Investigation blocks racist graffiti found in Logan

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(Chris McGinty | The Herald Journal) Nazi symbols and slogans can be seen on graffiti covering a Black Lives Matter post in the parking lot at Logan High in July 2021. Three weeks after the appearance of graffiti laden with symbols, codes and of Nazi slogans in a high school parking lot in Logan, the local police investigation appears to have stalled.

By Steve Kent | The Herald Journal via The Associated Press

| August 7, 2021, 5:23 p.m.

Logan Three weeks after graffiti laden with Nazi symbols, codes and slogans appeared in the parking lot at Logan High School, the local police investigation appears to have stalled.

The case is still open, but at this point no new information is coming in, Captain Curtis Hooley of the Logan City Police Department told the Herald Journal.

Investigators could see numbers in the parking lot, Hooley said, but no identifying features. Information requests from residents have so far also failed to obtain identifying information.

We sent a request on Facebook to the citizens if they live in this area if they have pictures of their doorbell cameras and other things and the officers tried to get in touch with the people there, a Hooley said, but we couldn’t find anything. We had no information that helped us try to identify who these people might have been.

Surveillance footage shows numbers in the parking lot just before midnight on July 13, Hooley said. Area resident Chris McGinty said he discovered the graffiti the next morning, took a photo and released it to media and social media in hopes of starting productive conversations about the expression hatred and racism.

The vandals disfigured the words Black Lives Matter which school officials said were previously painted by a student who had purchased permission to reserve and decorate a parking lot as part of a fundraiser led by the student leaders.

Nazi graffiti, in what appears to be a mix of black spray paint and sidewalk chalk, changed the post to read white lives matter and also included two swastikas, several social media hashtags and the number 1488 , a reference to 14 words, a neo-Nazi slogan, and 88, a code for Heil Hitler based on H being the 8th letter of the alphabet.

The local reaction to the news of the graffiti was very varied, with several expressing dismay at the expression of extremist racism and solidarity with the black community, but it was also common to speculate that it was child labor. stupid.

Local Black Lives Matter organizer Mario Mathis said the graffiti couldn’t be brushed aside so easily. Mathis spoke to The Herald Journal on July 14, the day the graffiti was discovered. Then, as now, the identities of the vandals are unknown to the public, so unless there is direct knowledge of the crime, comments about the age are speculation.

There is no excuse for this, and it is the fault of the adults who raised the children if they were children, Mathis said. It may not even have been minors who did this. If they are, that is more of a concern because they are really complex racist minors.

Anyone with additional information about this incident can call the Logan City Police Department at (435) 753-7555.

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