In a Tuesday press release the Manatee County, Florida Sheriff’s Office announced they’re “actively investigating vandalism that occurred at the Old Memphis Cemetery. Deputies located 17 damaged gravesites. The damages ranged from broken and knocked down headstones, spray painted gravesites, and damaged concrete on graves. Detectives believe the incident occurred within the past few weeks. No arrests have been made at this time and the investigation continues.”
Then in a Wednesday update the office added that “during the investigation, detectives have located evidence that indicates at least some of the gravesites were damaged and defaced with spray paint on or before March 2026. At this time there is no indication that any remains were removed from the gravesites. This investigation remains active and ongoing.” At neither point did the law enforcement agency disclose the nature of the graffiti, raising the question of why it’s on local station WFLA to report that the graves were spraypainted with “Trump” and “DeSantis” in red.
No, it would not have gone over well at all in the deeply red county if the sheriff’s office were to have written “racist graffiti” in the press release, only for the station to report that it was the names of their favorite president and governor. Even if the department themselves are no doubt hardcore MAGA who don’t actually consider it a hate crime they would still have described it as such if it had been the N-word and other slurs painted on the gravestones. If anything the fact that it likely took at least two months for the vandalism to be noticed kind of points in the opposite direction as WFLA describes the cemetery as having been declared full in 1977 and handed over to the county in 1988.