Anti-Semitic graffiti in West Seattle is latest hate crime in Washington

Residents of West Seattle woke up to hate Monday morning, finding anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed across their home and street.

The West Seattle Blog reports that a Jewish family found “JEW” painted on their garage. They further found “F*** JEW THIEVE” painted on the ground in an alley behind their home in Sunrise Heights.

It is believed to have been painted overnight. Seattle police have been called about the incident.

The anti-Semitic graffiti in West Seattle comes just one week after a similar string of hate paint was found at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Campus police are investigating numerous homophobic and racist messages that included threats of sexual violence. The graffiti was spray painted at dormitories and across public art on the campus.

WWU President Sabah Randawa responded to the graffiti last week, stating:

It has come to my attention that abhorrent racist graffiti has been found on the Wright’s Triangle art installation near Carver, on study abroad posters in Red Square, and in several other interior locations on campus. I am deeply troubled that hateful and bigoted vandalism by cowardly individuals continues to happen here, in a place where we should all feel safe and welcomed. I want to be perfectly clear: hate has absolutely no place on our campus.

I am deeply saddened that several of our students saw these upsetting scenes.

Anti-Semitic graffiti and hate crime in Washington

The recent anti-Semitic graffiti, homophobic, and racist messages are among a steady stream of bias crimes, also called hate crimes, in Washington state.

The FBI’s most recent crime data notes that Washington’s hate crime rate shot up by 32 percent over 2017. Per capita, Washington had the third-highest number of reported hate crimes over that year. The FBI reports 234 suspected hate crimes in Seattle alone over that time — compared to 118 in 2016. More than half were racially motivated. Across Washington state, 72 agencies reported a total of 510 hate crimes over 2017.

More recently, white nationalist fliers were found in Bellevue and Clyde Hill — in bags with candy, placed near schools. The fliers stated “Keep America American.” They encouraged people to call Homeland Security to report illegal immigrants and referred people to a website called “Blood and Soil” — a WWII era slogan based on the German “Blut und Boden“ and popular with American neo-Nazis.

Residents of Tacoma have also pushed back against the emergence of white supremacists in their area who have posted fliers as well.

Such crimes were already noted to be on the rise in 2017. Someone painted “HOLOCAU$T I$ FAKE HI$TORY!” on the outside of Seattle’s Temple De Hirsch Sinai in March 2017. Around the same time, the region experienced bomb threats to Jewish centers, and neo-Nazi posters plastered around the University of Washington campus.

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