Granite Bay residents reject graffiti's racist, sexual message, take a stand for tolerance

The crude graffiti revealed itself more than a week ago in Granite Bay, an upscale Placer County community known for its showcase homes and residents who are not only well-heeled but well-behaved.

Nancy Tipton may have been the first to spot the spray-painted mess – some of it racist, some of it sexual, all of it juvenile.

She awoke early a week ago Sunday and cringed at the sight of it on her way to the gym. Some was apparently directed toward a Laotian man who has operated a strawberry stand for 14 years.

Since then, Tipton and others have been trying to figure out how to respond. And while residents consider the best way to right a wrong, both local police and federal investigators are measuring their own response.

Residents expressed concern that overreacting might be exactly what the graffiti tagger was after. Yet to ignore it seemed wrong. And it was too fresh and ugly to move on.

Several residents decided to counter the graffiti with signs of their own. That same day they began putting up blue and white placards that stated, "This community chooses tolerance."

But the message of hope isn't going to make the felony criminal investigation go away. There may also be federal hate crime charges coming. Among the messages were "whites only" outside a park, a Star of David with an X through it, and the N-word.

"We take it very seriously. It can be seen as a hate crime," said Sgt. Brian Whigam of the Placer County Sheriff's Department.

He said graffiti that causes $400 or more of damage is a felony, and "this is well over $400." The sergeant noted that a U.S. Department of Justice task force on hate crimes has inquired about the case.

The county signs that were tagged have been replaced, and local residents donated money for paint to cover the rest of the damage. But many are unwilling to gloss over what happened.

"They painted over it quickly, but that was good and bad," said Tipton. "I wanted a lot of people to see it so they could get angry."

Residents have reached out to Saeng Zeux, the strawberry vendor who moved to the United States from Laos in 1980 and has been running the strawberry stand at the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Barton Road since 1994.

"I was crushed. That's his livelihood. He's a fixture in our community," said Granite Bay resident Lisa Milburn. "For someone to target him – he works so hard and he's so nice – it was just so wrong."

Though police have no leads, Milburn and others are hoping someone will come forward who knows about the graffiti.

And what would she say to the perpetrators?

" 'What are you thinking and where are your parents?' Then I would make them do some harsh community service," Milburn said. "I'm a big proponent that the punishment should suit their actions. It should be tough so they would understand what they have done."

Until then, the new, professionally produced signs will serve as a message, said Susan Moss.

"Usually I get very angry when I hear about things like that. This time, I felt so disheartened that it seemed to suck the life force out of me. It was so close to home and it was obvious it was done by kids – and I work with kids," said Moss, owner of Brainiacs, a learning clinic that caters to nontraditional learners.

"I thought quite a bit about what we should do and talked to a few people," she added. "I didn't want to reward the kids by drawing attention to it in such a way that inflamed it and made them feel like heroes. I thought we needed to make some kind of statement in a positive way."

Despite Granite Bay's reputation as a community where residents can escape the kind of crime and discord that is common elsewhere, Moss said, "My experience here has not been so pristine." She has a friend, a 60-year-old African American woman, who has been shouted at by passing motorists while out walking, told to go home – when her home is a few blocks away.

Moss has lived in New York and Tucson, Ariz., and "here, there's a lot more homogeneity. People don't realize this is not reality here. You go outside of Granite Bay, and you will see a ton of diversity."

As for Zeux, he was back selling strawberries Sunday. Several people stopped by to say hello and voice their support. He likes to think the sentiments in the graffiti come from somewhere else, a far-off place perhaps.

"I feel very bad, but I don't think it's from people from around here. There are nice people up here.

"Some people are dropping by and saying how sorry they are this thing happened," said Zeux, who also works for Sacramento City Unified School District as a bilingual teacher's assistant.

"They sprayed 'white power' on my stand," he added. "What does that mean?"

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