The Perry Police Department examined video footage Monday from Perry High School security cameras in an effort to identify the persons responsible for vandalizing the school with anti-immigrant graffiti.
The video reveals that at 2 a.m. Sunday a Grand Cherokee entered the grounds of the Perry High School parking lot. The vehicle stopped near the front entrance of the school, and a figure exited the vehicle from the passenger side and painted the message on the sidewalk.
The vandal completed the hateful task in about one minute. The vehicle is then seen leaving the high school parking lot and proceeding southward on 18th Street.
“We’re still looking through videos to see if we can’t get some type of identification on a person or a vehicle from Sunday morning,” said Perry Police Department Chief Eric Vaughn. “I’m hoping we can get a good picture or some video out soon.”
Vaughn said no other incidents of similar defacement were found anywhere else around the high school, at other Perry schools or elsewhere in the community.
“When you do something like that, I don’t know what your intent is,” Vaughn said. “I don’t think that’s how you bring about change.”
The graffiti was presumably intended to insult and intimidate visitors to the annual ¡Viva Perry! Latino Festival 2018, sponsored by Hispanics United for Perry (HUP). The fesitval began at noon Sunday at the Perry Performing Arts Center, located on the PHS campus.
HUP postponed the ¡Viva Perry! Latino Festival earlier this summer, originally scheduled for Aug. 25, out of respect for murder victim Mollie Tibbetts and over concerns about anti-immigrant sentiment.
Anti-immigrant incidents have marred community activities in Perry before. In April 2015 a kindergarten concert was disrupted at the Perry Performing Arts Center by a man shouting, “U.S.A. English only! U.S.A. English only!” and the PHS boys basketball team was pelted with racial slurs by Dallas Center-Grimes High School students at a game in February 2016.
“We’re going to move forward from this and be even stronger,” said Perry Community School District Superintendent Clark Wicks Monday.
I see that the author of this article is writing more of an editorial than a news article. In my humble opinion, this article should be on the editorial page, in the manner it was written. This “news” article should have kept with standard journalistic practice one would expect, keeping the editorial overtones out of this news article. And treated the author’s opinions as that, opinions. The act of graffiti is the news. The author has become judge and jury in this piece of yellow journalism. I very disappointed in the level of reporting, the editorial staff of The Perry News.com, and the editor in chief in particular, for not ensuring that the article was written as news. I see the aurthor trying to incite those that are against the rules of law, those that think the breaking of laws is ok for some and not for others. What was written is not hate speech.It was graffiti. The what-if questions come to mind. What if the graffiti writers were to approach this news source and ask for ad space to publish their statement. To lawfully express what law-abiding citizens should do if someone is knowingly breaking the law. Are we now teaching our youth that breaking some laws is okay in OUR country? Would the editor of this news organization allow an individual to buy space or to write a letter to the editor and allow publication of such a statement? Again, in my humble opinion, I seriously doubt this rag would allow an opinion that differs so much.
James Carrick fails to accept or admit the fact said graffiti was placed for no other reasons than to antagonize and intimidate the immigrant community of Perry. It’s illegal placement and close proximity to the Latino Festival is patently racist and cannot and should not be construed otherwise. Any such display, legal or not, would have been excruciatingly inflammatory if it were placed near the festival or in such a place the event participants could not help but pass on their way. Indeed, if the culprit’s target audience was really those who would wish to call ICE, they could have legally bought an ad in this and Perry’s other media outlet. I dare say most of those who would call ICE would probably not go to a Latino festival anyway. I would laugh anyone to scorn if they claimed the graffiti was intended for anyone else but the Latino community. Making distinctions between legal and illegal immigrants is nothing less than tedious hair splitting as pertains to the abominable display. It’s the same old sophomoric malarkey we’ve all heard and read for 30 years. It’s hardly an original argument and doesn’t hold water any better now than decades ago. It’s anyone’s guess if this can be prosecuted as hate speech, but James Carrick is no more qualified to state it isn’t hate speech than I am to say it is. Let’s see what the courts say. I’d bet even money that ThePerryNews.com would have begrudgingly sold the advertising space for such purposes. ThePerryNews.com has printed several letters from conservative readers. Any number of Republican candidates have purchased space too. James Carrick’s assuming these things about ThePerryNews.com makes him every bit as much judge and jury as he claims the editorial staff here is. After all, ThePerryNews.com approved his comment.