Hooligans (def):  Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as bullying and vandalism.

We knew this election season was going to be a trying one – with exaggerations and untruths already being spoken by some candidates. To get to the truth of where all candidates stand, we were already planning here at This is La Vergne to mail questions to people who have filed to run for office on different subjects including:  Do you hope to cut taxes? If yes, what services will you cut.  What do you think are the most important issues facing citizens that local government can control? (And other questions like these…).

However, what we are already witnessing brings absolute shame to our city.  There has already been vandalism, harassment, and trespassing on private property.  This past week, Vice Mayor Chris Farmer posted on his Facebook page and the mayor responded (there were more comments, but we put together this photo so you could see the post and the reaction from the people running):

We understand that both the Vice Mayor and Mayor removed their signs because they didn’t want the grandmother to be harassed by another citizen.  People are knocking on doors throughout the community confronting people who are supporting the people they obviously have a deep hatred of. If anyone comes to your house to intimidate or harass you for your choice, make every effort to record them.

In other parts of town, campaign signs for the Mayor and Vice Mayor have been taken down, stomped on, bent, and thrown in the street. And now we have this.

As a community, we will not always agree on issues.  But in a democracy, the person with the greatest number of votes will win – like them or not.  We are asking for our friends, neighbors, family, and all citizens to be on the lookout for these vandals.  We also ask the candidates who are running for office to get their supporters under control. We are NOT saying that the candidates themselves are behaving this way, but perception is reality. When your opponent’s property is being destroyed, people will judge YOU as either being behind it, encouraging it, finding people to do it for you, or supporting it.  If you are someone running against either the Mayor or Vice Mayor (because their signs are being vandalized), we call on you to publicly take a stand against this behavior and publicly ask your supporters to not engage in this type of criminal activity.

If you do not, you will be a suspect in the mind of the public … suspect to really poor judgment.  If your judgment is that bad, what will you do to this city if you are elected?