Saoirse Byrne was on her way home to Boonville about 9 p.m. Saturday, when she saw a horrifying message just after entering Mendocino County on Highway 128. The flashing road sign, which usually says “Expect Delays” had been changed to read “[N-word]s arent welcome.”
She pulled her car over and set out to disable the apparently vandalized sign.
“It’s a not-so-veiled threat and not to be taken lightly,” she said. The door to the sign’s control box had been left open. She got out the manual she found inside. But that didn’t help Byrne turn it off because she didn’t have the codes needed.
Two other cars pulled over to help.
“We reset it, and it turned it off momentarily, but then it flashed back on again with the same message.” They tried again. The same horrific message came right back.
So the group of people who had stopped tried to turn the sign which is not on wheels. It is meant to be hard to move for obvious reasons.
“We couldn’t move it completely away. We got it so that it wasn't facing traffic head-on anymore. Then I called 911. I also got in touch with (Anderson Valley) Fire Chief Andres Avila. And he contacted the head of Caltrans,” Byrne said.
Manny Machado, public information officer for Caltrans District 1 (Mendocino/Lake Counties) was sent the photo on Sunday by this reporter. He said it had been turned off and the case was being investigated.
“Caltrans was made aware Saturday night of a message board that was vandalized along Route 128 in Mendocino County near the Sonoma County line. Staff went to the construction site and the message was removed. The message board is operated by a contractor for a culvert project. The incident is under investigation,” Machado said.
A member of the local school board, Byrne has never seen anything like this in her 13 years in the Anderson Valley.
“It does surprise me that somebody would use their creative human monkey brain to do something coming like this from a place of hate. There's so much violence in the world, and those words, the words might not just be words, and so I think it's something that we have to take seriously as a community. We need to figure out; how do we have civil discourse and make sure we are a place where we can all have respect for ourselves and others. This is unacceptable,” Byrne said.
When she tried to change the sign or turn it off, a key code had to be entered. She deduced a key code must have been entered to create the profane message. To Byrne that indicated hackers, or even someone official did this.
“Something needs to be done. It appears to be too easy for this to happen.”
She wishes she had thought to go somewhere and buy a tarp, but the sign is quite a ways down 128 from Boonville, along winding roads. The area includes open land, and vineyards. Another disturbing element is that this same message was once posted outside Southern Towns. During Jim Crow days. Another threatening message from those days that could be seen was, “Don’t let the sun go down on you here. (A different racist epithet for black people.)
According to America's Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) these types of communities are not a thing of the past. An interesting article can be found at the website.
Sundown towns past and present https://www.abhmuseum.org/sundown-towns-the-past-and-present-of-racial-segregation/
Author’s note: I got scooped on this by very sharp newsman Matt LaFever even though I had it last night. The race goes to the swift. But I also asked the wrong person for a comment. Won't do that again. LOL. Saoirse spoke very highly of the AVA and asked me to be sure to send this to you also. I once saw a sundown town sign in the 1970s. Silly me, I thought such things were in the past! The article I referenced is very interesting. For a few hours at least, the Mendocino Coast was a sundown town. How horrible.
Be First to Comment