Los Angeles police are trying to find a person seen on video defacing a mosque in Koreatown with “anti-Islamic hate phrases” on Sunday, authorities stated.
Surveillance digital camera footage exhibits the suspect utilizing a everlasting marker to write down on the Islamic Heart of Southern California, a mosque and cultural heart on Vermont Avenue, about 12:40 a.m., in keeping with the Los Angeles Police Division.
Los Angeles police launched this surveillance picture of a person suspected of defacing the Islamic Heart of Southern California on Vermont Avenue.
(LAPD)
Police launched a photograph of the person, who’s believed to be in his 40s, round 5 ft 9 and about 180 kilos. He was sporting a black beanie, black shirt, black shorts, black pants and black sneakers.
The person was final seen fleeing north on Vermont Avenue.
“That is an appalling act of vandalism focusing on the middle the place harmless people collect for his or her each day non secular observances,” the Islamic Heart of Southern California stated in a press release, including that the group was “deeply saddened and disturbed.”
The vandalism occurred throughout Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, which started in late March. Muslims carry out each day prayers and chorus from consuming or consuming from shortly earlier than dawn till sundown throughout the month to be able to carry them nearer to God.
At a Monday afternoon information convention on the Islamic Heart, LAPD Chief Michel Moore condemned the act, which he stated is being investigated as felony vandalism.
“There are people on the market, as I stated, which are making an attempt to tug us aside,” he stated.
Police Chief Michel Moore, heart, arrives for a press convention on Monday at The Islamic Heart of Southern California in Koreatown, which was vandalized early on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
Law enforcement officials are working with neighboring companies and homeless residents to determine the suspect, who based mostly on restricted data is believed to be an unhoused individual within the space, Moore stated. With Ramadan, Passover and Easter all coinciding, the LAPD has additionally deployed further sources to patrol homes of worship.
Omar Ricci, spokesman for the Islamic Heart, famous that an imam in New Jersey was stabbed throughout Sunday prayers at a mosque. He additionally famous an Israeli police raid on Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem final week.
“All of this has come collectively and it brought about actually numerous ache for us as a group,” he stated.
Hate crimes in Los Angeles County have been on the rise, surging to their highest stage in almost twenty years, in keeping with the latest annual report by the county’s Fee on Human Relations.
There have been 786 victims of hate crimes in 2021, a rise of 23% since 2020 and essentially the most since 2002, in keeping with the report launched in December. Greater than half of the crimes had been motivated by racism.
Hate crimes motivated by faith went up by 29%, from 86 in 2020 to 111 in 2021, and made up 14% of all hate crimes. Incidents in opposition to Muslims, Jews, Christians and Scientologists all rose.
Los Angeles as a metropolis has seen a slight lower in reported hate crimes this yr in contrast with the identical interval in 2022, Moore stated Monday. The town is on tempo for a 19% lower from 2022 to 2023.
“It’s a glimmer of hope, nevertheless it’s additionally one we must always acknowledge and use as momentum,” Moore stated. “We don’t have to just accept the established order.”
