Various areas and buildings in downtown Columbus, including a church and the Cummins Inc. Corporate Office Building, were defaced with a stenciled logo and web address promoting a Texas-based white supremacy group.
The Columbus Police Department is investigating the incident, said spokesman Lt. Matt Harris. He said he hoped to have details by Monday after gathering information from several officers. The city has had surveillance cameras in the downtown area since 2014.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) both classify the group named in the stencils, Patriot Front, as a hate group.
The church, First Presbyterian at 512 Seventh St., and Cummins both have long been outspoken about racial equality issues, including in the past week.
First Presbyterian had multiple windows and banners defaced while at least eight different spots were marked on the Cummins world headquarters.
Graffiti was also found in the Friendship Alley between Fourth and Fifth streets downtown and on the parking garage on Jackson Street. Downtown business owners said they noticed the graffiti as early as 8 a.m., and that some of the images had already been covered up by 2 p.m.
Confederate flags were also placed along 11th and Washington streets on Saturday in Columbus.
Major national, investigative media such as propublica.org have called Reclaim America “the most active white supremacist group in the nation.”
Patriot Front formed in the aftermath of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, 2017, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The organization broke off from Vanguard America, a neo-Nazi group that participated in the deadly demonstration. Patriot Front founder, Thomas Rousseau, led Vanguard America members during “Unite the Right,” including James Alex Fields, Jr., the man accused of murdering anti-racist protester Heather Heyer after fatally driving his vehicle into a crowd of protesters, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Columbus Police Chief Michael Richardson briefed Mayor Jim Lienhoop on the incidents Saturday. Lienhoop texted a statement, saying ” … (Patriot Front) have no place in Columbus. We want to be a welcoming community and are disheartened to see this kind of behavior.”
Pastor Felipe Martinez of First Presbyterian said he purposely blurred the group’s name in Facebook posts over the affixed vandalism for a specific reason.
“They’re not getting publicity from my dime,” Martinez said.
The stenciled images or dark spray paint were found in several exterior locations at the church, including on windows displaying the LGBTQ pride flag and the transgender flag. He said his Easter message prepared for today offers a solid response to such actions.
“God does not let death or hate have the last word,” Martinez said. “Easter proves that for us. … We are an Easter people, and we will not be intimidated by violent and sinful displays of hate.”
This marks the second time since October 2017 that a group linked to white supremacists has left a mark on the city.
In the last instance, an organization called Midwestern Alliance distributed posters at public locations in Columbus in support of its goal to establish a white ethnic state in Midwestern states. Its posters said the group was looking for young Midwestern patriots.
Pastor Johnnie Edwards, president of the Columbus/Bartholomew County Area Chapter of the NAACP and also a member of the local African American Pastors Alliance, saw the Confederate flags Saturday afternoon and was saddened and angered.
He doesn’t buy what some local residents said when such flags were initially flown years ago by a small group at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair in 2006: that many people are unaware of the meaning of the banner that represented the Confederate army and slavery in the Civil War.
“C’mon, it’s in our history books,” Edwards said. “If people ever have seen videos where people have been attacked or lynched, they have seen the rebel flags.”
Edwards has spent much of his nine months as NAACP president decrying racial division nationally, regionally and occasionally locally. He acknowledged the task can be wearying.
“I get tired of continually having to explain how not to be racist,” Edwards said.
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If you have information about those who defaced the downtown buildings, Columbus Police Department has a tip line, where tips may be left anonymously, at 812-376-2619 or at the department’s mobile app at -p3tips.
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