ROSEVILLE, Calif. — A Roseville family was met with racial and homophobic slurs Sunday morning after going to a neighborhood park.
Jennifer Stephens said she and her long-time boyfriend took their three children to Mark White Neighborhood Park in Roseville so their kids could play. What they found when they arrived at the park was shocking.
"There was spray paint everywhere. You could see racial slurs, homophobic slurs, and genitalia," Stephens said.
Stephens said as a mother to two bi-racial kids and a transgender child, it was devastating for her to see so close to home, but even more so for her children, ages two, seven and nine.
"You could tell it impacted them pretty blatantly," Stephens said of her kids. "It’s one thing to know that there are people out there in the world who may hate them for who they are. It’s another for them to know that there are people in their own neighborhood who feel this way about them."
Stephens said their visit to the park led to a "teaching moment" for the family.
"It’s an interesting dynamic because I’m white and he’s black. So, he’s experienced racism. So, it wasn’t a shock to him; it was aggravating and disappointing," she said. "Our children didn’t understand what those words meant. We tried to explain in the most age-appropriate way. They were pretty devastated. Their whole energy kind of changed."
Racial, homophobic slurs spray painted in Mark White Neighborhood Park
The Roseville Police Department responded to the Mark White Park for a report of vandalism and graffiti Sunday morning, according to the department's public information officer Rob Baquera.
He said the department believes the vandalism occurred sometime overnight Saturday.
"We sent someone from the department out to the park and they conducted an investigation [that included] taking photos, canvassing the area to see if any evidence was left behind and reporting it to our parks department for clean up," Baquera said.
Graffiti in the city is removed within 48 hours, Baquera said.
"If the content of the graffiti is potentially harmful or racist, we classify that graffiti as a hate crime. We take reports of any sort of biased graffiti... is of the upmost importance to the police department and we thoroughly investigate," he said.
Baquera said the police department has a comprehensive database to track and categorize graffiti based on style. This system can help investigators identify suspects who may be responsible for the defacement.
"We believe that any negative mark on our community... degrades the neighborhood," he said. "The police department cares about every instance of vandalism throughout this city."
The vandalism is an ongoing investigation, according to Baquera.
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