Racist message hacked onto electronic Maryland construction sign: police

A racist message was hacked onto an electronic construction sign in Montgomery County, Maryland on Saturday morning, reported WJLA — and police are investigating how it happened.

"Police say officers were sent to... a hate incident involving an electronic sign after multiple calls from the public," reported Sinéad Hawkins. "The incident happened near Brookeville Road and George Avenue, in Brookeville at around 6:47 a.m., said authorities."

"The department says police arrived and found the signboard — which was supposed to display safety messages for construction — had been compromised," said the report. "Officers were able to remove the sign and delete the message." As of press time, police do not have any leads on who is behind the incident.

This is not the first time a road sign was targeted and reprogrammed to display racist messages.

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On Memorial Day this year, the white nationalist group Patriot Front hacked a road sign on I-65 in Alabama, to display the words "PATRIOT FRONT" and "RECLAIM AMERICA."

That group, which split off from a larger neo-Nazi organization in the wake of the deadly 2017 "Unite the Right" Charlottesville rally, has sought to take white nationalism mainstream as a form of patriotism, but its members have frequently landed in trouble. Last year, a Patriot Front member implicated in the January 6 Capitol attack pleaded guilty to weapons offenses, while this year, another member accepted a plea for possessing sexual images of children."