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Documenting Hate: Swastikas reported across Oklahoma part of national uptick in anti-Semitic incidents

Tulsa World - 8/1/2017

One afternoon in January, Edmond resident Nancy Viviani's teenage son came home from school and said he'd seen something strange drawn on a wall near the athletic field.

Viviani asked her son, who's autistic, to draw this "funny thing" he'd seen.

It was a swastika.

Although it was removed after three days, Viviani said the graffiti - and how long it took to cover it - is troubling, adding her son's high school, Edmond Memorial, is normally a "very good place" for minorities.

"You're just leaving that symbol of hate right out there," she said of the graffiti, which school officials said first appeared Jan. 9 and was covered Jan. 11.

These types of anti-Semitic or otherwise bigoted incidents are happening more frequently in the U.S., said Ryan Lenz, senior investigative writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center. The frequency prompted the SPLC to begin tracking the incidents after the 2016 presidential election.

The incidents indicate a "shift," Lenz said, in that after the election it seemed people were more inclined to express racist or bigoted ideas with "very charged and historically consequential imagery, like a swastika."

Starting in 2015, FBI data began showing a similar trend: After years of decline, anti-Semitic crime reports were increasing, particularly in recent months. ProPublica's "Documenting Hate" project received hundreds of reports of anti-Semitic incidents between November 2016 and February 2017. Of those reports, more than 100 involved swastika graffiti, the project reported in March.

The Tulsa World has partnered with ProPublica and other news organizations across the country for the "Documenting Hate" project, which seeks to track reports of hate crimes and incidents of bias. Of the seven verified reports in Oklahoma, three involved swastikas.

Like many of the nationwide incidents ProPublica reported, the vandalism was reported at public locations: Memorial High School in Edmond, the public library in Choctaw and a bridge near running trails in Tulsa.

Those interviewed speculated the culprits of the Oklahoma incidents could have been children, which Lenz said in itself is problematic. One must then consider the intentions of the vandal, he said.

"Let's take that for what it is: We live now in a country where teenagers feel it's totally appropriate to paint swastikas on buildings as a means of political oppression or angsty rebellion. So how, then, did the swastika become the chosen symbol, as opposed to just writing 'F you' on a building?" he asked.

The incidents

What: Two marked-over swastikas drawn on a bridge

When: November 2016

Where: 21st Street Bridge, Tulsa

An individual who preferred to remain anonymous took photos of two swastikas scrawled in black - and marked over - on the 21st Street Bridge over the Arkansas River, an area frequented by runners using the Tulsa trails system.

Inquiries into graffiti reports with the Tulsa Parks Department returned no data on how often swastikas are reported, as all reports of graffiti are tracked as "general graffiti," city of Tulsa spokeswoman Michelle Brooks said.

She added most of the graffiti reported within the parks system isn't hate-related but are instead "gang-type" markings. The Parks Department doesn't notify police of graffiti markings, Brooks said, because they've never caught anyone in the act of vandalizing.

Tulsa Police Department's gang unit will investigate reports of gang-related graffiti, including swastikas, though department spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie said they haven't come across swastika graffiti in recent years.

The most common graffiti is related to two gangs: the Surenos and the MS-13s.

"Because most of them are juveniles, and it's more a juvenile-type crime than it is an adult crime," she said.

What: Swastika and other crude drawings on a wall

When: January 2017

Where: Edmond Memorial High School, Edmond

On Jan. 9, Memorial High School officials learned of a graffiti on a wall leading into the boy's soccer room on the lower level of the football stadium, school district spokeswoman Susan Parks-Schlepp said.

The graffiti included a swastika, in addition to "a crude drawing of male genitalia and reference to and lyrics from rap songs," she said.

A school cleaning crew attempted to remove it, but it didn't work, so school officials attempted to make a request for a school district crew to clean it away, but because of an oversight that resulted in school officials not submitting the order, it remained visible until Jan. 11, when Viviani called school officials to complain.

Parks-Schlepp said the district has seen its share of profane graffiti, but this is the only instance of swastika graffiti she's heard of within the district in about two decades.

That said, school officials don't necessarily treat that kind of graffiti differently than other types, Parks-Schlepp said. In all instances, officials strive to remove it as soon as they can.

"We just don't want anyone seeing those hurtful words or images," she said.

School officials never found the person who drew the swastika.

What: Swastika carved into picnic table

When: April or May 2017

Where: Choctaw Public Library

A swastika was carved into a picnic table at the Choctaw Public Library sometime in April or May, library officials said. When employee Shanna Shadoan found it, she immediately tried to scratch it away.

The table was eventually sand-blasted, repainted and moved to a less-secluded area outside the library so workers could watch it throughout the day.

When asked why the swastika concerned her, Shadoan said: "We are supposed to be welcoming to every single human here. Like, this is a public library ... no one needs to be feeling unsafe."

Kim Terry, marketing and communications director for the Metropolitan Library Service, said this is the first instance of swastika graffiti she's heard of at any of the service's libraries, which has locations in Oklahoma City, Bethany, Del City, Edmond, Harrah, Jones and other nearby cities and communities.

Shadoan, who is from Oklahoma but recently moved back after living in California, said she believes the incident is representative of the heated political climate.

"People feel emboldened, I think, by the new political climate, to say whatever hateful stuff is on their mind," she said.

Because of this, Shadoan, who is in a relationship with a woman, said she prefers to stay home more than go out into the community because she's scared of being harassed.

For instance, she and her partner didn't go out on the Fourth of July to celebrate because they didn't know if they would be safe from harassment.

"Whether they were there or not, I think we still kind of perceived an unwelcomeness," she said.