Vandals are suspected of posting stickers promoting a group that supports white nationalism at the Democratic Party’s local headquarters in Orange on Saturday, Feb. 29, just three days before voters were set to scheduled to cast their ballots.
The incident was reported at about 4 p.m. on the 1900 block of West Chapman Avenue, Orange Police Sgt. Phil McMullin said. An investigation has been launched in order to determine the identity and motives of whoever was responsible.
Police did not immediately deem the vandalism a hate crime, McMullin said. However, officials with the Democratic Party of Orange County alleged that it was an act of hate and an effort to keep voters away from the polls.
“It is clear that this vandalism in intended to intimidate and suppress voters,” the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, Ada Briceño, said in a news release. “It will not work. We stand united in the strongest possible condemnation of hate.”
About a dozen stickers and post cards were prominently placed at eye level on every door of the party’s headquarters, as well as the offices of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 582, which is in the same building, said Rachel Potucek, the director of communications for Orange County Democrats.
Stickers bore slogans like “we claim america,” “for the nation against the state,” “2 parties one tyranny” and “America is not for sale.”
The vandalism also referenced the website of a group that Democratic officials declined to name in their release. They said the organization was recognized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and linked to James Fields Jr., the man who drove a car into a crowd of people at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing Heather Heyer in August 2017.
Source: Orange County Register
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