The “anti-religious” messages carved into several parked cars outside an apartment complex on the University of California Davis campus on Saturday turn out to have been swastikas.
CBS Sacramento interviewed Matthew Davidson, who had taken a picture of one swastika accompanied by “F*** Jews” keyed into its hood. He said, “It’s just shocking for me as a Jew to see such hatefulness right outside my doorstep.”
Wendy Hwon told CBS that her roommate’s life was endangered; she drove on the freeway unaware that her tire had been slashed. She added, “It jeopardized her life. She was on the freeway and her car in danger, and everyone in the car in danger.”
A witness gave campus police vague description of the suspect; the campus police interviewed members of the apartment complex to glean information about the case.
The Jewish Press reported that UC Davis chancellor Linda Katehi issued a statement:
I am deeply troubled and disappointed that the campus community has experienced another incident that included damaged property and, even more grievously, offensive and disparaging slurs. This is conduct most unbecoming and completely against our principles of community…each of us has a responsibility to build and maintain a culture and climate based on mutual respect and caring. No matter what religious, political or personal beliefs we hold, as members of a university community we have an obligation to treat each other with respect and dignity.
In January, the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi at UC Davis found red swastikas spray-painted on its building; that followed the October 2014 incident in which the same fraternity at Emory University in Atlanta was painted with swastikas just after the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
Photo: File