LANCASTER CHURCH AGAIN TARGETED IN HATE CRIMES.Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer LANCASTER - A small Lancaster church has been targeted four times in three months by white supremacist white supremacist n. One who believes that white people are racially superior to others and should therefore dominate society. white supremacy n. Noun 1. vandals and burglars, its pastor says. The latest incident occurred sometime last week, when vandals smashed a church van's windows and mirrors and marked its exterior with racial slurs and white power symbols. ``Someone took their time to do this,'' the Rev. George Todd, pastor of Agape agape In the New Testament, the fatherly love of God for humans and their reciprocal love for God. The term extends to the love of one's fellow humans. The Church Fathers used the Greek term to designate both a rite using bread and wine and a meal of fellowship that included Community Church. ``It was an act of hatred.'' The latest vandalism The intentional and malicious destruction of or damage to the property of another. The intentional destruction of property is popularly referred to as vandalism. It includes behavior such as breaking windows, slashing tires, spray painting a wall with graffiti, and , discovered Saturday, is being investigated as a hate crime, deputies said. ``Crimes like these are unacceptable,'' said Deputy Don Rubio of the Lancaster sheriff's station. ``It should not be tolerated in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley . The investigators are working hard to find the suspects who were involved.'' The Agape Community Church, in the 45300 block of Beech beech, common name for the Fagaceae, a family of trees and shrubs mainly of temperate and subtropical regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The principal genera—Castanea (chestnut and chinquapin), Fagus (beech), and Quercus Avenue, has a multi-ethnic congregation with a large number of African-Americans, the pastor said. The vandalized van is kept behind a locked gate. Besides breaking windows and a side mirror, the vandals removed a magnetized plastic sign from the van door and cut it up to form a swastika swastika Equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, all in the same rotary direction, usually clockwise. It is used widely throughout the world as a symbol of prosperity and good fortune. and lightning bolts Lightning bolt may refer to
Hate messages along with the letters ``SWP'', which officials say stands for Supreme White Power, were written in black marker next to the symbols. Church officials believe the vandalism occurred between the previous Sunday and last Saturday, when it was discovered. Vandals hit the church last month, when someone painted a swastika on a church sign. Windows were been broken and televisions and VCRs stolen in two burglaries since November. Anyone with information on the incident or the people responsible is asked to call the Lancaster sheriff's station at (661) 948-8466. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) The Rev. George Todd, pastor of the Agape Community Church in Lancaster, inspects a swastika placed on a church van by hate crime vandals. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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