By Jack Rubinger
Several neighbors have noticed the n-word being written in pen on many street signs in inner SE along SE 30th Ave. between Division and Salmon, and on SE Clinton between 26th and 37th. It’s the same handwriting each time and the person usually returns after it has been cleaned off. So, it seems pretty predictable.
This current wave of vandalism started around the time school was back in session and Cleveland High School has had numerous signs around it written on as well. “We have been addressing graffiti in the neighborhood since August when it first appeared on our campus. We have been following the hate speech protocol used by Portland Public Schools and have been working with our Racial Equity and Restorative Justice Department in framing our work,” said Jo Ann Wadkins, Principal at Cleveland High School.
Residents Teresa McCabe and Travis Johnson have been talking with PBOT about helping catch the person, but it’s been a struggle to find a responsive party. McCabe spoke to Harout Akdedian, Ph.D. at the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Unit about the traffic signs throughout SE Portland being tagged with the n-word. Akdedian was responsive, calling McCabe on the DOJ’s behalf less than 24 hours after McCabe submitted a bias crime report on the DOJ’s website. In addition to simply validating the serious nature of the hate speech incidents and treating them as the crimes that they are, he was able to get a PBOT crew out that same week to professionally clean what we had already scrubbed.
McCabe and her sister have found more defaced signs and they have received multiple reports via social media of the n-word appearing on traffic signs, bus stops, benches and fire hydrants throughout the area encompassing NE Couch St. to SE Powell Blvd., and SE 30th to Cesar Chavez, including many racial slur tags around Laurelhurst Park and Cleveland High School. They cleaned the signs they found to the best of their abilities. Frustratingly, some of the signs they cleaned earlier in the month have already been defaced again with the same racial slur, apparently by the same person.
McCabe believes there are many, many more n-word tags throughout the Richmond, Sunnyside and Laurelhurst neighborhoods for which they don’t have photos. “Seeing this kind of hate speech wallpapering our neighborhood is distressing,” said McCabe. “It breaks my heart to know how many people see that hateful racial slur and then have to live in our city in a climate of fear and hatred.”
The signs that were defaced with racial slurs for a second time on October 14 are located directly in front of McCabe’s sister’s home, where her 14-year-old Black nephew lives. McCabe expressed great sadness and disappointment about these incidents. She said, “How do a Black child and his parents not feel like they’re being specifically targeted by a white supremacist in their midst? How could they not fear for their safety on a daily basis? I cannot believe in the year 2022 that my sister, the mother of a Black child, has to walk out her front door every morning with a bottle of graffiti remover in the hopes of preventing her son from seeing the racial slurs that have reappeared overnight on their street.”
McCabe expressed appreciation for how responsive and helpful the DOJ has been regarding this matter. “I came away from my multiple interactions with the DOJ feeling confident that they take crimes of this nature seriously, they understand that this type of crime has serious consequences (i.e. that this isn’t a graffiti problem or a neighborhood beautification project, it’s a hate crime problem indicator),” said McCabe.
Her interactions with the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) have been less favorable. “I find it unbelievable that there is not yet a detective within the PPB whom I can contact to file a report,” said McCabe. “These crimes require proper investigation and the PPB is derelict in its duty to the residents of Portland, especially its Black residents, by not having resources dedicated to the investigation of bias crimes in our city at this time.”
Through incredible persistence, McCabe eventually found a PPB officer assigned to the case, Officer Nate Kirby-Glatkowski, who is currently in charge of an open investigation. Kirby-Glatkowski said that photographic or video evidence is most actionable and that if caught, the perpetrator would be charged with Criminal Mischief II. Kirby-Glatkowski said that anyone who gets photos of the perpetrator or new graffiti should send them to graffiti@portlandoregon.gov, attention John Stepp who is part of the Graffiti Abatement Program.
There is also an online form to report graffiti and request removal, portland.gov/bps/graffiti/graffiti-report, but for investigative purposes, it’s best for neighbors to take their own photos of racial slurs and send them directly to John Stepp at the above address, as he is the one who is working with Kirby-Glatkowski on this investigation.
The DOJ also has a bias crimes hotline for people to report incidents like the n-word graffiti. Their hotline is 1.844.924.BIAS and more information about bias crimes and the importance of reporting can be found at .
Photo by Teresa McCabe.
It is amazing to me that crime is sky rocking in our community, and this story is about minor vandalism. The stores at 55th and E Burnside were all broken into early one morning with all the glass doors smashed, and this is what the neighborhood newspaper reports. Research across the country reveals that racial slurs on public spaces are often put there by the person reporting them. It is part of a sick narcissistic call for attention: ” Look at me I am a victim!” People who pushed to defund the police are now angry that there are no police resources to investigate their concern over minor crimes and their narcissistic pet causes. Remember that these are the same people who shut down the gun violence task force because it is “racist” to fight gun violence. Since so much of Portland’s graffiti and gun violence is gang related, is it possible that the city does not investigate graffiti because it is “racist” to do so?
We certainly do not deny that there is an unacceptable amount of crime happening in Portland. Much of it has been heavily reported by other media outlets and we could fill multiple issues of the paper with crime-only articles. The point of this article was to bring to light something that is happening in our part of town – SE – and drawing attention to the fact that not only is it graffiti, but it is hate speech. You may want to be careful in accusing the people mentioned in this article of being the ones that put the racial slurs on the signs. That is typical internet troll behavior and not constructive.