Marshalls store in Dearborn boards up windows, doors ahead of election
Marshalls has boarded up windows at its Dearborn store ahead of Election Day.
The off-price retail store, located at 23001 Michigan Avenue in Westborn Mall, was boarded up after a company directive in advance of Election Day on Tuesday, according to a Dearborn police tweet.
"According to store management, it is a companywide directive to board the windows prior to Election Day," according to a post on the Dearborn Police Department's Facebook page. "Neither the store nor the Dearborn Police Department is aware of any specific threats to Marshalls or any other location within the City of Dearborn."
“Rest assured the Dearborn Police Department will continue to work with all local, state, regional and federal law enforcement agencies to monitor and respond to any possible threat," police Chief Ronald Haddad said in the post.
“There is nothing to be concerned about at this time and the police department will continue to work to provide a safe and secure election.”
The site of the boarded up windows and the police postings sparked concern among residents and a flood of comments on Facebook about why the Dearborn store took the action.
TJX Companies representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night about the move ahead of the election or other store locations that were directed to take the same action.
Recent polling in Michigan found that an overwhelming majority of voters worry about the potential for violence after the presidential election.
The poll by The Detroit News and WDIV of 600 likely voters found that 72% of those surveyed are concerned about post-election violence.
"I don’t know any time in the last 40 years that American voters were worried about violence as a result of the election. That really is a startling number," said pollster Richard Czuba of the Lansing-based Glengariff Group, which conducted the survey.
He said concern comes on both sides of the aisle and from those in the political center.
The poll was conducted Oct. 23-25 and had a margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points.