Driftwood pieces on Beer Can Island vandalized with "Bernie!"

LONGBOAT KEY -- On Beer Can Island, at the extreme northwest point on Longboat Key, several large, artful driftwood pieces have fallen victim to vandalism. There are hearts, a red swirl, a peace sign and other scrawls in orange, green and pink.

There's also a driftwood reading "Feel the Bern!" -- the popular slogan of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Other pieces have been simply painted "Bernie!"

The Longboat Key Police Department is investigating.

"I was disgusted," said Fran Plumley, who posted photos of the scene on Facebook that have since gone viral with more than 700 shares and counting. "It's ugly. It's vandalism, you know?"

The Bradenton resident said she walks along Beer Can Island nearly every weekend with her husband, Corey

Plumley.

"I love taking pictures there. The fallen trees are just gorgeous," the 56-year-old said. "It's just gorgeous for taking pictures."

During a walk late Sunday morning, Plumley decided to snap photos of the latest vandalism, a problem she said has been going on for the past several months in the area. Plumley wanted her friends to see what people are doing.

"I wasn't posting it for any kind of political view at all," she said. "I just was appalled that people were spray-painting out there because it's beautiful out there. I wouldn't care who put their name on it. It's still destruction."

Longboat Key Police Chief Pete Cumming said officers have taken photographs of the scene and the agency is in the process of having the graffiti removed.

"It is vandalism. We're considering it a crime, a misdemeanor," he said. "At this point, we don't have any suspects in the case. I suspect it was over the weekend that some people decided to make their political position known in an unlawful manner."

Cumming said he suspects it occurred Sunday.

"Our investigation is going to be limited," the police chief said. "I'm going to have the graffiti removed and we're going to amp up the police presence in the area to avoid this kind of thing from occurring again."

Dave Bullock, Longboat Key town manager, said he saw a photo of the vandalism Monday but had not been out there to see it himself.

"That particular area is a natural area. It's stayed in its natural state there for many, many decades and the fact that someone, anyone, would decide to deface it is unfortunate and hopefully we won't see much of that again," he said. "There's really no reason to deface nature. Why anyone would want to deface it is beyond me."

Jaime Canfield, Manatee chairman for the Sanders campaign, said he strongly disapproved of what was done on Beer Can Island.

"I don't think Bernie would, by any stretch of the imagination, approve of defacing nature like that, especially because he's really the only one that understands the severity of the climate crisis that we're in the midst of," he said. "But on the other hand, I think it's important to understand that people are going to need to express themselves, their opinions. And that freedom of speech is something that has been subtly been hindered or curtailed by our society. In order to speak, you need money. These people didn't spend much money, but they spoke."

Amaris Castillo, law enforcement/island reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7051. Follow her on Twitter @AmarisCastillo.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Driftwood pieces on Beer Can Island vandalized with "Bernie!" ."