LYNNFIELD — About 100 people protested outside Lynnfield Town Hall Sunday morning to show support for two families that had their Black Lives Matter signs stolen from their homes earlier this month.
One of the Lynnfield families, a biracial couple, also found graffiti spray-painted on their driveway that read “FU BLM.”
Andrea Markarian, the organizer of Sunday’s Black Lives Matter demonstration, said her sign was stolen from her Summer Street home two weeks ago.
The following night, Markarian said she found her driveway spray-painted. On the third night, she and her husband, Mitch, who is Black, found the same letters spray painted on one of their trees.
Shortly after, Markarian, 44, said her “Black Lives Matter” sign was stolen from her yard again. And last Thursday, her house was egged, she said.
“I live on Summer Street, which is a main street,” said Markarian. “I hope it’s not personal. My husband is Black. My children are biracial. We seem to be the only family that is receiving the extent of this (situation).”
Sara Teague, 34, who lives on Walnut Street, is another victim of the “Black Lives Matter” sign thefts in town.
“We had our Black Lives Matter sign stolen seven times,” said Teague.
After the first theft, Teague said she planted a bunch of flowers around her sign, but the thief proceeded to pull them out of her yard as well. She does not think her family was being targeted — she thinks whoever took the sign did so because of its message.
“I think that quite frankly, people are against the message,” said Teague. “We live in a high-traffic area so I think they would rather not see it. Once it moved onto Andrea, that changed everything for us. We thought, this is hateful.”
While others may be deterred from putting out the same kind of sign after so many thefts, Teague feels it is important to keep on replacing it.
“We feel it’s up to white families to stand up for this message,” said Teague.
Lynnfield Police Chief David Breen said his department is investigating multiple reports of incidents involving theft of, and vandalism, of Black Lives Matter signs over the past several weeks.
Breen said the “offensive graffiti” found in front of Markarian’s home is similar to the racist vandalism that was found in the Pillings Pond area this past spring. Racist graffiti was also reported on the bridge at Partridge Island earlier this summer.
“The Lynnfield Police Department is actively investigating these and all reports of theft, and is asking for your assistance and support in this investigation,” Breen wrote on the department’s Facebook page. “We are working all angles and want to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”
The multiple reports of theft and vandalism in town drew an appearance from Congressman Seth Moulton, who attended Sunday morning’s protest.
“This is important,” said Moulton. “I visited a Black Lives Matter protest in Gloucester the day before Saturday. It was an amazing display of solidarity, patriotism and positive energy for change.
“But a man stepped out of his car and started berating a young teenage girl as a disgrace to the white race for participating. As I said to all the kids there, that’s why this matters. That’s why we have to be here because there’s work to be done. Obviously, there’s work to be done here (too).”
Item reporter Anne Marie Tobin contributed to this report.
