Vandalism

[MilkmanofHumanKindness]

One of the churches I work with, in Workers' Rights Education, is a refugee community. It's made up largely of refugees fleeing violence in Africa.

Now recently when I was stopping by to drop off some Union info, and do a brief talk after their service, I noticed some vandalism.

The first was that a crucified Christ in the back of the church was painted carefully black. The garment remained white, just the body of Jesus was completely black.

The second:

http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu168/archerman610/Graffiti/IMG_20100707_135621.jpg?t=1278902509

The third:

http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu168/archerman610/Graffiti/IMG_20100707_135646.jpg?t=1278902541

Finally, when I was investigating further and taking to them someone had cut the telephone wires to the church. Apparently all of this had happened over the week.

The police were called, and they think that its a latino gang. However, I'm almost positive that the celtic cross in the second image is a white supremacist symbol.

I don't know where to go from here, I'm largely their only contact to the "outside community" that they really trust. I don't know why the cops are saying latino gangs are painting white supremacist symbols.

Any ideas or advice about how to deal with this?

[samofshs]

any other graffiti would be helpful. also, most gang related tags revolve around a code. the numbers cou;d stand for letters that they look like or the number of letter in the alphabet that they are. those would be the most likely options. could also be a date or dates. yes to me those tags do look like celtic crosses and symbols for "white supremacy" especially the first one's shape and especially the fact that the second is tagged in white. this could also be marking said building for a hit such as a robbery or a drive by (or other type of premeditated actions) or could be tagging the building as in their territory. try to see if any markings similar to these appear elsewhere in the are and note where they are at and what type of building (or lamppost or sign etc. etc.) they are on.

[redSHARP]

1. record the marks with photos and basic measurements
2. refer to SPLC (they have helped me in the past with some graffiti marks, also they record it in their hate crime database and actually might help you)
3. some non-nazi gangs do use Nazi tags are markers (swastikas usually)
4. cover the tags the next best chance (after possible investigation)
5. tell news outlet to raise awareness (at discretion)

this is basic advice for you, in the meantime i will look into researching the graffiti and try to identify it for you. good luck and i hope for the best.

[samofshs]

1. record the marks with photos and basic measurements
2. refer to SPLC (they have helped me in the past with some graffiti marks, also they record it in their hate crime database and actually might help you)
3. some non-nazi gangs do use Nazi tags are markers (swastikas usually)
4. cover the tags the next best chance (after possible investigation)
5. tell news outlet to raise awareness (at discretion)

this is basic advice for you, in the meantime i will look into researching the graffiti and try to identify it for you. good luck and i hope for the best.
good idea, covering it. as soon as you have photos of all of every tag put on the building(s) with a measuring tape next to it if you can, ask whoever maintains the premises to remove the paint if they haven't done so already.

[NickGriffin]

Get the cops involved

[redSHARP]

so it has been a month or so...any updates?