Brockton Mayoral Candidate Says Multiple Campaign Signs Were Vandalized
BROCKTON (CBS) -- A mayoral candidate appears to have been the target of vandalism as he campaigns in Brockton. Jean Bradley Derenoncourt spent Monday picking up several of his campaign signs that he said someone destroyed in the past 24-48 hours.
One particular lawn sign on Field Street was lit on fire. Seven large signs were broken and hundreds of lawn signs were ruined in the last few days.
"When you take the time to go to somebody's house, to put fire on the signs, it's truly unfortunate," Derenoncourt said. "A bunch of signs have been destroyed."
Deputy Fire Chief Brian Nardelli agreed that the damage was from a malicious act. "To the person who lit on fire, it's dangerous to anyone. You don't want to be lighting signs on fire, you don't want to be lighting anything outside, especially on breezy days like today, this morning was also breezy, we have to have concerns about that as well," he said.
There are seven candidates for mayor of Brockton taking part in the preliminary election set for Sept. 17.
Derenoncourt, a 29-year-old City Councilor At Large, was born in Haiti and became a US citizen in 2016. "Yes I was born in Haiti but I'm Haitian American proud to be here. But to go this low, this is bad, this is bigger than politics."
He said he helped build many of the signs that were damaged.
"It's unfortunate because this is an election. I'm running for mayor because I believe in the city," Derenoncourt added.
Fire investigators are looking into the incident.
