A swastika tagged at a Long Beach church a few weeks ago has prompted local clergy members to host a procession on Saturday in memory of hate victims.
The marking was discovered on Tuesday, September 22, on the sidewalk in front of Little Brown Church Mision Catolica del Divino Nazareno—known for having primarily Latino immigrant congregants—in the city’s East Village neighborhood.
“This is a symbol of white supremacy and it is a message of hate,” the Greater Long Beach Interfaith Community Organization (ICO) said in a statement. “This comes at a time when our nation is being bombarded by inflammatory racial political rhetoric.”
The procession was also created in response to this summer’s fatal shooting of nine people in a historic black church in South Carolina and presidential candidate Donald Trump’s misrepresentation of immigrants as “drug dealers and rapists,” the ICO stated in a release.
The event will take place on Saturday, October 10, and begin at 10:00AM at Little Brown Church, 600 West Fifth Street, with speeches by clergy members. Participants will then walk to Grant AME Church, 1129 Alamitos Avenue.
A Long Beach officer is also expected to take part in the event.
According to authorities, the drawing did not create any permanent damage and no messages or threats were made against anyone or the church.
A vandalism report was taken and a detective later responded to the scene for further investigation, according to Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) spokeswoman Megan Zabel, and a commanding officer also spoke with church leaders after the incident.
No suspects have been identified.
Whether the culprit was kid, homeless or white supremacist, ICO President Misi Tagaloa said it’s important to end the cycle.
“If we don’t nip it in the bud then it just gets escalated,” Tagaloa said. “We want to be able to cut it off before it escalates and gets worse.”
Photo by Andrea Donado of the Greater Long Beach Interfaith Community Organization.