Police Investigating Vandalism in Parking Garage as Hate Crime

Published on September 16, 2021

Palo Alto, CA – Police are investigating a vandalism case at a parking garage as a hate crime, after an unknown suspect wrote racial epithets on a concrete support pillar.

On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, at about 8:42 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of a vandalism that had just been discovered in City Lot “R,” the parking garage at 528 High Street.  The reporting party, a passerby, told police that she had observed offensive graffiti.

An officer responded and observed writings in black marker on one concrete support pillar of the garage.  The writings were racial epithets directed at Black people.  Police promptly notified a Public Works crew to remove the writings.  Police do not know when the crime occurred.  There is no suspect information, nor is there any known connection between this case and three other hate crime vandalisms that have occurred in public spaces in 2021.  To view details on those prior cases, read the news releases we distributed about them at the time by visiting /PAPDnews and searching by keyword “hate.”

In the wake of recent national events and increased attention on hate crimes, the personnel of the Palo Alto Police Department continue to show their commitment to thoroughly investigate any reported hate crimes in Palo Alto.  In late March, the Palo Alto City Council denounced violence directed at people of Asian descent, and that came on the heels of months of efforts with City Council’s ongoing conversations and work on race and equity.  You are welcome to read a blog post from the City entitled “Steps the Community Can Take to Help Stop Hate Crimes.”  The City of Palo Alto strongly denounces hate crimes of all kinds, and encourages members of our community to promptly report these incidents by calling our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413, or 9-1-1 if it is an emergency.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413.  Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.