Police in Palo Alto are investigating racist graffiti on a park playground as a hate crime, the police department said Friday.
At about 6:40 p.m. Thursday, police received a report of racial epithets written with a marker on a play structure at Pardee Park, 851 Center Drive, police said.
The reporting party, a passerby, told officers he saw the racist graffiti on the play structure but did not see any suspects, police said. The racial epithets were directed at Black people.
It was not clear when the vandalism occurred, but Park Services and Public Works staff removed the graffiti shortly after it was reported, police said.
Police had no suspect information but do not believe there is any connection with previous hate crime graffiti cases.
Anyone with information about the incident should call Palo Alto PD's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.
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