Swastika Vandalism Spreads Across Virginia County

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — A resident found a swastika spray-painted on a road near Waterford on Monday, an act of vandalism that Loudoun County Sheriff's Office officials believe is connected to a wave of spray-painted swastikas and racial slurs in other western parts of the county. Over the past two weeks, swastikas also have been found spray-painted in the towns of Lincoln and Hamilton, both located west of Leesburg.

Eastern Loudoun, the more heavily populated part of the county, has seen a rise in hate-based vandalism in recent years. In February 2017, five teenagers pleaded guilty to vandalizing the Old Ashburn Schoolhouse. The teenagers in September 2016 covered the schoolhouse, which had been used to educate black children until 1950, with swastikas, racist statements and other offensive images.

The wave of vandalism is now spreading to the more rural areas of Loudoun County, although the sheriff's office does not see any links between the recent cases in Waterford, Hamilton and Lincoln and the other incidents east of Leesburg. "There's no connection to the eastern Loudoun cases," said Kraig Troxell, director of media relations for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office has assigned a detective to the western Loudoun cases and is looking at home security surveillance video to see if it can identify the vandals. It does not appear at this time that any of the victims were targeted, according to the sheriff's office. The office also is working with school resource officers who may hear students talking about the vandalism. However, the sheriff's office is keeping an open mind about whether adults or teenagers may have committed the vandalism, according to Troxell.

“No matter who is doing it, I think it is an incredibly serious matter,” Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall said in an interview with Patch.

When the Old Ashburn Schoolhouse was vandalized, Randall and other county officials immediately went to the site to condemn the vandalism. Randall, who contends there has been a rise in hate-filled vandalism in the county, also helped paint over and repair the schoolhouse.

The first of the recent incidents in western Loudoun County occurred on Nov. 4 and 5 in Lincoln, a community about 10 miles northwest of Leesburg that was founded by Quaker settlers in the mid-1700s. Mailboxes, the roadway and vehicles were spray-painted with swastikas, racial slurs and profane language. On Nov. 7, vandals spray-painted a swastika in Hamilton, a town about three miles east of Lincoln. A couple days later, residents reported that a shed in Hamilton had been spray-painted with hateful language.

The most recent incident, a swastika spray-painted on the road at the intersection of Flowing Pond Court and Hannah Drive near Waterford, was reported by a resident Monday.

Earlier this year, residents reported similar incidents in the eastern and southern parts of the county. The sheriff's office said swastikas, racial slurs and other offensive images were spray-painted on a fence in early July in Sterling, in the eastern part of the county. Two years earlier, vandals painted swastikas on cars and community signs in Sterling. In February, a swastika and racial slur were drawn into the snow of a yard in the Aldie area of Loudoun County.

In January, flyers promoting the KKK were found in Leesburg and along Route 9, which connects western Loudoun with West Virginia, over the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A year earlier, similar KKK recruitment flyers were discovered in driveways and mailboxes in the Lovettsville and Paeonian Springs communities of western Loudoun.

"It does seem like these incidents are increasing. We have to say that and admit that the incidents are increasing and figure out why," Randall said. "We need to figure out why they are increasing in western Loudoun County, why they are increasing in Virginia, and why they are increasing in the country. What is the catalyst for people who might harbor these views to feel free now to express them in such a way?"

According to hate crime statistics from the FBI, there has been an increase in hate crimes reported in the United States. In some cases, though, racist graffiti is not classified by governments as a hate crime.

The Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney's Office determined that the racist vandalism at the Old Ashburn Schoolhouse in 2016 did not meet the legal requirements for a hate crime. The Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney's Office said at the time that enhanced penalties exist for hate crimes in Virginia but that the Ashburn case did not fall within any of the categories. One of the enhanced penalty categories includes the crime taking place at a currently operating school building, but the building in Ashburn where the vandalism occurred is a historical site, not an operating school.

Randall said government officials need to make stopping these types of incidents a high priority. "You take it seriously, no matter what," she said. "They are a form of a threat."

When the KKK flyers were distributed in Lovettsville last year, Randall recalled receiving many phone calls from town residents who told her, “This is not who we are, this is not what we want, and this is not welcome.”

“Whomever is doing this," Randall said, "should know that no parts of Loudoun County will tolerate this behavior."

The sheriff's office is asking residents who may have any information about the western Loudoun cases to contact Detective Roy Ortutay at roy.ortutay@loudoun.gov.