Police are investigating a vandalism case discovered last night at a park playground as a hate crime, after an unknown suspect wrote racial epithets on a play structure.
On Thursday, June 30, 2022, at about 6:38 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call reporting a vandalism that had just been discovered at Pardee Park at 851 Center Drive. The reporting party, a passerby, told police that he had observed racist graffiti written on a play structure.
Officers responded and located the graffiti in the playground closest to Center Drive. The writings, done with a marker, were racial epithets directed at Black people. City of Palo Alto staff from both Park Services and Public Works teamed up to remove the writings. Police do not know when the incident occurred. There is no suspect information.
To view details on other hate crime vandalisms reported in Palo Alto, visit www.cityofpaloalto.org/PAPDnews and search by keyword “hate.” At this time, there is no known connection between this case and others in the past.
Officers will thoroughly investigate any reported hate crimes in Palo Alto. You are welcome to read a blog post from the City entitled “Steps the Community Can Take to Help Stop Hate Crimes.” The City of Palo Alto strongly denounces hate crimes of all kinds, and encourages members of our community to promptly report these incidents by calling our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413, or 9-1-1 if it is an emergency.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to [email protected] or sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984.
