Photo courtesy of Montgomery County Police
Large green swastikas were spray-painted on two speed cameras in Olney and on an entrance sign to the Flower Valley neighborhood in Rockville last week.
All have since been covered or removed.
Montgomery County detectives “are investigating this as related,” said Officer Rick Goodale.
A county police officer was heading east on Olney Laytonsville Road near Headwaters Drive in Olney at 6 a.m. on Aug. 26, when the officer noticed a swastika painted on a county speed camera. Other officers then checked the surrounding area and found a second speed camera that had a similar green swastika painted on it. That camera is on the westbound side of Olney Laytonsville Road just before Spartan Road.
Shortly after that, a resident of Flower Valley contacted police about a swastika on the neighborhood’s entry sign at Norbeck and Westbury roads.
After learning of the vandalism, County Executive Ike Leggett issued a statement, saying “I am again appalled that acts of hate crimes and anti-Semitism have appeared in Montgomery County. This behavior will not be tolerated. I stand with all of our neighbors in Olney and Rockville condemning this activity in the strongest possible terms, and I know our Montgomery County Police Department is doing all it can to find and apprehend those responsible.”
The Flower Valley Citizens’ Association sent out an email blast, calling the incidents “sad to see and upsetting to all.”
On the same day the swastika was found, members of the executive committee covered their sign first with cardboard and then with an orange tarp.
In his email blast, Randy Stone, the association president, wrote that the vandalism “is not representative of our great neighborhood. This is an opportunity for us to stand shoulder to shoulder as a community against this type of hate and vandalism.”
Anyone with information about this vandalism or the suspects involved are asked to call the 4th District Investigative Section at 240-773-5530.
spollak@midatlanticmedia.com
@Suzanne Pollak
