Graffiti, Burglary—

Police Investigate Hate Graffiti At Fairfield Hills

By Andrew Gorosko

Police are investigating two criminal incidents that occurred at the Fairfield Hills campus on the weekend of March 14–15, one of which involved someone spray-painting both anti-Semitic and racial graffiti on the premises.

Police Sergeant Christopher Vanghele said that a vandal or vandals spray-painted graffiti on six buildings at the campus. Three of those buildings are vacant white wood-frame houses near the intersection of Mile Hill Road South and Keating Farms Avenue. The other three buildings are nearby masonry structures, including Cochran House.

Sgt Vanghele said that one swastika was painted on each of the six buildings. Also, one of the white houses contained some anti-black racial comments, he said.

“We think it’s an isolated incident, isolated to Fairfield Hills,” he said. Town police checked with other police departments in the area and learned that no similar incidents had been reported in other towns, he said.

Police said the spray-painting incident occurred sometime between 7 pm on March 14, and 8 am on March 15.

“It was racist and anti-Semitic [graffiti]…white supremacy-type stuff,” the sergeant said.

 After discovering the graffiti, police had the town public works department quickly paint over the defacement, he said.

Because the town owns the vacant buildings that were defaced, the town technically is the victim of the criminal mischief, he said. Nonetheless, police are investigating the graffiti incident as if it were a “hate crime,” he said. “It will be fully investigated,” he said.

Police have no suspects in the case, he said. Members of the public who may know who defaced the buildings are asked to call police. The telephone number is 426-5841.

“We’ll follow up every lead,” Sgt Vanghele said.

The graffiti incident constitutes second-degree criminal mischief and second-degree criminal trespassing. Police estimated the damage at under $500.

Also, police said they went to Cochran House about 8 am on March 14, after being called by a security officer. The security officer told police that someone sometime between 5 and 8 am had removed a large plywood panel that had been in place to secure a large window space near the main entrance to that building on Mile Hill Road South. That incident is third-degree burglary and second-degree criminal trespassing.

Sgt Vanghele said it is unclear if the graffiti incident is related to the Cochran House burglary.

Fred Hurley, town director of public works, said that a town worker quickly painted over the graffiti after learning of it from police. The town also replaced the plywood panel that had been removed from Cochran House.

“This is really malicious and hateful stuff,” Mr Hurley said of the graffiti.

The vandals who deface buildings are simply looking for publicity for their actions, he said. When the town quickly eradicates graffiti, it stops happening, he said.

“It seems like a small incident that we don’t want to become a big incident, a repeat incident,” Mr Hurley said.