Los Angeles Police Department officials are keeping a close eye
on the Westwood area after a recent string of hate crimes was
reported in the area earlier this month.
Between May 7 and June 6, several Westwood buildings were
vandalized in what police are calling hate crimes, which consisted
of graffiti writing targeting certain races and religions.
According to an LAPD community alert circulated to Westwood
residents, vandals scrawled “hate-related slogans”
across the doors of some Westwood buildings.
LAPD Detective Lisa Householder said 15 such incidents have been
reported since May 6, with the last reported on June 17. She said
many of them occurred in Westwood, and the rest occurred in other
parts of West Los Angeles.
A number of hate-related vandalism incidents were reported in
the immediate UCLA area, including incidents on Kelton, Midvale and
Landfair Avenues and Wilshire Boulevard.
Householder said the vandalism targets numerous racial and
ethnic groups, including blacks, Mexicans and Jews.
“They are not targeting one specific group,” she
said.
In each case, the slogans were written neatly in washable black
marker, and most occurred late at night or very early in the
morning, Householder said.
She added that because the vandalism incidents are so similar to
one another, police believe the same person or group of people is
responsible for them.
Householder said that at this point the police have no reason to
suspect that the perpetrator is a UCLA student or in any way
affiliated with the university, but said because all the vandalism
occurred in the same area, police do believe the perpetrator is a
West Los Angeles resident.
However, she said police currently do not have any leads or
tips, and are relying on information from residents and other
police departments to provide insight into the vandalism.
The majority of the reports were filed with LAPD, but
Householder said three were filed with university police. But UCPD
crime analyst Kristi Godines said at this point UCPD has not
launched any investigation of its own, and is simply sharing
information as it comes in with LAPD.
Anders Kusian, a second-year biochemistry student and a Westwood
Village resident, said he had not heard about the vandalism but was
concerned to learn that hate crimes were occurring in Westwood.
“It doesn’t make me feel less safe, but I
didn’t know that was a problem in Westwood. I didn’t
know that was going on here,” he said.
Householder urged residents to keep their property well-lit and
to look out for loiterers or suspicious persons.
Anyone with information about the crimes should contact LAPD
at
(310) 444-1580.