Rhode Island park vandalized with fake ‘racist and hateful’ signs

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LINCOLN, RI (AP) Authorities in Rhode Island are looking for anyone who vandalized a popular state park by installing racist and hateful signs that mimic real park signage.

The two brown and yellow signs were attached with screws to trees in Lincoln Woods State Park. They were quickly removed after being found over the weekend and Thursday, a spokesman for the state agency that operates the park, Evan LaCross, said Friday.

The Department of Environmental Management condemned the signs via social media and stressed that parks and natural areas are for everyone to recreate and enjoy.

Another state official called the vandals morons.

We believe whoever did this is displaying these signs, regardless of their intentions, indicating they are hateful morons, another DEM spokesman, Mike Healey, told WLNE-TV in Providence.

The park offers a pond, swimming and beach spots, ball diamonds, fishing, hiking, and horseback riding trails.

State Representative Mary Ann Shallcross Smith lives in one of the few homes inside the park’s 627 acres (2.5 square kilometers) and walks there every day.

I’ve lived in Lincoln Woods since 1965 and it’s heartbreaking to think anyone could even conceive of putting up signs like these,” she said. Lincoln Woods has always been a place of racial and cultural diversity, family oriented and always very welcoming to everyone. .

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