Police in Northern Virginia on Tuesday released surveillance video from a Jewish community center that was vandalized with swastikas earlier this week.
“Do you recognize this suspect?” the Fairfax County Police Department asked in a post accompanying the video that encourages the public to reach out with any possible leads on the vandal’s identity.
The video shows a person wearing dark clothes and a gray cloth mask wandering around the side of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Northern Virginia, then spray-painting the outside of the building.
The facility, which is located in Annandale, Va., was vandalized with 19 swastikas overnight, a representative of the center told The Hill on Saturday.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) on Saturday denounced the “insidious rise in hateful actions and anti-Semitism” in Virginia and “across the country.”
“An insidious rise in hateful actions and anti-Semitism is happening in Virginia and across the country,” he said in a tweet. “We must meet it with fierce condemnation and an over-abundance of love and unity. We cannot allow hate to fester.”
…The center has been targeted by vandalism before. Last year, the building was spray-painted with anti-Semitic messages including “Hitler was right” on the first night of Passover, reported the local NBC affiliate.
A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered if any tips lead to an arrest in the latest incident.
Data released by three social scientists in June showed that hate crimes in the U.S. rose for a fourth straight year in 2017.
Virginia police release surveillance video from Jewish center vandalized with swastikas
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