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San Luis Obispo police investigating alleged hate crime

July 24, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

The San Luis Obispo Police Department investigated a series of suspicious incidents in downtown locations as possible hate crimes on Wednesday.

In each incident, an adult male is caught on surveillance cameras affixing burned items to doors or draping them across doorway thresholds. The items consist of burned political signs, LBGTQ flags and Ukraine flags.

The signs and flags also had religious statements written on them.

The male did not light the items on fire at the businesses, thus, arson is not suspected.

The police department had a similar report of items left at a business in June of this year on the 900 block of Monterey. The surveillance footage captured during the June incident shows a male subject who appears to be the same person captured on surveillance today.

In both videos, the male is wearing shorts and a T-shirt with a noticeable full white beard.

Investigators are asking anyone with information on the identity of the suspect to contact the on-duty watch commander at (805) 781-7312 and reference case 240724011.

 


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The acronym is actually LGBTQ.


-17

And sadly those letters are the only reason this article exists. The poor old guy went after the most protected species in the current social justice quagmire.


11

Actually, 2022 FBI crime data showed a 14% rise in hate crimes based on sexual orientation and over 30% in crimes based on gender identity. Thus, your comment about “protected species” just doesn’t correspond with facts.


-7

The FBI? You still trust anything the FBI says/does?


6

So if someone comes into my porch and rips off my America flag; in this case, off the public easement onto private property, they can burn my American flag and everyone is ok with it?


-1

Let’s see if SLO PD can catch the one- legged old man spreading religious statement.


1

Where is the crime here? The man in the photo apparently didn’t destroy any property nor injury anyone. It looks like free speech to me. I may not agree with the man’s message, but the man in the photo still has the right to say it. The only crime I could come up with is littering with a hate enhancement.


-6

So stepping off a public easement onto private property and stealing private property, is ok? And if it was an American flag, would you then, be mad? Or Christian cross? Or a Bible quote?


-1

Yellow bellied coward?


3

Unless the businesses wanna charge him with “affixing burned items to doors or draping them across doorway thresholds” there’s no crime here. Possibly a disturbed, ignorant, and likely very lonely individual that needs some therapy; but no criminal.


Wasting valuable police time and money on this is more of a crime imo.


21

Exactly what I was thinking. Where is the crime here? It looks like free speech to me. I may not agree with it, but he still has the right to say it. The only crime I could come up with is littering with a hate enhancement.


0

Destruction of property is a waste of police resources? Isn’t that; their job? To secure ones property and life?


2

What damage? The signs and flags? You have to prove they don’t belong to him…good luck with that. The store front? What he did, was no worse than Saturday night bar trash left behind.


This guy is trying to leave a message, what it could be is anybody’s guess, but he isn’t damaging nor destroying anything.


-1

Actually, they are under no obligation to protect an individual’s life or property.


-4

All religious statement must be investigated, and all hate will be prosecuted in SLO. So don’t write, speak or act outside of the ideals set forth by the city and all will be well.


-1

Pretty mild form of protest.


24

You think destruction of property is legal and a mild form of protest in any regard?


-3

I don’t think it’s a mild form of protest. I know damn well it’s a mild form of protest. He didn’t destroy any property according to the article. He merely placed something that he’d already destroyed over a threshold or taped it to a door. That doesn’t destroy the property that it’s a affixed to. Can you or anybody else prove that he destroyed property that belonged to someone else to engage in this mild form of protest?


0

Who’s the victim of this alleged hate crime?


8

The person in the picture appears to have a prosthetic leg. It should not be too hard to identify this person and talk to him.


23
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