The bus stop near the intersection of Wahsatch Avenue and Kiowa Street was defaced with a swastika, SS bolts and the message “white live’s [sic] matter.” According to Springs Lt. James Sokolik, there was also vandalism at Mid Shooks Run Park, “in which a swastika and white power was spray painted in red.” Investigations into these incidents are currently open.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation annually reports hate crime statistics, and in 2018 the FBI reported 10 hate crimes in Colorado Springs, up from one in 2017. Colorado Springs tied with Aurora with 10 incidents each in 2018, and Denver led the state with 30. Data provided by Colorado Springs Police Department public information officer Lt. James Sokolik show that CSPD had eight confirmed “bias-based crimes” in 2017, 12 in 2018, 11 in 2019, and eight so far in 2020.
The CSPD identifies “biased-based crimes” in accordance with state law, which states:
“A person commits a bias-motivated crime if, with the intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation, he or she:
(a) Knowingly causes bodily injury to another person; or
(b) By words or conduct, knowingly places another person in fear of imminent lawless action directed at that person or that person’s property and such words or conduct are likely to produce bodily injury to that person or damage to that person’s property; or
(c) Knowingly causes damage to or destruction of the property of another person.”
A truck from the city’s Quality of Life Team responded to the bus stop defacing and had removed the offending graffiti before 11 a.m. The rest of the graffiti reported that day has since been removed, but the team is not responsible for cleaning graffiti from private property, like one citizen's car. E.g.
According to the target, Kevin Nolan - a BLM activist: “They [the vandals] caused I don’t know how much damage to the car,. I’m going to try to get the swastika off today because I can’t get on post [Fort Carson] with the swastika on my car. I was allowed to get on today, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get on tomorrow with it, so I have to try and get that fixed.”
He added in his interview with the Indy:
“I work for the military, it’s what I do all damn day. I’m not going to stand here and be happy that there’s Nazis on our streets. This is not acceptable behavior. We should not be placating Nazis walking down our streets.”
But until we disinfect the country of Trump and hopefully re-educate and rescue his Nazi-friendly, white nationalist supporters and enablers this situation is unlikely to change. And so cities like the Springs will have to have their newspapers posting regular insets showing every citizen how to recognize Nazi iconography - such as the vile symbols shown at the top which appeared on page 6 of the Independent.
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