Vandals Burn Swastikas Into Jewish Family's Yard; Woman Is Active in Neighborhood Watch Group
The Associated Press Aug 29, 2005
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Vandals burned swastikas and obscenities into the lawn of a Jewish family, splattering windows with eggs and fouling the front porch of their home.
Two swastikas were spray-painted in the road in front of Ginger Ragans' two-story home Sunday and a third was etched onto her lawn, along with the word "Fascist" and an obscenity scrawled in the grass. Her trees were draped with toilet paper and someone had urinated and defecated on the porch.
Gwinnett County police are investigating the vandalism in the town northeast of Atlanta and are uncertain whether to classify it as a hate crime, spokesman Darren Moloney said.
Ragans, 36, who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, said the incident likely was the work of neighborhood teens retaliating against her for her work as a neighborhood liaison for a community watchdog program.
In a recent edition of the community's newsletter, she mentioned that cameras had caught groups of teens hanging around the tennis courts long after the county's midnight curfew.
Although this is not the first time neighborhood homes have been vandalized, she said she's concerned the culprits are becoming more aggressive.
"I could handle the toilet paper and the egging," she said. "But for them to put swastikas and write 'fascist,' that turned it personal." |
