As racist vandalism continues in Bellingham, ‘we’re not going to be intimidated’
Hateful and racist graffiti has been increasing over the past few weeks across Whatcom County, in the wake of local rallies and marches supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and community discussions about systemic racism.
In early July, the “graffiti rock” on northbound Interstate 5 just south of Bellingham was defaced with a swastika and the words “white power,” according to several Whatcom County residents who emailed The Bellingham Herald.
“It might be good for someone to get out here and take a picture before my friends go paint over it tomorrow, so the community knows that we are not immune to that sort of hate,” Jennifer Elliot of Bellingham said in an email.
On Aug. 2, the rock was painted with the logo of the white supremacist group Patriot Front, as was a mural of George Floyd and Martin Luther King and the Planned Parenthood office in downtown Bellingham.
A Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood employee found Patriot Front stickers on the front window of the Cornwall Avenue office Monday, Aug. 3, said Linda McCarthy, CEO.
“They do it in the dark of night to make people unsettled,” McCarthy told The Bellingham Herald in an interview. ”We’re not going to be intimidated.”
McCarthy said the stickers covered a part of the window where a rainbow Pride flag is displayed.
“They have been a privileged class for all of American history. They don’t like the way the veil is being pulled back,” McCarthy said.
Mural defaced
Taj Williams of Bellingham, who painted the George Floyd portion of the mural, said friends told him about the vandalism Monday morning.
They said the mural hadn’t been defaced on Sunday, Aug. 2, but on Monday, Aug. 3, the Patriot Front logo was stenciled in paint over both King’s and Floyd’s faces.
“My immediate thought was that I kind of felt this thing was coming,” Williams told The Herald. “But I thought they would have had the decency not to hit the MLK one.”
Williams said he immediately repainted the mural, which is in an alley off Magnolia Street east of Cornwall Avenue.
Supremacist group
Websites of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League list the Patriot Front among active U.S. hate groups.
It formed as an offshoot of Vanguard America after the deadly 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Anti-Defamation League said at its website.
Miri Cypers, director of the ADL office in Seattle, has told The Herald that this anonymous distribution of literature isn’t so much a recruiting tactic as it is an attempt to intimidate.
“It is not unusual for the group to use their propaganda to target minority-related venues, buildings, or as seen in the Bellingham area, murals,” Cypers told The Herald in an email on Aug. 10. “More than any other white supremacist group, Patriot Front focuses on distributing propaganda and recently adopted the use of stencil graffiti.”
Patriot Front has been posting its logo and racist messages since summer 2019, in Bellingham, Ferndale and Lynden.
Racist slogans were found in the Lettered Streets neighborhood and on the Western Washington University campus in June.
Cypers said the ADL’s Center on Extremism has counted a growth in their activity, with 2,000 incidents of propaganda distribution nationwide this year alone.
Mayor Seth Fleetwood condemned the incidents in an email to The Herald.
“We embrace the American tradition of free expression and peaceful protest,” Fleetwood said. “We draw a line at acts of vandalism and people engaging in defacing property. It is not only disrespectful, it is against the law.”
Police reports urged
Bellingham Police Chief David Doll asked anyone who sees racist graffiti to make a report, because authorities monitor such incidents.
“This also provides us the opportunity to check the area for any cameras that might have captured the person(s) responsible. We also want to track these postings for future follow-up,” Doll told The Herald in an email.
Call Bellingham Police at 360-778-8804 to report a crime not in progress without a specific suspect or 360-676-6911 with a suspect.
Officials at the Washington State Department of Transportation also ask motorists to report hate-oriented vandalism on I-5 or state highways, said WSDOT spokesman Joe Calabro.
He said WSDOT crews have removed at least one racist message from the I-5 rock in recent weeks.
“It’s just a shame, because that rock is iconic. We hope it stops,” Calabro told The Herald.
Calabro said WSDT has an online graffiti reporting tool at its website.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
