- Jul 14, 2013
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Palo Alto: Vandalized āBlack Lives Matterā sign investigated as a hate crime
A vandalized Ukrainian flag last week is also being investigated as a hate crime, police said.
www.mercurynews.com
the article in case you cant get in into it.
PALO ALTO ā A vandalized āBlack Lives Matterā yard sign in front of a womanās home is being investigated as a hate crime ā the latest in a string of such incidents in the city, according to authorities.
A woman in her 60s living in the 3300 block of Park Boulevard alerted police at about 4:08 p.m. April 5 that someone had vandalized her sign, according to a Palo Alto Police Department news release. Investigators said the sign was vandalized that same day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The suspect covered the word āBlackā with an adhesive and piece of paper reading āAsian.ā
When the women tried to take the word off, it destroyed the sign valued at $10, police said. The sign had also been vandalized in Feb. 2022 and Oct. 2021, which authorities also investigated as hate crime incidents. In the previous incidents, someone had put an āAsian Lives Matterā sign over the womanās sign. Police said they believe that all incidents are related but donāt know why the woman is being targeted. The woman declined to self-identify her race, according to police. Authorities havenāt investigated similar incidents involving yard signs in the city in 2022.
Palo Alto police said theyāll investigate destroyed or stolen hate crime if it appears to be motivated by the personās perceived or real protected social group.
The investigation follows another vandalism incident last week involving a Ukrainian flag. Officers responded at about 2:30 p.m. Apr. 7 to the 1400 block of Alma Street for a vandalism report. The residents had attached a Ukrainian flag to a front yard hedge the night prior.
A resident noticed the flag had been taken down at about 10 a.m. and crumped on the ground in the yard. The flag ācontained what appeared to be feces,ā police said.
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime and police said they arenāt aware of any similar incidents targeting Ukrainians or Ukrainian flags. Police declined to provide any information on possible leads or suspects in the case and said the residents themselves were not Ukrainian.
Anti-Semitic flyers were found distributed at the homes of Palo Alto residents in February, blaming the coronavirus pandemic on Jews and listing pharmaceutical industry executives and several federal public health employees as Jewish, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorneyās Office.
Last year, Palo Alto police investigated six instances of vandalism that occurred in parking lots, public restrooms and parks as hate crimes.
Racial epithets directed at black people were found in March 2021 at Heritage Park and āderogatory languageā directed at whites were found in May, July and September 2021 inside a restroom at El Camino Park, according to authorities.
Two of the acts of vandalism, which occurred in September 2021 in the City Lot R parking garage on High Street, are believed to have been committed by the same person, police said. Both involved racial epithets targeting black people and the second also involved an anti-Jewish symbol.
they make to big dela oput of these trashy blm siogns and flags./ who cares.
