Palo Alto police are investigating a case of vandalism as a hate crime that occurred in a downtown parking lot after an unknown person wrote comments targeting people from India, local authorities reported.
The Palo Alto Police Department said in a statement that on Thursday, April 6, at approximately 8:54 a.m., its dispatch center received a call about vandalism that had just been discovered in City Lot "S," the parking lot at 445 Bryant Street.
The reporting party, a City of Palo Alto Public Works employee, reported to police that he had observed offensive writing inside the public restroom on the ground floor.
An officer responded and observed the writings, which had been done in black marker. All were comments directed at people from India. A Public Works crew removed the insults.
Police believe the crime occurred around midday on April 5, as staff had last checked the bathroom at that time. There is no information on who might have committed the acts.
Officials said they will thoroughly investigate any reported hate crimes in Palo Alto, and invited residents to read a city blog post titled “Steps the community can take to help stop hate crimes.”
In turn, authorities recalled that the City of Palo Alto strongly denounces hate crimes of all kinds and encourages community members to report these incidents immediately by calling the 24-hour call center at (650) 329-2413, or 9-1-1 in the case of an emergency.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips or information can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text or voicemail to (650) 383-8984.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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