Royal Oak Fights White Supremacy, Hate Messages

ROYAL OAK, MI — When a troubled young man defiled seven homes with swastikas and the phrase “white power” Sunday, it wasn’t the first time that sentiments of hate and prejudice had been delivered in Royal Oak in recent months. Last November, a group of Royal Oak Middle School students made national headlines by chanting “Build a Wall” the day after Donald Trump was elected president.

While community leaders and activists are quick to point out that the incidents aren’t representative of Royal Oak as a community, a local expert says hate incidents in Metro Detroit and across the nation have risen sharply in the last two years — including a whopping 86 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the first quarter of 2017.

“We’ve seen a major increase in these kinds of incidents since 2016,” said Michigan Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League Heidi Budaj. “We use to get two to three calls per month where the Anti-Defamation League got involved. Now we’re getting an average of two calls per day.”

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Red spray paint was used in the Royal Oak graffiti on garages, fences and a tree. The homes are located east of Woodward Avenue and north of 11 Mile Road Road.

Police Chief Corrigan O’Donohue said tracking down the suspect in the case wasn’t difficult. The decision not to charge the man, who he would only describe as an Asian-American in his early 20s, was much more arduous.

O’Donohue said the man has a drug-related criminal history and that he was known to the department prior to Sunday’s incident. He said the young man admitted to spray painting the homes, but his reasons for doing so were extremely muddled by what he believes are deep psychological problems.

“He doesn’t have a thought process that normal people do,” O’Donohue said. He said the homes that were vandalized were picked at random and that none of the victims felt they were targeted. “This was a cry for help. We believe that. Ultimately, we felt the right thing to do was get him and his family the help they need.”

Healing was also on the mind of community activist Carmen Wargel. She organized a march Wednesday afternoon, “Together For One Royal Oak." About 150 people marched from St. John’s Episcopal Church at Woodward Avenue and 11 Mile Road to city hall.

“We wanted to send a loud, fast and clear message that hate has no home here in Royal Oak,” said Wargel. “We had so many people honking for us and cheering us on. We had old school activists singing civil rights songs. We had millennial marchers doing chants. It was a great family event and everybody was so supportive.”

The Rev. Beth Taylor gave an opening message to marchers at St. John’s. Mayor Pro Tem Sharlan Douglas and Wargel were among those that spoke near city hall.

“We love Royal Oak and we don’t want anyone bringing white supremacy messages into this community,” Wargel said. “We want people who live in this community to know that we will always stand against white supremacy. We have their backs. Hate has no home here. We’re going to do that with our words and our deeds.”

The fact that the suspect in the case is an Asian-American didn’t matter to Wargel and her group.

“Our message is really about that the signs and slogans have meaning to people and when those are up, that meaning is harmful,” she said. “We have to respond to people that are hurting and harmed.”

Wargel said her group supports the police department’s decision not to prosecute.

“We want everyone to be treated with the kind of compassion that happened in the case,” she said. “We want everyone made whole.”

Budaj said shining a light on incidents of hate and discrimination is one of the best ways to combat them. Unlike years past when white supremacist groups would demonstrate with skinned heads and black military boots, today’s hate groups are more subtle in their approaches.

Now, Budaj said, the fringe far-right where khaki pants and button-down shirts. They’re also busy recruiting on college campuses like Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University. The ADL was recently alerted to their presence by recruitment flyers passed around on the campuses.

“They’ve made some major changes in their tactics and it’s very deliberate,” Budaj said. “It has also proven to be more successful.”

Statistics seem to buttress her argument. The number of anti-Semitic incidents rose 34 percent from 2015 to 2016.

“White nationals feel empowered,” Budaj said. “We’re in a political and social environment where it’s more acceptable than before.”

Submitted photo