Vigil to combat hate held at Opechee Park

LACONIA — Members of the Laconia Police Department, Human Relations Committee, the Jewish community, and citizens from around the Lakes Region gathered Sunday for an anti-hate vigil at Opechee Park. 

Last week, several trees and a pair of benches in the park were vandalized with red and black spray paint. Among the crude renderings of faces, genitals and words were swastikas, the symbol of Nazi Germany and white supremacy. The source of the crudely painted and carved hate symbols remains to be seen, but for Humans Relations Committee Chair David Stamps, the intent doesn’t matter.

“There isn’t a middle ground when it comes to this type of hate,” Stamps said. “I think that’s the message we’re trying to get out and did successfully."

A similar incident occurred earlier at the Laconia Public Library, but went unreported. Instead, the library simply washed away the graffiti without contacting the police, something with which Stamps didn’t necessarily agree.

“It occurs to me that if the library had brought this stuff to the attention of the police, we might not have had a second incident,” Stamps said. The vandals “felt empowered that nobody said or did anything publicly. We’re not going to change some people's hearts or minds, but we can at least let them know they’re not welcome in Laconia.”

John Moriarty, chair of the library board of trustees, said the library has suffered three vandalism incidents this year. Only one of them included Nazi imagery.

“I was at the vigil yesterday. I was speaking with people and I got the impression that there were more recent events at the library that included a swastika. The most recent event at the library with a swastika was back in February,” Moriarty said. “Instead of outside it was inside, instead of spray paint it was actually a carving of a swastika on an inset bookshelf inside the teen section of the library.”

Moriarty stated the library did not file a police report regarding the carved swastika, but instead filed an internal memo to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior and attempt to locate the person responsible. 

One of the swastikas at Opechee Park was also carved and not painted. The other two incidents at the library were discovered Aug. 31 and Sept. 16 in Gail Park just outside. The August incident included spray-painted genitals. The library washed it off. The second incident of graffiti, this time harsh words against the Laconia Police Department, appeared in September. This vandalism also was washed off. 

“You don't want to call attention to it, encourage it," Moriarty said. "One defacing can entice other perpetrators to do similar bad kinds of things. We just want to stop that immediately.”

For Stamps, the Nazi imagery was just another sign of increased political division in the country. 

“We had a heads-up that hard-right activity had been increasing,” Stamps said. “Ira Keltz, president of the synagogue, first alerted us to the problems they were having in Franklin at the end of the summer. [A restaurant owner] was being bombarded with people walking in and out of her business with guns on and that sort of thing.” 

Stamps also pointed out recent normalization and incorporation of hate groups and extremism into mainstream politics. 

"One of the most shocking things about Charlottesville [South Carolina] was when the president stood up and said there were good people on both sides,” Stamps said. “That's what they said back when they were hanging negroes.”

Despite the existence of what he called “an active hate group” in the area, Stamps was proud of the vigil’s turnout and felt the show of solidarity was a success.

“That was quite an impressive group that turned out Sunday, and we’ll just wait and see,” Stamps said. “It’s ironic, when I closed, the Ken Burns documentary drove it home. Evil flourishes when good people do nothing, and I think that's the basis of where we are.”

Laconia Police Chief Mathew Canfield called the vigil a “proud moment for the city.”

“It was a very strong show of support to denounce hate, in particular hate crimes,” Canfield said, adding that, with the exception of the vandalism, the city has not experienced any recent surges in hate crimes. “The Laconia Human Relations Committee did a great job putting the vigil together and voicing a united concern and presenting a united front for Laconia.”