Defaced Sign in Support of Police Draws Praise, Ire in Community

Early on a Sunday morning in late August, John Carminucci received a call that his sign at his Thornwood car repair shop had been vandalized.

When Carminucci, owner of JC Automotive on Broadway across the street from the Thornwood Town Center, arrived at his business, he saw that BLM had been spray painted in black on his sign that reads “We Support Our Local Police Department” attached to an old pickup truck.

At first, he thought of taking it down and putting up a fresh sign. But Carminucci quickly came up with another idea – he would leave it up to show that his property was damaged.

Since then, Carminucci, who has owned the business or 32 years, said he has received overwhelming support for his decision.

“The whole reason why I leave it up is I’ve gotten such a positive response out of something that was negative,” Carminucci said. “I really feel, what I’m finding, is people, regardless of how you feel about certain things, most people look at that and say defacing private property and trying to silence somebody else’s message is wrong, and that’s what most people seem to be conveying to me.”

But not everyone is pleased. Mount Pleasant officials paid Carminucci a visit recently to ask him to remove the damaged sign because there had been multiple complaints lodged with the town, said Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi.

Fulgenzi mentioned that town Building Department personnel paid the shop owner a visit. While the town cannot force him to remove the sign, Fulgenzi said they were relaying to him the sentiments and hoped they could appeal to him.

“He thought we were putting pressure on him to take it down,” he said. “We weren’t putting pressure. We just advised him that we had complaints from people saying that they don’t like the fact that it was vandalized (and still on display).”

Complicating the situation is that Carminucci and the town have been in litigation for years over noncompliance with the town code over previous signs, and unrelated to this issue, the condition of the property, the supervisor said.

But Carminucci said he will leave the defaced sign up until people in the community and passersby stop commenting on it to him.

“I’ll leave it up or awhile, and when the positive response dies out, I’ll take it down,” he said. But you know what? I’ve chosen to keep it up almost as a counter piece, and adding my support for America and the police and firefighters and everything else around it. I’m not going to let it stop me.”

He dismissed some local residents’ observations trying to link the vandalism to a protest later that day held by Pace University students in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and D.J. Henry, a Black Pace student killed by police at the Town Center in 2010. Carminucci said the damage was done overnight the night before the protest and does not believe there is a link.

The shop owner also said he is unconcerned about losing business, mentioning that he has confidence in his own reputation for good work and his customers.

Carminucci has had a long history of using the truck to prop up signs in support of various candidates and issues. He said the most divisive blowback he received was a local bond issue that he opposed.

But there have been probably a few dozen people who commented positively to him about his decision to keep this sign up.

“It if motivates somebody to go out and make a change where they feel change is needed, then the sign is doing its job, I think,” Carminucci said.

Martin Wilbur

Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/