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2 Cases Of Racist Graffiti Hit Seattle This Week

Part of the graffiti written on a white board at the Africatown Innovation Center in the Rainier Vista/Columbia City area.
Africatown Innovation Center Facebook
Part of the graffiti written on a white board at the Africatown Innovation Center in the Rainier Vista/Columbia City area.

In Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood last week, Denise Madden walked out of her house and saw that someone had spray painted a racial slur on her family’s new truck.

“What is wrong with people these days?” Madden wrote on Facebook. She and her family live near Holman Road in the North Seattle neighborhood.

“Who does this!! Thankfully i have had an out pouring of community help from my neighbors and we will be getting it removed this evening but why should we or anyone have to deal with this crap.”

[asset-images[{"caption": "Denise Madden, who lives in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood, wrote on Facebook that her new truck had been vandalized with a racial slur. This image is intentionally small as it may be upsetting to some readers. To enlarge, click on the image.", "fid": "125179", "style": "offset_right", "uri": "public://201603/screen_shot_2016-03-27_at_2.56.23_pm.png", "attribution": "Credit Facebook"}]]Earlier in the week, the Africatown Center for Education and Innovation in the Rainier Vista/Columbia City area was vandalized and burglarized. Someone had written racial slurs against blacks on white boards at the center – punctuated with swastikas. The center is located at Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Alaska Street.

Seattle Police arrested a man in connection with the vandalism later in the week. The man, a volunteer at the center, is alleged to have stolen equipment from the center a few days earlier.

Detective Mark Jamieson wrote on the Seattle Police blotter that they arrested the man later in week after he had burglarized the center again. The second time, though, he wrote "graffiti targeted at African-Americans" on white boards. 

"Vote Trump" was also written on the white boards.  

Back in the Greenwood neighborhood, Madden reported that her neighbors rallied to support her family.

“My neighbors are so supportive,” she wrote on Facebook. “Although this is horrible it is great to know how many of my neighbors are not ok with this.”