Sometime Sunday night, the white Dodge Durango parked outside 3 Farrington Lane was spray-painted with the words “stay white,” in red, on the rear driver’s side door and part of the driver’s side. The vehicle is owned by a white man.
It was one of another half dozen instances of graffiti at homes on Farrington, Farragut and Florida Park Drive in Palm Coast’s F-Section, and on Raeland Lane.
The “stay white” graffiti’s wording was identical to that used to spray-paint a house on 15 Rolling Sands Drive around Aug. 5 or 6, when another spate of graffiti on private property was uncovered on that street and on Rocking Horse Lane.
Flagler County Sheriff’s detectives believe the two spate of incidents are related, “but they think there are two or three different people tagging,” a sheriff’s spokesperson said. “They think it is likely kids messing around but can’t rule anything out at this time.”
The incidents earlier this month reflected graffiti that was “similar to ‘white power’ symbols,” according to the Sheriff’s Office at the time, and looked like a modified Z that hinted at a swastika in one case, another graffiti with the numbers 666 and the letters W and P, which could stand for “white power” and mirrored an investigator’s findings of similar symbolism online. There were also spray-painted R’s with crowns and a heart. The vandalism targeted garage doors, the side of a house and the side of a white truck, but with no apparent awareness of the owners’ race.
At 52 Farragut, the word “snitch” was spray-painted on the house. A resident had placed objects in front of the graffiti as if to conceal it. Deputies were not able to make contact with the resident. At 68 Farragut, the garage door was spray-painted apparently in broad daylight that Saturday, according to the resident, around 1 p.m., with the letter R in red, a sloppily drawn crown, and what looks possibly like a confused, unconvinced “fuck.” (See below.) At 140 Florida Park Drive, the resident’s van was vandalized with the letters “gg” spray-painted on the driver’s side. That resident is south Asian.
“We do not have any suspects but we do suspect that is most likely teenagers,” the sheriff’s spokesperson said today. “Despite the fact that there are some racial comments they do not appear racially motivated, at least in regards to the victims.”
Asked specifically if it would it be accurate to say that the detectives are attributing the incidents more to youthful idiocy than to malicious bigotry, the spokesperson answered: “Yes, that is accurate. Their hope is that parents see these articles with pictures and realize that they’ve seen those images on a notebook their child keeps or somewhere in the home and then come forward.”
There are no known hate groups in Flagler County, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks them. Aside from the occasional graffiti, the county has known relative calm for years when it comes to overt cases of racism such as destruction of property or even hate crimes even as such incidents have soared across the nation in the past year.
The center has partnered with ProPublica, the news service whose work regularly appears in FlaglerLive’s pages, to enable people across the country confidentially to share and document incidents in an ongoing project called Documenting Hate.
If you have information on Palm Coast’s vandalism, you can call the non-emergency dispatch number at the Sheriff’s Office, 386/313-4911.
Lou says
The graffiti artist shows his/hers inferiority by doing such a sign..
Signed: by an European American.
South Florida says
I don’t understand what the he’ll is going on in palm coast. Every section is having break ins, vandalism, shootings. This is completely absurd and disturbing at the same time. I’m white with several black friends. Its nothing but a color. We all bleed red. We are all people with feelings.
This nonsense has got to end. I feel like I’m living in a damn war zone. I got cameras and so do my neighbors. So, let me catch these jerks. They spray paint my shit I’m gonna see them android put them under citizen arrest. Let all the scum bags go live in the green roof inn.
I moved here 5 years ago and it was peaceful. Now, I’m thinking before it gets worse to sell the house. I can’t live with all this crime and craziness.
Ppl talk about South Florida and they don’t have this many damn problems.
Miami is a different story. Ppl put bars on Windows and I’m about to do that. This place doesn’t feel safe to me anymore.
I don’t care if anyone doesn’t like what I have to say.
I. Sick of this. Palm coast never made news and now it’s constant.
Live and let live. There are too many mean ass ppl.
A Person who is concerned says
I hope this is just youthful Idiocy, but hate is taught. With our president endorsing these groups, this could turn into a bigger problem. remember Hitler started with the youth. I hope our Sheriff office is taking this seriously. Especially in this time and climate.
George says
Funny, I don’t see Black Lives Matter being spray painted all over white people’s houses and property, wonder why that is? Because BLM is a response to hate and racism. KKK, neo-nazis, stormfront and even aggressive flag waving confederates are all related to acts of hate in and of themselves. Seriously though, if there was a string of graffiti all around town with phrases like BLACK POWER being sprayed everywhere it wouldn’t be called, “Youthful Idiocy,” it would immediately be linked to violence by police and media and white people would be all up in arms locking their doors with curfew in effect. This all is coming from the point of view of a caucasian; racism is alive and well, don’t try and diminish it or pretend otherwise.
Just the truth says
Hate is taught at home, and those parents who teach it to their children are aiming at having problem children the rest of their lives in and out of jail.
These juveniles have nothing better to do, and where are their parents when, they are out at night doing this?
Teach your children to respect others as you want to be respected yourself.
Shell says
Good on the local law. When it comes to human behavior it is always wise to apply Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
JasonB says
I’m referring to it as “The Trump Effect”.
gmath55 says
With so many people with guns these days they are taking a chance of being shot.
ASF says
Not only should the offending juveniles be mandated to attend courses or do community services related to hate crimes, their parents should be attending them too. This stuff shouldn’t be any more tolerated at home than it should be taught at home.
Jack stewart says
Dont be suprised when they find persons involved in racist graffiti……its not always who you think it is!
volo says
I did not know that President trump lived with these juveniles when their parents were teaching them values? This is a direct reflection of parental upbringing or lack of it. I do not think that President Trump has has so much negative impact on these kids lives in the past 6 months. Their actions shown what they were not taught in their homes. I also did not know that President Trump gave permission for these kids to be out all hours of the night- I bet he did not even know they were not at home that night.
palmcoaster says
Five years ago we had a different Sheriff too.
Neighbors need to unite and look after each other and catch these vandals on the act…can’t be too laid back anymore in Palm Coast. Also when caught demand financial restitution.
palmcoaster says
We should all be allowed to be our community witnesses in court against these druggies and punks, because the way I see it now all is decided by the Judge and the DA that lest them ago under “Announcement of No Information” aka A felony case was filed in Florida and then – arraignment hearing – the State Attorney dropped the charges . Originally, the warrant was signed by a judge acting on a police officer’s statement.
It doesn’t say “dismissed” – it says “announcement of no information by state attorney” – “case closed” – “sent to storage”. Felony case dismissed by state attorney in arraignment hearing. Then the judge has no other recourse than let them go…
My question is why our District State Attorney Larizza lets them go under “Announcement of No Information after the community and our Sheriff/law enforcement worked so hard to catch them in the act and put them in jail? Can the DA answer this question?Because this punks go free to start the same delinquencies allover again and we, the community have to endure them.We have NO rights Mr. DA?
Ray says
The R with the crown and $ symbol is their sign. They are mainly based out of Bunnell with a few followers in the R P and F sections. Palm coast is actually a very safe place compared to many other areas. The 3 murders we had were all isolated domestic cases. Home invasions are not random, they are at houses conducting illegal activities in the 1st place. Look at Tampa Jax Daytona. The crime is outrageous. We are all Americans and this Blm/ WP is nonsense. All lives matter. Why is it most peoples 1st reaction is oh im moving, how about stand your ground, get involved in community watch, volunteer for Citizens on Patrol, help our men in blue, as a retired Navy Seal I couldnt be happier with our President and our Sheriff. You can talk all you want but the bottom line is these guys care about America, and our county. Its about time we have elected officials who put our safety 1st, instead of this politically correct crap that too many people are accustomed too.
Reasonable Doubt says
Generally the cases are dropped by the state attorney because the arresting officer didn’t gather sufficient evidence or embellished on the charges ( which happens often). You do have rights, but the rights of the alleged suspect are the ones that need to be protected properly with due process.