ASHLAND — The Ashland County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an incident at the Ashland County Fair that resulted in the booting of a booth holder who distributed “offensive” buttons directed at President Donald Trump.
ACSO Sheriff Kurt Schneider said Friday he has contacted the U.S. Secret Service to investigate “any crimes that may be associated with (President Trump’s) safety.”
“So (the U.S. Secret Service) will be conducting their own independent investigation on the events,” Schneider said.
Schneider said the sheriff’s office is also conducting its own investigation to determine whether criminal charges are merited.
“We will look at all of the information from a fact standpoint to determine what, if any, violations of Ohio criminal law have been committed and, if so, we will deal with it in the most appropriate manner,” Schneider said.
The investigation stems from a decision the Ashland County Fair Board made late Thursday to boot the Ashland County Democratic Party from the fairgrounds.
The Ashland County Fair posted on Facebook around 8 p.m. on Thursday that it had been “made aware of offensive buttons in the Democrat booth.”
Marty Wesner, president of the fair board, said Friday he and other managers and board members first learned about the buttons Thursday around 2 p.m. after receiving “some complaints.”
A Facebook user took a photo of the buttons. They depict a red hat with words such as “Fascist” and “Resist.” Smaller text reads “Is he dead yet?” and “One day, we will wake up to his obituary.”
Some of them also contained “8647,” a political code interpreted by some as a call to violence against President Trump.
‘We don’t care which party’
Wesner said he asked the representative to remove the buttons and other offensive material. After a while, Wesner said they learned some of the material was still there and that the representative had passed out more material.
“So we went back down and told them we can’t have that rhetoric here, this is a family event,” he said. “We can’t be promoting something for someone to get killed. There’s enough discord amongst the country to be having that at a family fair function.”
Wesner said he and other board members asked the Ashland County Democratic Party to tear down the booth display and leave the premise around 8 p.m.
Schneider said an ACSO deputy helped escort the representative off the property in order to “preserve peace in this particular instance.”
“We don’t care which party, we don’t care which vendor. If we see something like that we’re gonna ask them to take it down. When they don’t, we’re gonna ask them to leave,” Wesner said.
Wesner said the move was not unprecedented. Around three years ago, an organization dubbed the Conservative Coalition had some inappropriate “propaganda.” Wesner said the fair board asked the group to take down the material and they did.
“So they could stay. Because they took it down,” he said.
All booths and display holders receive rules and policies from the Ashland County Agricultural Society, also known as the fair board. Rule 12 of 16 states, in part:
“Signs and/or display must not have inappropriate words or symbols that are offensive — fair board can ask for such material to be taken down.”
Other vendors have also been asked to remove certain items in the past, Wesner said. For example, one vendor displayed toy guns. They were asked to remove them.
Booth and display holders pay for their space by the foot. Wesner said the Ashland County Democratic Party will not be reimbursed, Wesner said.
Ashland County Fair Agricultural Society Secretary Cathy Rice said the Ashland County Democratic Party paid $500 for their week-long space at the fair.
The fair board’s “privilege contract” states “… Any concessionaire who violates any of the regulations of the Society including this amendment to the Privilege Contract will be closed and ordered removed from the grounds for the remaining time of the Fair. No refund will be given for the space that was rented.”
“We believe in free speech, of course, and all that good stuff,” Wesner said. “But there are certain things, you know, that at the county fair, at this level, we’re trying to teach kids to grow up and be orderly and, you know, have faith and do a good job and treat your fellow man nice and be good — we just don’t believe that has a place here.”
Heather Sample, chair of the Ashland County Democratic Party, declined to comment Thursday evening because she is waiting to speak with a lawyer.
She did not respond to a reporter’s requests for comment on Friday.
Tensions high across country
Political emotions have heightened in the United States over the past week in the wake of conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk‘s assassination in Utah on Sept. 10.
Since the murder, there have been mass disciplinary and retaliatory actions taken against various people for commentary or social media posts believed to celebrate, justify, or trivialize Kirk’s murder, encourage further political violence, denigrate Kirk, or tarnish his legacy.
On Sept. 17, late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s show was suspended indefinitely after his comments about the Kirk case on the Sept. 16 episode.