Vandals tag homes with hate speech, scrawl profanities on vehicle, Burbank police say
Burbank police are investigating a possible hate crime after an apartment building was vandalized with a swastika and several derogatory messages late last month.
The incident occurred sometime between March 19 and 20 in the 200 block of South Buena Vista Street. Sgt. Derek Green, a spokesman with the Burbank Police Department, said residents of the building found their garage doors had been vandalized with black spray paint.
“Among the graffiti was a swastika symbol, a derogatory term towards the elderly and a derogatory term towards homosexuals,” he said.
The building’s residents told police the graffiti was directed toward them specifically.
A separate incident also occurred the same day, when a man in the 100 block of South Parish Place found his car covered in profanities written with black spray paint. Because spray paint was used in both cases, Green said there’s a chance they’re connected.
“Just based on the circumstances they could very well be related, but we don’t know definitively,” he said.
And, several days later, a swastika was also scrawled on a sign displayed outside a home in the 900 block of North Keystone Street. Green said that incident occurred sometime between March 23 and 26.
The homeowner allowed signs from the recent March for Our Lives gun reform rally to be displayed on a fence and they were soon defaced sometime after. The sign with the swastika also had “No Blacks” written on it, according to Green.
He said the homeowner is neither Jewish nor black.
Other signs were modified with messages that disparaged their original meanings.
Green said it’s unknown if this incident is related to the other two and they all remain under investigation.
Twitter: @Andy_Truc
