As many people know, the National Review, founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955, known as the bible of American conservatism, is a conservative editorial magazine focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. Since its founding, the magazine has played a significant role in the development of conservatism in the United States, helping to define its boundaries and establishing itself as a leading voice on the American right. It also now has a very popular online version called National Review Online, that includes free content and articles separate from the print edition.
In the leadup to the upcoming General Election, one of the writers for National Review Online who happens to live in New Hampshire has written an article about what has seemingly become one of the major weapons in the campaign arsenal of the left: threatening homeowners with Trump signs and stealing and/or defacing campaign signs for those with whom they do not agree.
This behavior might seem like just a minor annoyance in the nature of political “dirty tricks,” but it is a lot more than that.
Theft of a campaign sign is theft, pure and simple, no matter that the cost of the sign and its support frame might be fairly small. Theft or defacing campaign signs violates the election laws of New Hampshire (and probably those of most other states as well); but more importantly, it interferes with the free expression of political thought guaranteed by the Bill of Rights embodied in the US and NH Constitutions.
Regular readers and other political junkies in NH have by now probably heard of the rare case of the stolen campaign sign regarding this writer’s run for election to the NH House of Representatives- rare, that is, because the perpetrator was actually caught and confessed. Most of the perpetrators are not identified caught or prosecuted.
The National Review Online article, found at https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/homeowners-with-trump-yard-signs-receive-ominous-warning/, is an excellent expose of the sort of tactics being used by the Left, and it specifically refers to James Babcock, who has been charged with theft by unauthorized taking and an election-law violation of tampering with an election sign. However, there has been no trial because the court has been closed due to COVID.
Babcock is supposedly a retired former guidance counselor from the public schools in Gilford and his booking photo from the Gilford Police Department appears above.
Because of the court access situation, Babcock is free to roam around the area, unpunished (so far) for his criminal bad behavior, and it has been claimed that he and/or members of this family have undertaken to make obscene gestures to neighbors believed to have been involved with identifying Babcock as the perpetrator.
Sign theft and defacing is bad enough in itself, but the threats sent to homeowners who have the nerve to have Trump signs on their lawns is absolutely chilling. The behavior is spelled out in more detail in the National Review Online article.
People on the Left are apparently much more willing to engage in this kind of bad and illegal behavior than those on the Right.
If this type of behavior by Babcock infuriates you, as it should , you may wish to email the Gilford Police Prosecutor in charge of the Babcock case to urge and encourage him to press ahead with the prosecution. He is Sergeant Eric T. Bredbury and his email is e.bredbury@gilfordpd.org
