Crime & Safety
Anti-Semitic Graffiti Found At Walt Whitman High School In Bethesda
Police officers were dispatched to Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda on Saturday for a report of spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti.
BETHESDA, MD — Bethesda marked the first day of Hanukkah Sunday evening as part of an event that brought residents together in driving out hate from the community.
Crowds joined a Menorah car parade organized and hosted by the Chabad of Bethesda with the Glen Echo Fire Department through Bethesda.
The parade included stops at the Bethesda Trolley Trail, where anti-Semitic graffiti was found last month. The parade also stopped at Walt Whitman High School, where the words “Jews Not Welcome” were found Saturday defacing the school sign.
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Shortly after 8 a.m. on Saturday, Montgomery County Police Department officers were dispatched to Walt Whitman High School for the report of anti-Semitic graffiti spray-painted on the school’s sign board.
Police said the case has been assigned to an investigator, who is working to obtain any images of possible suspects. There is currently no suspect in custody, police said.
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Acts of hate and bigotry are on the rise across the country and in Montgomery County, the police department said.
Police are also investigating anti-Semitic graffiti that was found along the Bethesda Trolley Trail in Montgomery County on Nov. 14. Along the trail in the Wildwood neighborhood, vandals used red paint to draw three people hanging from a noose with the words, “No Mercy for Jews.”
The department said it is coordinating with the Anti-Defamation League on addressing the act of anti-Semitic vandalism and investigating the incidents. Officers are also increasing patrols to include community centers, schools and places of worship throughout the county, police said.
Earlier this month, the police department also released video of a group of suspects in the Nov. 25 burglary of the historic Scotland African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Potomac. Montgomery County Police said the suspects forced their way into the church, vandalized property and left the scene.
Montgomery County residents can find information about reporting a hate crime on the police department’s website.
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