered.
Nearby residents WTOL 11 spoke with declined to go on camera, but said they don't like the sign. One neighbor even worries about retaliation.
"We fear for our lives being his neighbor. We see men with shotguns driving back and forth, back and forth, and you never know what's going to happen," the anonymous resident said.
However, the claim of armed men driving around the residence has received some pushback from Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylshyn.
"Why aren't they calling us? If they're really thinking there's people with guns going up and down the road checking this out, I beg them to call 911," he said.
Wasylshyn said his office has received at least one call about the sign and he sent deputies to investigate, but he says he's received no reports of men with guns.
He said he and the municipal prosecutor have reviewed the case and agree no crime is being committed.
"In order to have ethnic intimidation, there has to be one of four other elements," he said. "There has to be aggravated menacing or menacing or criminal mischief or telecommunications harassment. But it's on his property, so freedom of speech."
"They're not telling anyone to go out and commit violence against a particular person or group of people, i.e., a minority. If they're not doing that or vandalizing another person's property, they have the right to do that," he added.
But Wasylyshyn said that despite a law not being broken, the hate symbols are understandably an issue for some.
"A lot of people were murdered by Hitler, and that symbol was the swastika, so that certainly conjures a lot of hate," he said.
