Swastika spray-painted on senior center ahead of Pride celebration in North Carolina [View all]

[Behind the Aegis]

Vandals spray-painted a swastika on the outside wall of the senior center in this suburban community outside of Raleigh on the eve of a holiday Pride celebration featuring a drag queen story hour, which took place today.

The event went off without incident, drawing about 150 attendees, according to an organizer. Apex police officers patrolled the hallway outside the meeting room where the Pride celebration was held while a mahjong tournament in the adjacent room, with Santas making appearances at both gatherings.

While families celebrated inside the meeting room, Deputy Chief PM McKinney assured Rick Conard, one of the event organizers, that police are committed to catching the perpetrator of the vandalism and that investigators are reviewing surveillance footage, frame by frame.

Workers showed up to remove the graffiti while the Pride event was underway, but at the direction of senior center manager Allie Prelaske, they re-concealed it with plastic garbage bags and put the removal job on hold to prevent people from photographing the swastika. Prelaske expressed concern about attendees seeing the swastika, noting that the senior center is hosting a Hannukah event tomorrow.



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When bigotries overlap!