Various properties on University Circle were vandalized Saturday night with vague symbols and messages. The perpetrators of the act and the exact time it was committed are unknown.
The graffiti included a smiley face, as well as allusions to anti-Semitism with a swastika combined with a peace sign. The words “same thing” framed the top and bottom of the swastika-peace sign image.
The phrase, “this is not meant to be rude” was written in between the smiley face and swastika and peace sign.
Fourth-year College student Joseph Huddleston lives in one of the houses which was vandalized — a satellite house of the Delta Psi fraternity, which is also known as St. Anthony Hall.
The smiley face, swastika, peace sign and other messages were spray painted onto the side of the fraternity house.
“We were confused and angry as to why someone would have spray painted our house,” Huddleston said in an email to The Cavalier Daily. “We really did not know what the message was supposed to mean.”
Huddleston said he does not know if an incident like this has occurred in the University Circle community before.
The rental company who owns the house, Management Services Corporation, washed the graffiti off Monday and sent a crew to repaint the wall Tuesday.
A number of trees and pieces of property were also spray painted along the street, including a fence beside the driveway of a house occupied by University students across the street from the Delta Psi fraternity house. The fence had an indistinguishable word starting with the letter F painted on it in purple paint above a crude peace sign.
Next door, a brick column at the end of the walkway leading to the front door of the house had a similarly illegible word scribbled on it in purple paint. Spanish Prof. Fernando Operé and his wife, Anthropology Prof. Carrie Douglass, live at the house.
Operé said his neighbors were more concerned about the graffiti than he and his wife were, but he was still concerned with how the vandalism contributed to rhetoric on immigration and racism.
“It is one thing to do silly things when you’re drunk, and another thing is when you’re believing something we don’t want,” Operé said. “And that is my only concern — that this is not the beginning of something else.”
Henry Crochiere, a third-year College student and President of the Interfraternity Council, was notified of the graffiti on Sunday by Hal Turner, the assistant dean and director of fraternity and sorority life.
Crochiere said this was not the first incident of spray paint vandalism on a fraternity house this semester. However, he called this the most extreme and offensive.
“I didn’t know the extent of it until I saw the picture that [Turner] sent which was honestly pretty perturbing,” Crochiere said. “Most of [these incidents] have generally been just crude depictions of drawings, nothing to the scale of how severe and harsh this was so, I was pretty shocked.”
Crochiere sent an email to the presidents of the IFC chapters notifying them of the incident. He asked them to report any information they had related to the event and to contact the Charlottesville Police Department if a similar incident ever occurred at any of their houses.
Crochiere said the IFC is unable to do much more about the situation because it is in the hands of the Charlottesville Police Department. Residents of the Delta Psi house did contact the police upon discovering the graffiti Sunday. However, according to Lt. Steve Upman, they did not choose to file a police report.
“An officer met with the residents of one of the houses that had been spray painted,” Upman said. “They wanted us to be aware of it. They did not file a police report. The officer followed up the next day with the management company that oversees the property for the owner. They also did not wish to file a police report.”
The police department is not conducting a follow up investigation because an incident report was not filed, Upman said.
University spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn said in an email to The Cavalier Daily that the University is aware of the incident.
“The University is looking into the incident and fully supports the efforts of Charlottesville Police to identify anyone responsible,” de Bruyn said.
De Bruyn also reiterated the University’s opposition to expressions of intolerance or bigotry.
“Although the University does not know the intended meaning or message of the graffiti at this point, the University reaffirms its oft-stated rejection of messages of hate or intimidation that contradict its core value of inclusiveness,” de Bruyn said.
Operé echoed this sentiment, stating the need to preserve the community’s values in the midst of troubling incidents such as these.
Charlottesville is “an idealistic place,” Operé said. “It’s a dream place, and we have to protect it.”
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