LITTLE ROCK — Pulaski County sheriff’s detectives were investigating racially inflammatory graffiti on a church Tuesday, a day after the pastor found white-power symbols painted in white on the church, which has a predominantly black congregation.
The signs, which minister James Hayes suspects were painted sometime Sunday night or Monday morning, did about $8,000 in damage on the north side of Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church at 26622 Arkansas 365.
“Who would do something to God’s house? Something hateful like this?” Hayes said outside his church Tuesday. “It’s ... a symbol of saying that those [white] supremacists are still here.”
Pulaski County sheriff ’s spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said investigators are looking at the vandalism as “criminal mischief,” but that they haven’t ruled out a potential hate-crime investigation.
“Until you find who you’re looking for and a motive, it’s hard to say [where the crime will go],” Minden said. “Obviously, those symbols on a predominantly black church would lead you to that conclusion.”
Minden said that on the surface, the graffiti appeared “crude, elementary, it doesn’t seem like they took a great deal of time to do it.”
Hayes arrived at the church about 8:30 p.m. Monday to rearrange a few things in the sanctuary. His 4-year-old son was with him.
Before the two could get inside, they saw the graffiti, including Ku Klux Klan references, Nazi swastikas, and “lightning bolt” symbols, the logo of Adolf Hitler’s SS troops.
Hayes said it didn’t take long for him to recognize the weight of the symbols. But his son didn’t understand.
“He said ‘You’re supposed to draw on paper,’” Hayes said. “‘Not on my daddy’s church.’”
Hayes’ church, which was ravaged by a tornado in April 2011 and just recently reopened its doors to its 45-member congregation, isn’t the first one to be vandalized with racially charged symbols.
In November 2010, Jacksonville Baptist Temple and some of its vehicles were marked with various gang symbols and racial epithets, but Jacksonville police said they suspect the act was the work of youths.
In February, First Baptist Church at 1200 S. Louisiana St. in Little Rock was splattered with spray paint. Playing cards with racial slurs and death threats on them also were stuck on the church.
No arrests were made in those cases. Such vandalism cases, according to Minden, often lack concrete evidence to work with and heighten the challenges faced by detectives.
“Unless ... someone saw something while they were driving by or someone talks about it and knows something about it, it’s a hard crime to investigate,” Minden said. “There’s not a whole lot of evidence left behind, other than the damage ... it’s hard to put a suspect to it.”
Arkansas does not have a criminal hate-law statute. Minden said he didn’t think the FBI had been contacted, but that the agency could be called in.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 12/05/2012