Tag Archives: hate

Officials condemn, Graffiti Rangers wipe away vandalism targeting Capitol Hill’s Jewish Family Service

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City officials are condemning graffiti targeting Capitol Hill’s Jewish Family Service.

The large, spray painted message appeared across from the JFS offices after a Seattle Times op-ed on the rise in anti-Semitic hate from its CEO and just days after International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“As I wrote to one friend, Jews are a remnant of a remnant. The entire state of Israel is smaller than Lake Michigan. I cannot visit my family in Eastern Europe. The graves are not there any longer, let alone the people,” Rabbi Will Berkovitz wrote in the January 21st essay. “It makes me wonder if the non-Jewish community understands how personal these attacks are for some of us. The fear is real. The violence is real. And the silence speaks volumes.”

Police are investigating the vandalism on the E Madison at 16th Ave 7-11 that was first reported on Sunday, January 30th and believed to target Berkovitz and JFS. Temple De Hirsch Sinai is also just up the street from the location. Continue reading →

Amid pandemic’s hate, Seattle Parks considers options for offensive monument in Volunteer Park

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(Image: CHS)

Another lesson from the past year of Black Lives Matter protest: History must be questioned and even stone monuments are mutable.

The City of Seattle and the group dedicated to protecting the park say a monument to the war that gave Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park its name is unacceptably offensive and must be changed. Seattle Parks says the monument should be changed — or removed.

The monument’s plaque is facing renewed criticism amid concerns over ongoing anti-Asian violence and hate stemming from the COVID-19 crisis and xenophobic rhetoric around the pandemic and its causes. Continue reading →

King County Prosecutor: Pandemic brings more hate crimes as mental health and drug issues go untreated

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HOPE UR OKAY (Image: CHS)

Hate crime reports are up in King County this year, with 51 cases filed by the prosecuting attorney’s office in 2020. This is up from 38 in 2019 and 30 in 2018.

This increase puts the region as having one of the highest hate crime caseloads in the country, according to hate crime co-lead for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office David Bannick. But Bannick added that this is partly due to the Seattle Police Department prioritizing these investigations.

Most hate crime filings in the county occur in Seattle, Bannick said. These numbers do not include all hate crimes because not all get reported to authorities.

“There is likely dozens of hate crimes that go unreported or do not ever make it to us,” Bannick said in a call with reporters Monday.

Leandra Craft, also a hate crime co-lead for the prosecuting attorney’s office, told reporters Monday that she thinks the rise is due both to an increase in reporting and an increase in incidents. She also said that the coronavirus pandemic has led to different offenders of hate crimes, specifically more committed by people with mental health and substance abuse issues that aren’t getting assistance because of restrictions stemming from the virus.

This fact has complicated filing decisions for Bannick and Craft. For alleged hate crime offenders to get treatment instead of jail time, prosecutors often have to reduce the cases to misdemeanors from felonies. Continue reading →

More hate vandalism on Capitol Hill: City says AIDS Memorial Pathway installations torn down

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“When thinking about a temporary art, I thought about the condom, and how, at the start of the AIDs crisis, it became this necessary evil. This thing that people had to utilize and it was a constant reminder of death, of infection, it was a killjoy in a lot of ways. I wanted to take that thing, which was a symbol of fear, and turn it into something of beauty. Now that we’re sort of past that hump and we can look back with more appreciation of the struggle everyone went through and feelings people had. I used about 1000 condoms between the four pieces.” — Pete Rush – AMP Broadway

Artwork installed for Pride around the Capitol Hill Station mixed-use development construction site was ripped down almost as quickly as it went up over the weekend. The city’s Office of Arts and Culture said it is working on getting the works replaced.

Work by artists including Gabriel Stromberg, Pete Rush, and Timothy White Eagle were ripped down in the vandalism. The installations are part of the project creating the AIDS Memorial Pathway, a walkway featuring artwork and tributes that will connect the mixed-use buildings to nearby Cal Anderson Park when it opens in 2020. Continue reading →

The Crescent’s Pride flag still flies after vandals target Capitol Hill bar’s LGBTQ symbol

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The flag restored above The Crescent — “Hey homophobes! Less than 24 hours got that Pride flag up again lol! Yasss!!!” (Image: The Crescent)

The Pride flag is again flying above E Olive Way’s The Crescent after vandals targeted the dive bar’s queer banner over the weekend in what appears to be one of a handful of similar attacks across the city.

“Three cowardly men decided to shred our flag from in front of the Crescent!,” the bar posted Sunday morning after the vandalism. “If you think our freedoms and equality are not being challenged and threatened daily, think again!”

By Sunday night, a new flag was proudly flying again.

Security video posted from the bar shows a group of three males walk by the tavern in the early hours of June 16th and then stop with two of the suspects forming a base to boost the other up to reach the flag.

White Center gay bar The Lumber Yard also posted about a similar attack Sunday morning. 16th Ave SW’s The Swallow was also reportedly targeted. Continue reading →

Lynching graffiti found at Seattle Central investigated as hate crime

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Racist graffiti in a stairwell at Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College condemned by the school president in a letter to the campus community is being investigated as a hate crime, a Seattle Police spokesperson tells CHS.

The letter from Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange references black marker graffiti showing “several bodies hanging from ropes” found in March in the school’s stairway B of the Broadway Edison building. Lange said an ominous message accompanied the drawings — “Damn your strange fruit.”

Continue reading →

Seattle responds to Christchurch with sadness, efforts to make Washington safer for Muslim and minority communities

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3-year-old Muca Abdi is reported to be the youngest victim in the attack (Image via @KhaledBeydoun)

Local leaders and organizations have responded to the murders of the Christchurch terror attack with sorrow, denouncement of the hate behind the act, and updates about making things safer for Muslim and minority communities in the aftermath of the killings that left dozens dead in New Zealand.

“This cowardly act is additional evidence that hate is on the rise. Now, more than ever, we must work to combat hate and heal together – because an attack on one community is an attack on all our communities,” the Anti–Defamation League – Pacific Northwest said in a statement. “In an act of solidarity and allyship, we recommend that you search for your nearest vigil and show your support by showing up.”

CAIR-Washington and the Muslim Association of Puget Sound will hold an interfaith vigil Monday night in Redmond. Continue reading →

Police called to help Broadway’s Nacho Borracho and Neon Taco boot Patriot Prayer

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Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson argues with Nacho Borracho security, right, in a 15-minute “Trump Supporter was illegally kicked out of Seattle Bar” video the group posted over the weekend

Police were called to Capitol Hill’s Nacho Borracho bar Friday night after a group told to leave because of their involvement with a far-right group refused to exit the Broadway bar and caused a more than 15-minute disturbance at the establishment.

Officers arrived on the 200 block of Broadway E just after 11 PM Friday after a report of five people involved with Patriot Prayer inside the business harassing staff and customers. The group was heckling people inside the bar, “trying to debate about tolerance,” and being disruptive, according to the SPD report on the incident.

The security guard who called police informed officers that ownership does not allow hate groups in the bar.

The incident reportedly involved pushing and shoving as security attempted to remove the group. There were no weapons reported to be involved and no injuries were reported.

One group member told police he attempted to hold onto a railing inside the bar as security pushed him out after he refused to leave. Police gave the group a “trespass admonishment” and the 35-year-old assured police he wouldn’t return to the bar. Continue reading →

Tree of Life: Sadness — and calls to action — at Seattle vigil

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Mourners gathered at Seattle’s Temple De Hirsch Sinai Monday night to commemorate those lost in Pittsburgh over the weekend and build community through the tragedy.

“Tonight Pittsburgh is a town in Washington state, and the Tree of Life synagogue is a synagogue in Washington state, and the reason for that is that we have one heart over the loss of this assault on the Jewish community,” Governor Jay Inslee said. “We all share a common destiny of hoping for survival and that survival depends on eliminating the concept that there is an other.” Continue reading →

Forum discusses connections between gentrification and violence on Capitol Hill

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The “What’s Gentrification Got To Do With It?: Hate and Violence in Capitol Hill” forum covered “hate, violence, policing and gentrification occurring in Capitol Hill.”

At 12th Avenue Arts Thursday night, the Northwest Network Pink Shield Project hosted a panel discussion on hate violence, policing, and gentrification in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Much of the conversation revolved around the connection between these three topics, including how greater inequality in recent years in Seattle has created a situation that breeds hate violence, whether it be against people of color or the LGBTQIA+ population.

“You have wealth to a certain community increasing, inequality expanding, poverty worsening, homelessness skyrocketing,” Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, a panelist, said. “At the same time, you will see correlated with that, increase in violence, crimes, car break-ins, and house break-ins.” Continue reading →