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Eugene Business & EPD Respond To Multiple Swastikas Painted Across Downtown

Photo shows swastikas painted on the front entrance of Threadbare Print House in downtown Eugene.
Photo courtesy of Brit Howard
Photo shows swastikas painted on the front entrance of Threadbare Print House in downtown Eugene.
Photo shows swastikas painted on the front entrance of Threadbare Print House in downtown Eugene.
Credit Photo courtesy of Brit Howard
Photo shows swastikas painted on the front entrance of Threadbare Print House in downtown Eugene.

Multiple swastikas were painted on sidewalks, benches, poles-- and one downtown Eugene business, Wednesday morning. The Eugene Police Department is currently investigating the rash of hate-speech graffiti. 

Amy Baker, the owner of Threadbare Print House, says one of her employees found their building tagged with close to 20 swastikas.

Alayna Sibille, a graphic designer, shows a photo of the t-shirt stencil she designed after Theadbare Print House was tagged with swastika graffiti.
Credit Melorie Begay
Alayna Sibille, a graphic designer, shows a photo of the t-shirt stencil she designed after Theadbare Print House was tagged with swastika graffiti.

BAKER: “It’s especially hard to see it on your business, and your logo, and I want everyone to feel safe here. And I think we do, and at the end of the day I feel like this was punk kids and I don’t feel threatened or unsafe."

She says some of her employees took it harder than others. Graphic designer Alayna Sibille says she was already feeling tense having lived in Orlando when the Pulse Night Club shooting occurred 3 years ago.

SABILLE: “We forget that there is still hate in every community, all over the place”

Sibille says the Swastika tagging inspired her to design a t-shirt stencil in response. It says, “Hate Has No Place Here.”

Threadbare Print House is holdingan event on June 13 where people can get the design printed on shirts. The business is accepting donations that'll be sent to the Community Alliance of Lane County and the Eugene-Springfield NAACP.

Copyright 2019 KLCC

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Melorie Begay
Melorie Begay is the Diversity Fellow for KLCC News. She has a bachelors in Multimedia Journalism from the University of New Mexico. She previously interned at KUNM public radio in Albuquerque, NM and served as a fellow for the online news publication New Mexico In Depth.