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Complaints are growing louder that "Black Lives Matter" lawn signs are being vandalized and disappearing from yards around Evanston.

But without video cameras or someone witnessing the crime, both a city alderman and a police commander say lawn sign destruction is difficult to prosecute.

"I asked our problem solving team to make it a priority," said Ald. Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward, who has heard residents in his ward complain of yard sign vandalism and theft. "I take it very seriously."

The hashtag "#BlackLivesMatter" started circulating following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a night watchman at a residential community, in the shooting death of African American teen Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. It grew into a national movement in 2014, after the fatal shooting of 18-year old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Black Lives Matter is now an organization as well as a movement.

It is "working for the validity of Black life," according to the organization's website.

"When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state," the website reads.

Suffredin said he listens when residents tell him how they feel following the affront to their personal property.

The alderman also noted that the vandalism hasn't been restricted to the Black Lives Matter signs. Before the November 2016 presidential election, one resident found his Trump candidate yard sign had been set on fire.

The Black Lives Matter yard signs began popping up in Chicago area about the same time as the protests that followed the Ferguson shooting, supporters said.

At Lake Street Church in Evanston, member Betsy Wilson said she started putting them out in 2015. About 12 signs went missing that first summer, she said.

But she continued to replace them, and said only one has been stolen so far this summer.

At first "they were disappearing every week or so," Smith said.

But some Evanston residents say the vandalism and theft appear to be getting personal.

Evanston/Skokie School Dist. 65 school board member and 8th Ward resident Anya Wiley Tanyavutti said a woman she didn't recognize "violently hit and stomped" on her Black Lives Matter sign in broad daylight.

The vandalism occurred shortly after her family had gathered in the lawn nearby, she said.

"We tried to catch up with her to ask why she did it. She ran," Tanyavutti said.

Another neighbor snapped photos of the suspect, Tanyavutti said, but she has not been identified.

"It seems unusual that it would be one person" responsible for all of the sign vandalism, Tanyavutti said. "A lot of people are concerned."

Evanston police Commander Joseph Dugan confirmed Tanyavutti's account.

Yard signs are common targets for vandalism, he said, and many Evanston residents display Black Lives Matter signs in their yards. But he said the damage and thefts are not being reported at a higher-than-usual rate.

"Driving around, there's a lot of support for that cause around town," Dugan said, as well as a few yard signs displayed for other causes right now. That could make the Black Lives Matter signs more attractive targets for vandals.

In Skokie, just over the northwest border with Evanston, resident Corrie Wallace, 44, said she put out her first Black Lives Matter sign about a year ago. She soon started walking outside to find it "laying face down," she said. The same thing happened to the sign in her parents' yard nearby.

Then last fall, Wallace said she received an anonymous letter saying that "Black Lives Matter is anti-Israel," and asking her to change it to read "Black Lives Count."

She didn't, and instead called the police before adding a sign that reads "Hate Has No Home Here," as well as another sign describing her values of tolerance and inclusivity.

Last month, she said she woke up to find the Black Lives Matter sign was stolen. A couple weeks ago, the Hate Has No Home Here sign was gone, too.

"It's beyond frustrating," Wallace said. "It's the principle that you shouldn't touch other people's stuff."

The situation is especially hurtful, Wallace said, as her parents, an interracial couple, moved to the Evanston/Skokie area from Mississippi because they felt it was a place where their marriage would be accepted.

"Whoever is doing this, I think it's very intentional," Wallace said. "The hatred that's associated with black people is real."

gbookwalter@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @GenevieveBook

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Evanston residents condemn theft, vandalism of 'Black Lives Matter' signs - Chicago Tribune