Newtown resident Holly Kocet went about her day as she normally would in the early morning of Thursday, October 10. That was until around 9 or 10 am, when Kocet noticed that the “Chris Murphy for Senate” sign she put up on her property had been vandalized with swastikas.

Three large red swastikas were spray painted onto the sign, partially covering up Murphy’s name. One of the swastikas was sprayed into the upper left corner of the sign, completely covering up the words “We Support.”

People messing with the political signs on her property is not a new issue for Kocet. She told The Newtown Bee this week that several political signs have been removed from her property over the past few weeks.

“When the signs were stolen, I thought, ‘Well, it’s not right, but it’s not a big deal.’ But, you know, the swastikas were just … it was so disturbing to me that I actually went down and filed a police report,” Kocet said October 14.

Kocet lives on a long and wooded property in town and close to the intersection of two roads.

“So the [Murphy] sign was up on the corner of those two roads, and I can’t really see that corner when the trees are out. So the sign was on that corner, around five feet in from the road,” Kocet said.

The placement of the sign meant she did not immediately realize one of her signs was vandalized. She believes the vandalism might have happened sometime during the late night of Wednesday, October 9, or very early Thursday morning.

Kocet also has signs in the front of her house, but they were left untouched. The few signs that have been stolen from her property, she said, sat on the same wooded corner as the Murphy sign.

Kocet says she does not take the vandalism personally, and she feels most people do not realize that the wooded corner of her house is a part of her property.

When she realized what had happened, Kocet said, she was initially hesitant to make a police report. She first reached out to Selectman Michelle Embree Ku that same day to tell her about the vandalism and that she was upset about it.

Embree Ku then told First Selectman Jeff Capeci, and later in the day, they both emailed Kocet urging her to file a police report. Both reportedly added that what happened was unacceptable. Kocet went to Newtown Police Department the next day to file a report.

“It was just something that I thought was alarming, concerning, and disturbing,” Kocet said.

Within a few hours Kocet was visited by a Newtown police officer. This was a different officer than the one she had spoken to at the station. This officer, Kocet said, told her he had received another complaint from somebody passing by who saw the sign and thought it was disturbing.

Kocet had left the sign up because she knew an officer was going to take pictures of it. He wanted to make sure that a different, second sign did not get vandalized, but once he realized it was the same one, he and Kocet took photos of it and removed it.

She said that the vandalism is a sign of “the political affair that we’re in.”

“There’s just so much animosity and division. I don’t take it personally,” Kocet said. “I thought of it more as a political statement. And I don’t think that the perpetrator even associated the property as being mine because it just looks like a wooded corner.”

Kocet feels the vandalism was premeditated, adding that people “don’t really carry red spray paint in their car.”

“I’m not trying to make too much of it other than I think people should know that this is not acceptable. To me, it’s a hate crime whether they realize it or not,” Kocet said.

Nevertheless, the vandalism has not deterred Kocet from continuing to put up signs. This is actually the first year that Kocet has ever put up a political sign on the property, as she says that she felt it was especially important this year to show support for her candidates of choice.

In place of where her Murphy sign was, she put up an Embree Ku sign. She says that she did not have any more Murphy signs, and that the Embree Ku one was “the last one that she had.”

“You can’t live in fear,” Kocet said. “I don’t want to read too much into this, because whoever did this probably didn’t put a whole lot of thought into it … but the idea that you should back down and not carry on the way you normally would because of [stuff like this], we can’t live that way.”

A Growing Issue

Kocet’s sign being vandalized with swastikas is part of a growing problem. As the country moves toward Election Day on Tuesday, November 5, numerous political signs belonging to both political parties have been stolen or defaced.

Republican Town Committee Chair Phil Carroll and Democratic Town Committee Chair Alex Villamil released a joint statement on vandalized and stolen political signs on September 25. They strongly condemned such acts in the statement, adding that people who participate in that sort of vandalism “are not only disrespecting the people putting out their signs but our community as a whole.”

If anyone disagrees with another person in the community’s sign, Carroll and Villamil’s statement says the most productive way to express discontent is through their vote on Election Day.

Newtown Police Department Chief David Kullgren also posted a statement on NPD’s Facebook page on September 20, asking for people to keep this election season safe and civil. Kullgren says that media coverage and political discourse may often amplify division, but he called on people to instead engage in constructive conversations and approach differences in opinion respectfully.

“The police department is here to ensure the safety and security of all our residents,” Kullgren said in his statement. “We are committed to upholding the law impartially and serving everyone, regardless of political beliefs ... We will not tolerate any crime or hateful actions in this community and are working with our community partners to ensure this is the case.”

The Newtown Bee itself has received several Letters to the Editor and had a few people personally reach out over the past several weeks saying they have had their signs stolen or defaced.

According to NPD Lieutenant Scott Smith, the department has had a handful of reports regarding stolen and vandalized signs, as well as signs that have been moved from one property to the other.

When asked for numbers, Scott on October 15 said it is hard to have exact data on signs being stolen or defamed, as “it isn’t something that necessarily gets reported in numbers.”

Anecdotally, Scott says the department has felt an increase compared to what they have seen in the past. Vandalisms and larcenies have happened across the board between both major political parties this year, he noted.

There have been a couple of incidents of note over the last year according to Scott. Other signs in town, such as an Israeli flag on Church Hill Road and signs throughout Main Street, he says have been damaged.

If someone is caught vandalizing a sign, Scott said that the penalties would be criminal mischief in the third degree. If it is a stolen political sign, then he says that would be larceny in the sixth degree.

“They’re both misdemeanors, but they’re both arrestable offenses,” Scott said.

Scott also noted there are other things to consider, such as trespassing. Situations like this are very individual cases, and dependent on that specific investigation and being able to prove it, he said.

Regarding Kocet’s case, Scott said it is being investigated as a hate crime given that the symbol used was a swastika, and that the associated charge with that is intimidation based on bigotry or bias.

“All larcenies and vandalisms are being fully investigated by the Newtown Police Department,” Scott said. “If anybody has any information to report to us regarding any incident that has occurred, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us.”

To contact the Newtown Police Department, call 203-426-5841, or visit the police station located at 191 South Main Street.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.