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Police investigating racist graffiti at eastern Iowa church

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May 4th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — Police in an eastern Iowa city are investigating racist graffiti that was left on a bus belonging to a predominantly black church congregation. Senior Pastor Jerry Drake of Bethel AME Church in Clinton told the Clinton Herald that he found the graffiti April 27 on a door of the bus and on the seats inside. He says the discovery of what he called a hate crime has made the church members more cautious.

Clinton Police Capt. Steven Kopp told The Associated Press on Friday that the church building wasn’t the only structure in the area vandalized with racist language or neo-Nazi messages.
Kopp says there have been no arrests so far. He says officers interviewed one person who admitted several of the acts of vandalism, “but the church vandalism wasn’t one of them.”