![Dennis Kucinich, standing in front of a script Cleveland sign in June to launch his mayoral campaign, used a bloodied image of a sign in a mailer highlighting his public safety platform. [Nick Castele / Ideastream Public Media]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0d36ca4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/980x551+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F7%2F02%2F0614kucinichannouncement.jpg)
A new mailer from Dennis Kucinich’s mayoral campaign depicts a script Cleveland sign riddled with bullets and dripping blood – an eye-grabbing effort to promote his public safety plan that has drawn criticism on social media.
Kucinich’s campaign itself called attention to the provocative mailer in an early Friday morning press release that described the image as “disturbing” yet “frighteningly honest.”
On the flip side of the postcard is a description of Kucinich’s policing plans: hiring 400 officers, bringing on 100 “safety assistants” to respond to nonviolent calls and creating a “Department of Civic Peace.”
“The people of Cleveland have been responding, east and west, very powerfully to our message that we want to make our neighborhoods safer,” Kucinich told Ideastream Public Media Friday.
The image drew a largely negative response on social media. Some described it as “disgusting” and “fear mongering,” and one mayoral opponent, Justin Bibb, joined the criticism online, calling the mailer “dangerous, divisive and damaging.”
A Kucinich campaign mailer is the subject of social media derision. [Reelect Mayor Kucinich Committee]
Asked about the online response, Kucinich reiterated his campaign’s opening message that crime is the top issue in Cleveland’s mayoral race.
“It’s one thing to look at social media, which is always worth paying attention to, but the people of the city have to deal with the reality that is much more shocking than that image,” Kucinich said.
The original, non-bloodied script image is the logo of Destination Cleveland, the local tourism board. Kucinich launched his campaign in Tremont, beside one of six script Cleveland signs scattered around town.
Several of the mayoral candidates – Bibb, Kevin Kelley, Sandra Williams and Zack Reed – have identified public safety as the No. 1 issue on the minds of voters in recent interviews with Ideastream Public Media for the upcoming podcast on the race, After Jackson: Cleveland's Next Mayor. The field of seven candidates also includes Basheer Jones and Ross DiBello.
The top two vote-getters in the Sept. 14 primary will face each other in the Nov. 2 general election.
