SEWARD PARK ‑ A phone call from his stepdaughter at 7 a.m. on the morning of Friday, Nov. 2, alerted Seward Park resident Don Berrysmith to the police cruisers parked in front of his Seward Park home on South Orcas Street, one block before the city park's entrance.
"I've lived in this house for 15 years and a block-and-a-half away for another 15 years," Berrysmith noted. "I have always been proud of the fact that it's such a diverse area culturally, economically, ethnically and architecturally."
Stepping outside with his wife to learn the reason behind the early morning police presence, the couple saw large, black, spray-painted letters marring their van. Just below the window on the driver's side, which faced the street, someone had scrawled a command to eat excrement. While this particular edict felt disturbing to the Berrysmiths, the worst was sprayed across their van's rear doors.
Don is an African American, and his wife is of Japanese descent, and the second-person racial insult containing the f-word and the n-word covering the rear of their van felt both personal and scary.
"This isn't graffiti graffiti," asserted Berrysmith, speaking to the personal nature of the words. "It's different. These are just plain hate messages."
Unfortunately, they were not alone.
The off-duty officer who was in the Seward Park area at 6:50 a.m. and phoned in the racially tainted property damage also noticed two other vehicles marked with similar black graffiti just down the street from the Berrysmith's van on South Dawson Street, just west of Lake Washington Boulevard South. According to Berrysmith, and verified by the police department's official offense report, the two cars were tagged with the same racist messages belong to an African American couple.
In the report, the wife of the second victimized couple was "extremely upset by the damage to her car and did not understand why it happened." The husband noted that his relations with his neighbors were good, which the Berrysmiths also noted, and he also didn't know who would have done this.
Another family living nearby had a vehicle that was also singled out for some hateful graffiti, but this time it was directed toward their religion in mind.
Around 11 a.m., the car's owner, who's family is Jewish, reported that a black Star of David had been spray painted on the sedan's rear, passenger side door. His daughter had discovered the maliciously painted religious symbol at 7 a.m., shortly before she used the car for the morning.
According to the incident report, the victim had parked the car at the west curb in front of his home in the 4800 block of 55th Ave. S. When the investigating officer asked him if there was any way someone who didn't know him personally would know he was Jewish, the man said could have discerned his religious heritage by the mezuza posted on his front door. A mezuza is a small piece of parchment inscribed with biblical verses from Deuteronomy that is rolled up, placed into a case and attached to the door of a home.
The officer noted the mezuza was difficult to see from the street.
NEIGHBORS GATHER
Five days after the four reported incidents, 13 people from the Seward Park neighborhood gathered together to voice their dismay and disgust at the crimes during the monthly South Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting. The evening meeting, held at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center off of Rainier Avenue South, featured a significant portion of the hour-and-a-half meeting dedicated to the hate crimes.
"Are any of you noticing an increased police presence in the area?" South Precinct Captain Tom Byers asked the Seward Park neighbors.
Byers noted that since the hate crimes occurred, he ordered more of his department's resources to patrol the areas. Several people said they had noticed the extra car and bike patrols along with the prison wagon. When asked if the increased presence was merely to make the residents feel better, Byers, who grew up in the South End, said yes.
However, Byers, along with South Precinct third watch lieutenant Eric Sano and South Precinct crime prevention coordinator Mark Solomon, assured the meeting of more than 50 area residents that such hate-based crimes were rare. The officers also said the separate reports are being considered as one incident done by the same suspect, or suspects, and it is under investigation.
TAKING ACTION
"My immediate inclination was to get [the hate graffiti] off, but I was really angry," said Berrysmith the day after the crime prevention council meeting. "More than anything I was concerned with how it affected my wife. She was going to work [when we found it] and felt kind of shook up."
Realizing that many of his neighbors had left for the day to work, he decided to wait to scrub the hateful messages off his van.
"I wanted neighbors to come home from work and see this and let them know this is going on in our neighborhood."
Along with his neighbors, Berrysmith knew a stream of people from outside the immediate area would be passing through on their way to Seward Park. One of them was a father and his two elementary school children.
Upon seeing the hate graffiti, the father walked his kids back home up the road where they made signs for the Berrysmiths to place on their van. They read, "Hate is not our neighborhood value," "We don't value hate. We only value love," "Every race welcome here," and a signature sheet with an attached pen that stated, "Sign here if you welcome all families."
According to one of Seward Park's Block Watch captains, Stacy Stark, the details of the crime spread fairly rapidly through the community via an e-mail list and some door-to-door outreach.
"I think people are afraid, but they're in action mode," Stark said.
At the crime prevention meeting both Byers and Solomon encouraged Seward Park residents to continue their efforts to get to know one another so they can better spot when something is criminally amiss in their neighborhood. Stark acknowledged that she, and the neighborhood's two other Block Watch captains are focusing on this basic technique, however she has a practical view of this specific crime.
"[The police] think it's someone from 16-25, and that's all they've told us," Stark said. "Basically, they don't really know, and how could they know? It's like a big mystery."
And the talk in the neighborhood, according to Stark and Berrysmith, is the targeted nature of the graffiti.
"That's where it's scary and feels unresolved," Stark asserted. "There's someone out there that knows us to some degree. What is our next move when it feels intentional?"
The Seward Park hate crime is currently being handled by Seattle Police Department detective and bias crimes coordinator Suzanne Moore. If you have any information pertaining to the case, she may be reached at 206-233-3898.
