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Two men charged in spray-painting incidents

Racial slur, profanity written on school bus, vehicles
October 20, 2017

Two men face charges in connection with vandalism in the Lewes area that included several Cape Henlopen school buses.

A school employee first noticed a bus spray-painted with profanity and a racial slur on Oct. 16 at the district bus lot off Kings Highway, and the employee immediately contacted police, said Master Cpl. Gary Fournier of the Delaware State Police.

Superintendent Robert Fulton said several buses were vandalized, one with a racial slur and profanity.

“Although this incident did not involve any Cape Henlopen School District students, it is still a reminder to us that we must remain focused in our efforts to provide an inclusive culture in our schools and promote tolerance and acceptance for all,” he said.

Police received additional calls throughout the morning Oct. 16 about vandalism behind Midway Movie Theater, Boulevard Ford and Heritage Village. Fournier said spray-painting included a forklift and mobile office trailer at Midway, five vehicles at Boulevard Ford and a privately owned vehicle in Heritage Village on Bethpage Drive. The forklift, two cars at Boulevard Ford and the privately owned vehicle were spray-painted with racial slurs. All the other objects were spray-painted with vulgar words, he said.

In order for the spray-painting to be considered a hate crime, Fournier said, a specific person would have to be targeted. Police do not comment on the ethnicity of victims, but if the victim was a minority, a hate-crime charge would have applied, he said.

In August, a car owned by an African-American woman in Wilmington was spray-painted with a swastika and other profanity. Wilmington police investigated the incident as a hate crime.

Hate-crime statistics

In the latest data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 11 incidents of hate crime were reported in Delaware in 2015. In the First State, 60 agencies report hate-crime data to the FBI annually.

Of those 11 incidents, two were related to religion, occurred in Sussex County and were handled by state police; all other reported crimes were related to race or ethnicity.

Of the reported incidents, two were assault, four were intimidation, one was robbery and four were considered destruction/damage/vandalism. The hate crimes occurred in Laurel, Milford, Milton, Wilmington, unspecified locations in New Castle County and Sussex County, and one incident was reported by a park ranger.

Nationally, 5,850 hate crimes were reported in 2015.

The following United States territories reported fewer incidents of hate crime than Delaware in 2015: Mississippi, 0; U.S. Virgin Islands, 0; Guam, 1; Wyoming, 2; Arkansas, 5; Iowa, 6; Alaska, 8; Vermont, 8; and Alabama, 10.

For more FBI hate-crime statistics, go to ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime.

Carl Kanefsky, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said hate crimes are not separate offenses in Delaware, but Delaware law imposes greater punishment for criminal conduct if that conduct meets certain hate-crime criteria – also known as an aggravator. Under Delaware law, Kanefsky said, the aggravator may be applied to an underlying charge if the perpetrator selects the victim because of the victim's race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or ancestry.

“The victims in this case were the owners of the targeted property (bus, vehicles, movie theater) and were not selected based on any of the protected categories,” he said.

Fournier said police used surveillance images of a white Buick passenger car that was connected to Zachary J. Baughman, 19, of Lincoln and a passenger, Steven T. Swain, 22, of Harrington. The two were stopped by Lewes Police Department at 1:50 a.m. Oct. 16. Lewes Police Chief Thomas Spell said Baughman was charged with driving under the influence; Swain was not charged and he was released with the vehicle.

Delaware State Police later contacted Baughman and Swain at their residences and the two men were charged with five counts of graffiti and five counts of third-degree conspiracy – all misdemeanor charges. They were arraigned at Justice of the Peace Court 2 and released on $10,000 unsecured bond.

In Delaware, specific target designates hate crimes
By Maddy Lauria

For an incident to be charged as a hate crime in Delaware, a victim must be targeted specifically because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or for other discriminatory reasons.

That's why, according to Delaware State Police spokesman Master Cpl. Gary Fournier, profanities spray-painted on a Cape Henlopen School District bus and other similar incidents of vandalism are not being investigated as hate crimes.

Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf said he agrees with that decision.

“The bottom line is it's one thing to say a word in the middle of the night to a shadow, to nobody,” he said. “It doesn't have the same meaning if you're saying it to the face of somebody offended by it.”

Schwartzkopf said a hate-crime designation triggers a stronger penalty to the underlying offense, similar to enhanced punishment for crimes committed against seniors.

“The whole purpose is to put an enhanced penalty,” he said. “I think it's a case of two knuckleheads riding around drinking, trying to find something to do. I don't know if they intended to do it when they started out, or thought of it while they were riding around. It's really very stupid.”

Schwartzkopf said he agrees with the Delaware State Police's decision not to call the crimes hate crimes.

“This particular case does not qualify under the law,” he said. “In this particular case, they painted a school bus. Nothing in the language they painted identified any target or anything other than a part of our society. No individual was targeted.”

Kathleen MacRae, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, said labeling an incident a hate crime is a very serious accusation.

“Are we concerned about the cultural atmosphere right now that is even maybe encouraging this sort of behavior right now? Yes, we're very concerned about that,” she said. “Communities are not taking a serious conversation about race seriously enough. That I would like to see us do in response to situations like this.”

MacRae said she had no comment on whether Delaware's hate-crime laws, which specify that an individual must be targeted, are sufficient.

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