In the last month James Rieth has gone out on Temple Road in New Ipswich with a sanding block, painters tape and black, white and red paint to cover the letters “FTP” on 6-7 stop signs.
He tried paint thinner and Goof Off, a high-strength remover, but neither have worked.
“I don’t get it,” said Rieth of the graffiti, which stands for (expletive) the police. “It’s pretty juvenile what they are doing.”
Rieth also painted over the letters on a construction sign. But he noticed the letters were back about two weeks later.
“I have seen a few more and will continue to fix them if I can,” he said.
Rieth said he believes another person in town is doing the same in response to the graffiti.
New Ipswich Police Chief Tim Carpenter said the department started noticing the graffiti during the first or second week of June.
“I don’t take it personally,” Carpenter said of the meaning behind the graffiti. “I’ve been doing this for too long.”
He said even though the activity has been going on for months, the department doesn’t have any suspects or leads.
“Honestly we don’t have the staffing to patrol for this,” Carpenter said.
He said the town has replaced some signs, and some residents are trying to scrub the signs free of the letters, but there is so much graffiti on signs around town that it’s been difficult to stay on top of.
New Ipswich Selectmen recently spoke about the issue after resident Jim Coffey approached the board during a meeting on Aug. 8. Coffey asked the Selectmen what was being done about the situation, and suggested that a $1,000 reward be given out to catch the person doing it.
“I’d throw in 100 bucks,” said Coffey. “We all know the person who did it had to tell someone else.”
Board chair David Lage told Coffey he had spoken with Department of Public Works Director Peter Goewey about the matter, and found out some signs had been replaced only to be defaced soon after.
The board discussed using some of the additional highway block grant funds recently received by the town to replace some of the signs, but no motions were made at the meeting.
Lois and Warren Sponsler, who live in Hancock, reported an anti-police incident in a recent letter to the editor. They said a flag that they fly at the end of their driveway in support of law enforcement officials was ripped down on Monday.
Warren said when he pulled out of the driveway on Monday morning to go to the gym the flag was still flying, but by the time he came home it was on the ground. He said a bracket posted to the tree with four screws that held the flag in place was also ripped down.
“It looked pretty intentional to me,” Warren said.
Warren said he started flying the American flag that has a blue stripe through the middle last December in response to the nationwide attacks on law enforcement officials.
He said a few neighbors have asked about the meaning behind the flag and some even inquired about where he had bought it so that they could put one up too. That’s all he’s heard since he started flying the flag.
Warren did say that he and his wife were gone for a long stretch last winter and when they came home the flag was on the ground. At the time, he suspected a winter storm had brought it down, but now he’s wondering if that was really the case.
On Wednesday morning, Warren said he hadn’t reported the incident to police officers, although he had plans to.
Hancock Police Department didn’t respond to an inquiry about the situation by deadline on Wednesday.