Holly MatkinBunnell, FL – A self-proclaimed anarchist was busted while attacking an array of pro-President Trump signs on the side of a Flagler County roadway on Monday (video below).
A Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) deputy was driving along Palm Coast Parkway when he spotted a woman “actively striking and damaging political signs on private property,” the FCSO said in a Facebook post.
The deputies pulled over and spoke to the suspect, who explained she decided to take down and destroy the signs because she was “tired of the lies,” according to the sheriff’s office.
She initially provided deputies with a fake name, but later identified herself as 42-year-old Tonya McRae.
“What’s up, dude?” McRae asked one of the deputies as she sat on the grass near the political signs, bodycam footage showed.
The deputy asked her how she was doing, at which point she admitted she “could be doing better.”
“Well, I was stressed out, and I’m an anarchist,” McRae calmly explained, gesturing towards the signs. “And so, ‘Women for Trump’ – I pulled that s—t out. I tried to pull that ‘Trump/Pence’ out, but your partner here caught me, so. I replaced it though.”
“The one behind it, I kinda screwed it up,” she admitted. “I told him I’d try to replace it, you know.”
McRae said she didn’t like what she saw, so she “acted out of impulse…and I, you know, I kind of snapped.”
She explained that she felt that she was “acting as a revolutionary…against an unjust system,” but that she and the deputy who stopped her had a “difference of opinion” on that.
The second deputy chatted with her about her viewpoints, then suggested that she might do well to write to elected officials about her thoughts and frustrations instead of just destroying political signs in the future.
“Trying to fight for change that way – that seems like a little more productive,” the deputy noted. “Life’s going to continue on whether or not you destroy the sign.”
The deputy later explained to McRae that providing a false information to law enforcement while being detained is illegal, the video showed.
“Like a misdemeanor or something like that?” she asked.
The deputy confirmed she was correct, at which point McRae opted to explain her views on names more thoroughly.
“Honestly, it might not be my legal legal name, but it’s like my name that I would like to prefer to be called,” she said.
“Oh,” the deputy responded, as if they had finally found a solution to a problem. “Well, we need your legal name.”
McRae then caved and provided the initial deputy with her actual identification information – including a different date of birth than the one she’d initially given.
“I think we all prefer to be somebody else sometimes,” she reasoned.
The polite exchange continued as McRae was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car, bodycam footage showed.
She was booked into the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on charges of providing a false name to law enforcement and criminal mischief, according to the FCSO.
“Emotions are high this election season but it is almost over,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in the press release. “Overall, the community has done a good job being respectful of the beliefs and opinions of others. Please continue to do so.”
“We have had sporadic reports of vandalism and theft of political signs by all parties,” he added. “Remember that it is illegal to damage or steal campaign signs in the same way that it is illegal to damage or steal someone else’s property. The best way to show your opinion is by voting tomorrow, not destroying property.”
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. Warning – Obscene Language:
