Anti-McCain graffiti sprayed at Virginia Oaks
{Photo submitted by Conrad Holtslag}
Graffiti was painted overnight Saturday on the garage of a home whose front lawn had a McCain-Palin sign in the Virginia Oaks community of Gainesville.
Vandals hit the Virginia Oaks neighborhood in Gainesville early Saturday, spray-painting anti-McCain profanity on several homes, a church and five businesses in a nearby shopping center.
Prince William County police got the first call at 3:56 a.m. and several more throughout the morning hours until 12:58 p.m. as residents and businesses discovered the graffiti, said Officer Erika Hernandez, Prince William police spokeswoman.
Many of the homes vandalized in the golf community at Lake Manassas had McCain-Palin signs in the front yard, residents said.
While police are estimating the number of homes hit at about 14, detectives and officers were still out canvassing the area Saturday afternoon and that number could go higher,
Hernandez said. Virginia Oaks residents say up to 25 homes were
vandalized.
"These cowards did this while everyone was sleeping," said Conrad Holtslag, a John McCain sup-porter who lives in Virginia Oaks.
"It is Third World activity, so to speak, to go onto private property and try to intimidate people to change their political persuasion," he said. "One woman told me that she is going to take her McCain sign out of her yard because of this. It's crazy."
Most of the homes, garages and utility boxes were scrawled in red and black with "F—k McCain," but there were also several homes hit with "666," "Hail Satan" followed by "See What Happens."
Virginia Oaks Association President Andy Britton said he learned about the vandalism at about 10 a.m. He and other association members quickly began cleaning away the graffiti.
"It takes a bit of elbow grease but it comes off," Britton said. "My thought was that you clean it up as quickly as possible to remove the incentive."
The spray-painted profanity has been erased from the sign at the front entrance to the community off U.S. 29 and from many of the houses until the rain hampered some residents' efforts. "It seems to have been one of those senseless Friday night pranks," Britton said.
Britton said there was no pattern that he could see to why some houses were hit and some were not. While there are McCain-Palin signs in some residents' yards, those houses were not always the ones chosen.
"It seemed very random," Britton said. "We couldn't tell what got hit for what rea-son." However, he said he noticed damage was only done to houses on streets with easy access in and out of the neighborhood.
Streets in the neighborhood where the vandalism occurred were Glenkirk Road, Clubhouse Road, Sterling Pointe Road, Narrow Branch Court, Tenbrook Drive and Royal Sidney Drive. Additionally, the United Pentecostal Church on Glenkirk Road was also hit, Hernandez said.
Holtzlag said that McCain signs have been repeatedly stolen from yards in Virginia Oaks in recent weeks but noth-ing was done about it except to replace the signs. He sees the spray painting as an escalation of the attempts to in-timidate residents.
Holtzlag also said that with Halloween and the usual pranks associated with it coming on the heels of the vandalism, his community will be on alert for trouble. "We'll be ready this time," he said.
Vandals also struck the nearby Virginia Gateway shopping center off U.S. 29, spray-painting outside Giant, Target, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Burger King and Best Buy with similar sentiments, Hernandez said.
The vandalism comes a little more than a week before the Nov. 4 presidential election pitting Democrat Barack Obama against Republican McCain. Traditionally Republican-leaning Virginia is considered a battleground state this year.
Last weekend, McCain rallied in Prince William County.
Police encourage anyone with information about the vandalism to call their anonymous tip line: 1-866-411-TIPS. Anyone providing information that leads to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.
Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached at 703-878-8010. Communities editor Kari Pugh contributed to this story.
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Reader Reactions
—Arent you stereotyping the teens in the area?—
Spanky, if the “artists” are NOT teens then we have another sort of problem. But either way, the manner in which adults are responding to the election is unacceptable.
To MLB1:
On the issue of people making $250 k and up. I am a partner in a small bysiness in Charlottesville. We currently emplyee 6 people. We also have 4 company vehicles, 1500 square feet of office space and top of that we have insurance (very expensive) we have to gas in our vehicles etc. etc. Our company has health benefits and profit sharing. We have been in business for 4 years.
My problem with Obama is that when he says he only wants to raise taxes on people who make $250k do you know who is talking about? Me! Now if you think that I make 250K per year you have fallen off your rocker.
Obama’s dirty little secret is that because I have ownership status he is taxing me on the gross revenues of the company. Out of the 1 million dollars of gross revs of the company we have to pay for all of those things that I mentioned earlier.
For instance let’s I sell widgets. Although I’m not telling you what I sell, I will use accurate numbers. One of my widgets sells for $20,000 out of that I have to pay the manufacturer for my dealer cost around $17,000. The difference of $3000 is my gross profit. Now from that I have to pay my sales guy 33% commission which is standard in my industry. So I have to take out another $990. Now I am at $2010. From that I have payroll for my technicians, and all of those other monthly costs I mentioned before (amortized) over the thirty day month. I have to pay state sales tax on the sale above, I have to set aside for Federal tax, I have to set aside money for the training classes my techs need to saty certified an on an on and on. Any guess what I am left with? If we run the company tight and make good decisions maybe $300. We try to save that from every sale to invest back into the business.
Long explanation but the bottom line is I make $65,000 per year and Obama is going to tax me as if I make $250,000 just because my company makes that kind of revenue. This will prevent me from hiring someone or keeping my current techs trained or something else.
The only small businesses out there making less than $250,000 per year. Maybe a guy who cuts lawns for a living or an Amway distributor. The fact is that most small companies make more than the 250. Check the Small Business Administrations website.
I make a good living and if I continue to grow mw little company I may just reach that personal income level of $250,000 per year. But if Obama is elected it will slow or stop the growth of my business. And for what because he thinks that it is the governments job to lift people up from the botttom while pulling the ones down from the top.
cville you should be a psychiatrist. All this time I was harboring my hate for Bush and it came out in my previous statement. Thanks for helping me check that at the door. I’ll have to check the tone of my comments.
I was taught to learn from my mistakes so please help me understand why I should vote for McCain when he aligns himself with the administration that I dislike?
The only people I know who make over $250k are VPs of my company so the spreading the wealth around through tax relief for lower income families doesn’t move to vote against Obama.
Accepting money from foreign countries? Is that a negative or positive? I wish Iraq would donate some money back.
Arent you stereotyping the teens in the area?. its a very small group that probably did this..Most kids around here are good kids trying to find themselves and get through school.
Id say it was the sore loser type and the media as opposed to blaming society and parents
You what’s really sad? It’s what this incident says about our teens and how they perceive OUR adult behavior in the elections and ins society.
These kids are mimicking what WE do, the destructive, hateful behavior we incite through what we call “campaigning.“ The only difference is, they aren’t doing it on blogs, on the television, or through campaign material.
Welcome to what OUR OWN SOCIETY has brought upon itself. We have ourselves to blame for this kind of thuggery. We have taught by example. Nice job, adults.
To MLB1:
You summed up your entire post at the end. You are one of the idiots voting for Obama because your your dislike of Bush. You said it I didn’t. And how do you think Obama is going to lead us out of this economy by taxing small businesses?
A quote: “From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs”.
Karl Marx
Sounds like Obamas spread the wealth around to me. When a reporter in Florida (on television) asked Joe Biden this very legitiment question he responded by asking “is this a joke”? Now the Obama campaign has written a letter to this station banning them from any interviews with Obama or Biden for the duration of the election.
Lastly when a campaign accepts on line donations from over seas you have to first prove citizenship. Hillary did it, McCain does it but not on Obamas’ site. Now he is having to send some money back only because he got caught. We all know that he has accepted donations from foriegn countries. But yet he is given another pass.
With so many examples of deception the only conclusion that I can come to is that you are voting for him for reasons other than Obama being the best choice.
More than likely this vandalism was done by a group of misguided, unsupervised teens. An example should be made of these criminals once they are caught to prevent further acts of vandalism. Once the investigation is over and the individuals are charged, I believe a suitable punishment would be a couple of days in jail, and these individuals must perform community cleanup and pay for all of the damaged they inflicted on these property owners.
Mehneh:
Your comments are despicable about these hate crimes.
Mr. Holtzlag,
The police will find these cowards and hopefully, they will be charged with a hate crime. Thank you for all of your hard work in helping your neighbors clean up after their property was violated.
cville I read what you said about personal responsibility talk. I really thought you were on to something until I Googled Obama Personal Responsibility. I found several speeches he has made on that very subject.
It’s really a shame that you have tried to narrow down the reasons why I or anyone else for that matter would vote for a candidate to pacify your own ignorance. I don’t have white guilt and pretty darn sure the majority of voters don’t either. If Jesse Jackson was running I would write in Ron Paul. We need someone who is going to try to change the course and bring us out of this collapsing economy. It would be different if McCain was a true Maverick and didn’t vote with Bush 90% of the time as he said himself.
I don’t hate Bush he did anything that anyone would have done to a man who attempted to have his father assassinated, with the exception of endangering thousands of our brave troops. I know you’ve been through 8 years of deception, so have I. I voted for that arrogant idiot also. You sound like a star of a lifetime movie. One where after the woman leaves the abusive relationship she is unable to understand why that handsome man would ever care for her and her 2 children while putting their needs first. Get over your paranoia and open your eyes to the possibility of someone who might actually try to put the U.S.A. on the right foot.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice shame on Bush. Fool me three times(McCain/Palin 08), I think not.
This doesnt surprise me at all. Very sad. My car was also targeted, with a nail in the side of my tire. Note: I said side of the tire. I have since takin my sticker off. BEWARE OF THE HATERS. This is America, we have the right to decide who we want to vote for. I can only imagine the low lifes that did this.
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