Bryan reports his signs stolen

Bryan reports his signs stolen



By CHAD SMITH
chad.smith@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 08/02/08

A candidate for a St. Johns County Commission seat has reported to the police that last week's tampering with his campaign signs was racially charged.

According to a St. Augustine Police report, Ken Bryan came to the station on King Street on Thursday to report that a woman who posted one of his campaign signs in her yard had been bullied into taking it down.

Bryan said a group of men approached the woman and lied to her by saying she needed a permit to have it in her yard, according to the report.

The woman told them to leave, and as they were doing so, one said to her: "Don't you know who that sign belongs to? It belongs to a n-----."

The woman later told an officer that the men had approached her son, not her.

Bryan said in an interview Friday that he hadn't experienced that level of racism in the four years he has lived here.

"I haven't heard this kind of thing probably since I was in high school back in the '60s," he said.

Bryan told the officer he realized there was little the police could do and just wanted the incident documented, according to the report.

Bryan also forwarded a report of the incident to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Not only was the alleged display of racism wrong, it also infringed on the woman's voting rights, he said.

"This is totally unconstitutional," he said, "and this is the kind of thing that I never thought I'd experience in this country again."

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