February 15, 2015

"More than two dozen Madison families woke up to vulgar language and ethnic and racial slurs spray-painted on their property Saturday."

"While most of the damage included profane language and explicit drawings, several contained racially-based and anti-Semitic slurs and swastikas. Some of that property damage, located on Brule Circle, has neighbors in the community calling the incident a hate crime."
[Jim] Stein woke up Saturday morning to see “F--- Jews” written on a garage door right across the street. Later in the day, once the snow cleared, a swastika was visible on the driveway.

"It was, of course, extremely disturbing to me," said Stein, who is the president of the Jewish Federation of Madison. "This is anti-Semitic to the extent people feel comfortable equating Jewish people or the Jewish religion with sexual terms and sexual parts of people’s bodies."...

“It just looks like it's malicious damage,” [Madison Police Officer David] Dexheimer said. “While some of the things painted were troubling, we don’t know that was specifically targeted to a particular victim.”

101 comments:

sojerofgod said...

Just another isolated incident.
Some silly kids
Nothing to see here, move along...
We have no evidence that spray painting swastikas is related to hate in any way.
The incident is still under investigation (To Infinity and beyond!!!)

Just trying to think up as many lame law enforcement/official excuses to not see the elephant right before their eyes.
-In 60 seconds or less.

You should try it sometimes, a nice little mental rope-skipping.

sojerofgod said...

OOO! I left out miscellaneous 'Malicious Damage'!

I have to lower my score now to at 9.5

Unknown said...

How ugly. There’s a rising tide of anti-semitism at American universities.

Its a bad, bad sign.

K in Texas said...

Amazing how Jewish people seem to be beating the odds by always ending up as these random acts of violence in which Jewish targets are randomly picked. Of course, the violence is not directed at anyone in particular, so no hate crime or religiously inspired terrorism here.

Twelve said...

Trolling lefties would have used blacks I think. What's Madison's Islamic population? This strikes me as unlikely for some reason, but possible. There's only a low chance it will be officially called hate being directed at Jews and no chance if it's Islamic or lefty in origin.

richard mcenroe said...

It's Madison, sojer. These are just random acts of individual violence that just randomly occurred one after the other in this one random neighborhood.

richard mcenroe said...

And we can't close the beaches just because a few random idiots managed to randomly get themselves randomly bitten by a random shark...

ddh said...

Commentary had an item recently (https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/02/11/european-anti-semitism-starts-top/) on the resurgence of anti-Semitism among the left that included the following:

"Last year, Prof. Monika Schwarz-Friesel of the Technical University of Berlin published a study that analyzed 10 years’ worth of hate mail sent to the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Israeli embassy in Berlin. To her surprise, only 3 percent came from right-wing extremists, while over 60 percent came from educated members of 'the social mainstream.' And these letters weren’t mere 'Israel criticism'; they contained classic anti-Semitic statements like 'It is possible that the murder of innocent children suits your long tradition' or 'For the last 2,000 years, you’ve been stealing land and committing genocide.'”

I sincerely hope that people in Madison show no "understanding" for the miscreants, whoever they turn out to be.

Achilles said...

“It just looks like it's malicious damage,” [Madison Police Officer David] Dexheimer said. “While some of the things painted were troubling, we don’t know that was specifically targeted to a particular victim.”

That is code for protected victim class peeps.

traditionalguy said...

There is always one target: The International Jew. Which is one clue to catching the Nordic Nazi. He will be driving a classic Ford.

chickelit said...

Unknown said...
How ugly. There’s a rising tide of anti-semitism at American universities.

That part of town is pretty distant from the University. If I were the cops, I'd be checking the thugs at Memorial HS or Jefferson MS.

traditionalguy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...

Madison is weird. But that is nothing compared to the ISIS guys that the brilliant anti-Semite Hillary Clinton set up with Libyan arms to take to Syria. Some stayed to surround Egypt and are proudly mass beheading Christians. This gives them great for obeying allah...not the allah of peaceful Muslims embedded in the USA but that bad allah from Satanic part of the Koran, you see.

rhhardin said...

Car beams light up the front of a building.
(In which street? There are so many behind and before him that he
cannot remember.) He reads: MORT AUX JUIFS JEWS GO HOME
scrawled in white chalk, in caps.
In which street? In several streets. On several walls. He tried
to decipher all the graffiti. He read and reread MORT AUX JUIFS
at each halt, at each corner, at the same corner, at each halt.
All he saw any more were those three words on the walls.
(Perhaps they did not even exist--I mean, for the other passers-by).
All he saw any more were those twelve letters, transparent,
on the glass pane of his memory.
There have been sirens tracing an arch of anguish into the
slithery air. There have been shells exploding around a man and
in his flesh. There has been many an exodus on land and on sea,
with solitary return to pillaged rooms or to the heart of
a soul long put to other uses.
There have been graveyards, with grass over them, vast fields.
The flowers are in cahoots. They have fed on bones and on
bone thoughts. Their perfume is perjured.
"My God," he murmurs. "The hands of the years show always the same hour."

- Jabes, Book of Questions

Michael said...

Write Fuck Muhammed on a garage door and you will ring the hate crime bell. Go ahead.

Paul said...

Racist? Nah..just some kids joking.

Our administration is incapable of admitting anything is racist EXCEPT when it pertains to a protected class, i.e. blacks.

And that shows how truly they are racist.

sojerofgod said...

RE: richard McEnroe

Shark!?!?

Close the beaches???

Are you kidding?

Didn't you see the movie?

That frickin' shark cost the county Millions!

Hear me??? Millions!!!

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Doesn't seem like the work of sophisticated collegiate Yay Palestinians!!! types.

I'd have to go with, idiot kids getting a thrill out of being naughty.

Lyle said...

Lefty fascists are out and about in Madison.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Sooooo ... a vandal randomly attacking houses in Madison (pop. 233K+) just manages to hit the home of the president of the Jewish Federation of Madison, and also the house across the street? Forgive me for thinking this is roughly as "random" as shooting up a "bunch of folks in some deli" that just happens to be kosher, or finding essentially the only Jewish people in Mumbai and killing them, or (in today's greater outrage) killing one guy at a free speech panel and another guy guarding a synagogue in Copenhagen.

People, this isn't random, and it isn't anti-Zionism. It's anti-Semitism, it's virulent, and it's evil.

Mark said...

Chickelit,

My sister lives out that way and sent her kids to parochial/Edgewood instead of Jefferson and Memorial.
Give how they turned out, it was a wise choice.

I would be looking there too, probably Jefferson.

MrCharlie2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

The Jewish fraternity gave us the wrong answers to the Psychology exam!

MrCharlie2 said...

But with 30 complaints, they must have hit a bunch of other houses. All Jewish? Probably not, but sounds like they had specific targets.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Is it a Jewish neighborhood? Like St. Louis Park outside of Minneapolis?

paminwi said...

Guess I will have to watch the local news tonight to see if they cover this story and the choice of words used. I am guessing, from past experience, the coverage on Channel 3 will be the worst!

IMO

John henry said...

I have mentioned before here how Madison is one of the most racist cities in the US. Based on black arrests, income, education, housing and other quantitative measures. I'll find the link again if anyone needs it.

I had not thought of Madison as being anti-semitic too. (But they had a Jewish mayor!!! And some of my best friends are black!!!) but it would seem to tie in with the racism.

Madison sounds like one of those Wisconsin "sundown cities" of the past Like Appleton. I thought those days were over.

I can pass for white if I let my tan fade but should I be scared of being identified as Puerto Rican next time I come to Madison?

John Henry

John henry said...

I thought the police response was fantastic "Derogotory comments" was what they said. No mention of socialist swastikas or that it just randomly happened to Madison Jews.

In other words, the police could not give two shits about some Jewish homes getting vandalized for $10,000 or so. You know how those Jews are. Always whining about something or other.

Sounds like a real sweet town.

John Henry

chickelit said...

No reason to overdo pile drivin', John Henry. You might take sick and die. Then the machine will win.

Mary Beth said...

we don’t know that was specifically targeted to a particular victim

Accurate that it's not a particular victim, but rather a group of them. It's still an obtuse observation.

Dick Stanley said...

"Sooooo ... a vandal randomly attacking houses in Madison (pop. 233K+) just manages to hit the home of the president of the Jewish Federation of Madison, and also the house across the street?...

"People, this isn't random, and it isn't anti-Zionism. It's anti-Semitism, it's virulent, and it's evil."

And it's growing in Europe and in lefty college towns across the U.S.

Dick Stanley said...

Probably also significant that it all occurred on Friday night, the beginning of the Jewish shabbat. Or was that a coincidence too?

ken in tx said...

Check facebook and other social media to see who is bragging and crowing in Madison, especially the local high schools. People who do stupid crimes do other stupid stuff and give themselves away frequently.

Big Mike said...

Anti-Semitism is very popular in academic circles these days. It masquerades as anti-Zionism, but wink-wink, nudge-nudge, they know what they mean we know what they mean.

Not surprising that this attitude would rub off on the local police.

Curious George said...

Cross out "Jew" and spray paint "fag"...then you'll see some action.

Fernandinande said...

Mary Beth said...
"we don’t know that was specifically targeted to a particular victim
Accurate that it's not a particular victim, but rather a group of them. It's still an obtuse observation.


It's really just a lie, with a feeble attempt at distraction. Cops can't help it.

George M. Spencer said...

Speaking of feeble attempts at distraction, Obama's clown-selfie video wins the prize for most bizarre and pathetic Presidential act in history.

What must they be thinking in Moscow, Beijing, and the deserts of Iraq.

n.n said...

Shades of Weimar. I wonder how long before the bubble bursts.

The Godfather said...

I don't know about Europe, but in this country anti-Semiticism has changed in my lifetime from being a sin of the right to a sin of the left. It is bizarre that leftists who demand rights for gays and women also often support Muslim groups that are the worst oppressors of gays and women -- but apparently Muslims are OK because they are even worse toward the Jews.

pm317 said...

Obama and his ilk don't like Israel. The hard left blames Israel for the Palestinian plight. The universities in the US are mostly hard left. Maybe children hear things from their parents that they should not and get influenced, if it is misbehaving children who perpetrated this. Copenhagen murders are in the news.

richard mcenroe said...

Michael Dulak Thompson and Krystallnacht was just a German Mardi Gras or Spring Break...

West Texas Intermediate Crude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
richard mcenroe said...

The man had a photograph of himself taking a selfie of himself having a a photograph of himself taking a selfie of himself having a photograph of himself taking a selfie of himself having a photograph of himself taking a selfie of himself....

West Texas Intermediate Crude said...

Every Jew should have a gun.
And know how to use it.

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?...


The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough.

And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

No excuses this time.
"Never again" is giving way to "Maybe just one more time..."

richard mcenroe said...

The Madison PD seems to have learned its important lessons from Sheriff Dirty Dupnik who let Gabbie Giffords' shooter run around loose for months before the shooting even though they knew he was violent and unbalanced, as a favor for the mother who worked for the Dem county government.

James Pawlak said...

Such acts are "terrorism"
and tyranny as based on "hate" or just plain evil.

Since the police did not protect the People from that tyranny, their solution is "two to the chest and one to the head".

chickelit said...

Interesting comments over at PJmedia: link

Michael K said...

Those Jews keep jumping in front of poor peaceful Muslims just doing a little target practice.

The BDS people only mean to make peace.

Michael K said...

"often support Muslim groups that are the worst oppressors of gays and women -- but apparently Muslims are OK because they are even worse toward the Jews."

No, they are OK because they see how racist and oppressive Amerika is.

Roughcoat said...

What happened in Madison is an early step on a path trod by the 21 Coptic Christians who were brutally murdered by ISIS executioners. That path is well-marked but it remains to be seen whether enough people will see the markers before it's too late. What happened to those Coptic Christians is scheduled for America and the events in Madison are a foretaste of things to come. Open war is upon us and it is time we acted accordingly.

Unknown said...

----Every Jew should have a gun.
And know how to use it.

I have been at the range and seen men with yamulka’s practicing along with me. How I regret that the hatred is gathering for them. I am proud that they are Americans and have the right to defend themselves.

Heartless Aztec said...

This incident completely negates my theory that gravity sucks all the crazies out of the northern part of the US and deposits them in Florida, Texas, and Southern California.

buwaya said...

We have had the privilege, surprisingly often, to attend Jewish services at several temples here in San Francisco. Weddings, funerals, bar and bat mitzvahs. I have noticed over the last 20 years that its become SOP to have one or more quite competent seeming plainclothes guards, or that's what they seem to be, at such services. Very much in the background and easily missed unless one is rather paranoid like I am, but unmistakable when spotted. Fit, well dressed young men hanging around the entrance interacting with no one, alert and watchful.
These days even my wife notices.
I don't know if this is the case at all Jewish temples across the US but I suspect it may be so. The guard killed in Copenhagen may have been one of these.

Unknown said...

Exactly what is the definition of hate crime? And does it have to be directed at a particular individual?

Personally I don't get along with the idea of hate crime, which I consider thought crime. If one gets off on a lighter sentence simply because the state has determined I don't hate you, is that reasonable in any way?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
richard mcenroe said...

Back at the 70's, at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, when the Provos were the de facto government of most of County Armagh and Belfast burned nightly, a British Army officer went on the BBC and solemnly announced, "This is an acceptable level of violence."

richard mcenroe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
eddie willers said...

I don't know about Europe, but in this country anti-Semiticism has changed in my lifetime from being a sin of the right to a sin of the left.

It never was a sin of the right. It's just that you still believed the media back then.

I grew up in the deep South with Southern Baptists and they were quick to tell you that Jesus was a Jew and that they are the chosen people.

If it was good enough for God it was good enough all us.

rcommal said...

What's up with the choice of "while" as the starter word in the third paragraph?

rcommal said...

^

That question is directed to you, Prof A.

Fat Man said...

"Every Jew should have a gun.
And know how to use it."

Pump Action 12 Gauge with a short barrel.

rcommal said...

In case that third paragraph gets changed, here is that third paragraph when I saw it:

"While most of the damage included profane language and explicit drawings, several contained racially-based and anti-Semitic slurs and swastikas. Some of that property damage, located on Brule Circle, has neighbors in the community calling the incident a hate crime."

rcommal said...

most, several, some.

at first i would say define each as words


chickelit said...

@rcommal: "Several" has an improper antecedent.

The thing is that although none of those mistakes would have occurred on your watch as an editor, what exactly is unclear?

This person probably paid good money for her education.

chillblaine said...

The symbology is a little mixed up. The swastikas are drawn at right angles. A neo nazi would probably tilt the swastika. And the KKK / confederate flag symbol doesn't fit. If I were profiling, I would say antisocial vandalism by a sixteen year old boy from a household that overstresses tolerance. Watch this space.

rcommal said...

chickelit: content

rcommal said...

Also, of course, I have made many mistakes (as a person). And while I do have zero problem with saying that in so many ways I was so much more meticulous than most, both in terms of being fact-focused and language focused, I also have zero problem with saying that I made mistakes and that I have been wrong.

But that shouldn't surprise you, chickelit, should it? Because you've been witness to my, many times, stating that I can be wrong.

Right?

rcommal said...

I've never demanded more of others than I have of myself.

You, chickelit, if you are an honest person still, know for a fact that we share acquaintances who--make no mistake about it--have always demanded more of others than they do of themselves.

furious_a said...

Acts of randomsemitism.

rcommal said...

This one's for whomever you think ought be offered it, chickelit:

Wanna cuppa?

rcommal said...

All that distraction aside, I do want to reiterate my original comments, at:

12:23
12:24
12:39
12:45

Deb said...

My passport is current. What's next is what scares me.

Anonymous said...

chillblaine: The symbology is a little mixed up. The swastikas are drawn at right angles. A neo nazi would probably tilt the swastika. And the KKK / confederate flag symbol doesn't fit. If I were profiling, I would say antisocial vandalism by a sixteen year old boy from a household that overstresses tolerance. Watch this space.

That would be my bet, if I had to bet. Or maybe just "bored obnoxious 16-year-old", full stop. KKK? Fishy. Wouldn't leave "hate hoax" off the table, either.

Unknown said...

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James Pawlak said...

Dear Ann:
If my earlier comment was allowed, I do wonder what it takes to be delete. Comment?
Jim Pawlak

tim in vermont said...

That part of town is pretty distant from the University. If I were the cops, I'd be checking the thugs at Memorial HS or Jefferson MS. chicklit

Yeah, because there are lots of better Jewish targets close to the University and the logistics of getting across Madison are quite daunting.

But there is no reason to call this a hate crime. It's a first amendment issue.

Just like that Richard Dawkins fan who killed the three Muslims at Chapel Hill was not motivated by hate. Nosiree!

tim in vermont said...

To be honest though, it could be the work of one paranoid schizophrenic who is picking up on the zeitgeist of hatred of Jews that the left is pushing right now. I had a friend from high school who, a couple of years after he graduated, one day wrote graffiti in on a central overpass in town that lead to his diagnosis as a paranoid schizophrenic. It's not impossible. But people should know that when you push hatred, crazy people are going to pick up on it.

damikesc said...

Good money says some group opposing "hate" did it.

bleh said...

College town?

90% chance it's a hoax

bleh said...

Whatever happened to that professor who vandalized her own car or whatever it was? I wonder if the last ten years have been kind to her. Tenure?

MayBee said...

When something similar happened in my old town, it was a jewish kid and some of his friends. They were just being asshholes. But there was no threat or hate behind it.

Big Mike said...

@Fat Man, you've been paying too much attention to Lonesome Joe Biden. You need a gun that husband or wife can handle, which argues for a black gun with adjustable stock.

tim in vermont said...

But there was no threat or hate behind it.

Oh, there's threat all right, regardless of intentions.

Unknown said...

Nothing about this in the local paper yesterday or today. But there was a story about a stolen purse.

Jason said...

Big Mike: you mean that shoulder thing that goes UP?

President-Mom-Jeans said...

I think someone needs to look into the whereabouts of Bitchtits the night in question.

Crude, barely literate scribblings? Sounds like something a middle school scholar would write.

Perhaps he is taking his Hamas activism to the next level.

Ugly.

richard mcenroe said...

"Crude, barely literate scribblings? Sounds like something a middle school scholar would write."

Have you seen the (nonexistent)level of literacy among college students today?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Probably perpetrated by men, everyone. Let's not lose sight of the real problem here.

Jon Burack said...

"I had not thought of Madison as being anti-semitic too. (But they had a Jewish mayor!!! And some of my best friends are black!!!) but it would seem to tie in with the racism."

Well, this confuses things. Before Paul Soglin became mayor, there was plenty of anti-Semitism directed at the outsider New York Jews who made up a good part of SDS and other anti-war groups. Then the anti-Semitism was from those opposed to Madison's radical left. Today, that is highly unlikely, given that the radical left is often rabidly anti-Israel and in often in bed with Islamist fascism. Whoever did this is quite likely to be in sympathy with these tendencies. It could be mindless vandalism, it could be radical left or Islamist, it could be right-wing skinheads, or it could be a hoax. No matter what, it is anti-Semitism and it is a disgusting cowardice not to name it as such - especially in a town that is usually lusting to find an identity politics label when the identities in question are the right sort.

Mitch H. said...

No reason to overdo pile drivin', John Henry

Funny how all the John Henry ballads we remember are the tragic "wasn't Boxer a hero of the Soviet" sort. I did some research on the subject in another recent context, and noticed that there was a completely divergent tradition of John Henry "work songs" sung by chain-gang and prison workers in the Old South and Appalachia - most of them had the refrain "this old hammer killed John Henry, but it won't kill me". These work songs were an aesop about how working too hard for The Man was a chump's game, and they'd kill you for your sweat if you let 'em.

The tragic ballads survived, because they suited the left-wing union-organizing needs of the folk singers who kept up the tradition. The work songs weren't politically useful, and are dust in the archives.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

Notice the response of the target: "This is anti-Semitic to the extent people feel comfortable equating Jewish people or the Jewish religion with sexual terms and sexual parts of people’s bodies."

In the climate of today's American intelligentsia, he thinks he has to *justify* calling the most blatant kind of Jew-hating (I prefer that term to "anti-Semitism") what it is. And he only partially, qualifiedly, calls it that, giving his enemy a chance to weasel out. ("To the extent" -- as if it's something else to some other extent. What bullshit!) And he can only justify his standing up for himself by analogizing the attack vaguely to sexual harassment. He tries to make his self-defense palatable to the educated community by enlisting feminist language ("feel comfortable"). If only the vandals hadn't used the word "fuck"! Otherwise, how dare he complain?

Anonymous said...

RLC: In the climate of today's American intelligentsia, he thinks he has to *justify* calling the most blatant kind of Jew-hating (I prefer that term to "anti-Semitism") what it is. And he only partially, qualifiedly, calls it that, giving his enemy a chance to weasel out. ("To the extent" -- as if it's something else to some other extent. What bullshit!) And he can only justify his standing up for himself by analogizing the attack vaguely to sexual harassment. He tries to make his self-defense palatable to the educated community by enlisting feminist language ("feel comfortable"). If only the vandals hadn't used the word "fuck"! Otherwise, how dare he complain?

Is that what he's doing? I thought that was a really weird comment, too. Equating one's target with "sexual terms and sexual parts of people’s bodies" is pretty much standard procedure for any attacker against any target. Why the need to parse it out the way he did?

Still leaning toward "hoax", though, this being Madison. Wouldn't be shocked if it were another unstable academic.

Anonymous said...

Given how much Ann loves to post the Nazi Swastika on her blog, I'm a little surprised there aren't any pictures.

Ann Althouse said...

"He tries to make his self-defense palatable to the educated community by enlisting feminist language ("feel comfortable")...."

That sheds some light on the Scott-Walker-and-evolution incident. Remember he was asked if he feels "comfortable" with evolution.

Ann Althouse said...

I put up a new post that looks into the subject of whether people "feel comfortable."

Ann Althouse said...

@madisonfella Are you comfortable being a complete scumbag?

Anonymous said...

@Ann Althouse - Does getting called out on your hypocritical bullshit make you feel uncomfortable?

Cold hard fact: You are constantly posting pictures of a Nazi Swastika. Don't get all pissy when it is pointed out.

Anonymous said...

But yes, I feel very comfortable knowing that an asshole like you thinks I'm a "complete scumbag".

Especially the "complete" part. Applying that qualifying word says more about you than it does about me.

chickelit said...

I don't think "scumbag" comprises "madisonfella"; rather, madisonfella comprises scumbag. The proof is in madisonfella's use of a simile "asshole like you."

In that light, Althouse was just noting that the bag was full and perhaps needed an emptying.

Rusty said...

Whoa! Madison fella is all wound up.
I get the sense he is uncomfortable.

chickelit said...

So I guess this will go down as an unsolved crime.

Madison does that more than people realize.

I could give other examples -- some years old.