New Hampshire GOP HQ Vandalized, 'NAZIS' Spray Painted on Wall

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wednesday evening the New Hampshire Republican Party Headquarters in Concord was vandalized, and the word “Nazis” was spray-painted onto the side of the building, with a heart around it.

“The staff showed up at 8:30 this morning for work to open up the office and noticed the side of the building had been spray-painted with the word Nazis and a big heart around it,” Senior Adviser to the New Hampshire GOP Patrick Hynes told Breitbart News.

Hynes said a first-floor window had been shattered from the outside and staffers noticed a rock had been thrown through the window of the building located on Water Street. Glass was reportedly sprawled all over the floor.

Hynes told Breitbart News about the incident:

It’s infuriating. But we take heart in the fact that we know these are fringe and marginal political elements that are engaged in this kind of vandalism. We don’t support Nazis. The very thought that we would is one, absurd, and two, offensive to some of the great remaining, living Granite Staters who fought in World War II against Nazis.

The vandalism appeared days after a Charlottesville, Virginia rally that turned violent. One woman, Heather Heyer, 32, lost her life when a vehicle driven by a neo-Nazi rammed into a crowd of protesters.

Trump told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that “both sides” were to blame for the violence and suggested there were both good and bad people on both sides of the protest — which was organized by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups and counter protested by anti-fascist and anti-Trump groups.

In a press release issued Thursday, the Concord Police Department wrote, “Concord Police officers and detectives are conducting an investigation into this incident in an effort to identify who may be responsible. The symbolism contained within this act of vandalism is of particular concern to law enforcement and is considered intolerable within our community.”

Hynes said, “Obviously, we love the Concord Police Department. They do excellent work, but they were very forthright in pointing out that these types of crimes rarely get solved.”

Speaking with Breitbart News by phone on Thursday, Concord Police Lieutenant Sean Ford said, We haven’t seen something like this in a number of years. We’re investigating it as an act of vandalism.”

He added that use of the word “Nazi” was “a lightning rod to us so we are looking into who may be responsible for that.” Ford noted, “We have no suspects at this time,” but that “We have several detectives looking into it and hopefully looking to see if we can identify a suspect.”

Ford said the word “Nazi’ is associated with violence and has strong ties to antisemitism,” adding that because of the use of the phrase, “We are looking into it seriously. It’s being looked at more than a normal complaint.” The Concord Police Department typically receives about 30-40 complaints about acts of vandalism per week.

Ford said the last time something of this nature occurred it was a few years ago, when swastikas were painted onto a church. Prior to that, in 2011, a man named Raymond “Raynard” Stevens wrote “derogatory comments about new Americans who arrived here and were seeking a new life here,” Ford said.

Stevens spray-painted hateful words about four African refugee families who were living in the South End of New Hampshire, onto the side of a house they were living in. “We can not coexist with third world scum,” Stevens wrote. “The primitive beasts like those in this house are to blame for the crimes were now suffer. Love your legals, deport the rest.”

After two years of meticulous detective work, Stevens was arrested. He was sentenced to one year in jail after he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, which is reportedly “a special felony because his conduct is considered a hate crime.”

Despite the hateful act, Hynes told Breitbart News he’s staying positive.

“We know, for example, that three-quarters of Granite Staters feel that New Hampshire is heading in the right direction under Republican leadership and policies,” Hynes told Breitbart News. “We have a Republican governor who is at 62 percent and very popular. So the people who are attacking the Republican party are in the extreme minority and are marginal elements.”

On Thursday, New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu told WMUR, “it is certainly disturbing and very sad to see vandalism with such hateful rhetoric. There is no place for that in our politics or society.”