Beverly Hills police suspect the same person or persons may be responsible for antisemitic graffiti discovered in the city on Oct. 25. One message was spray-painted onto an alleyway and another outside of an apartment complex. The incidents are being treated as hate crimes, according to a statement from the Beverly Hills Police Department on Oct. 26.
One of the hateful messages was reported to police at 1:39 p.m. near the Bedford Manor Apartments on the 400 block of S. Bedford Drive, according to BHPD Lt. Reginald Evans.
The other was reported 24 minutes later and about 1 mile away on the 300 block of Palm Drive.
“The suspect(s) in both cases appear to be related based on verbiage, style and color of the spray paint,” BHPD Lt. Evans told the Courier in a statement.
In the Palm Drive case, the words “Kill Jewss” (sic) were scrawled in large green letters on a wall in an alley behind the street. Local resident Norm Nadel told the Courier that police were searching the area for clues or witnesses when he arrived home at about 4 p.m. on the 25th.
“They told me they had received an anonymous tip and came to check it out. They were going through the alley to see if anyone knew what had happened. I was shocked. It was the first I had seen of it.”
Nadel said that he was unaware of any reason he or any of his neighbors would have been specifically targeted other than the fact that there is a large Jewish community in the neighborhood.
“This wasn’t anyone with any personal vendetta against any of us, so far as I can tell,” Nadel said. Officers searched the area for hours and conducted numerous follow-up interviews with residents, Nadel said. City officials quickly responded to the matter, and the graffiti had been painted over by public works staff by the following morning, Nadel said.
The BHPD is asking for anyone with information about these or other incidents of hate-motivated vandalism to call the department at 310-285-2125.
Earlier this month, Mayor Dr. Julian Gold announced that police would increase their presence around synagogues and other sites relevant to Jewish people in Beverly Hills.
