Swastika stickers found plastered on Anchorage gay bar and Jewish museum
Anchorage police are asking for the public's help in identifying a tall, thin man wearing a hood and mask who was caught by security cameras.
A tall, thin man wearing a hood and a mask was caught on security camera plastering stickers bearing the swastika symbol and the words “We Are Everywhere” on a gay bar in Anchorage, Alaska, as well as a local Jewish museum.
The black-and-white stickers were found at the main entrances of Mad Myrna’s a bar in downtown Anchorage, and the Alaska Jewish Museum earlier this week. Police received reports of the vandalism on Tuesday.
Security footage obtained by the Alaska Jewish Museum shows the unknown masked man driving a scooter to the museum, placing one sticker on the door and three on the windows, and then driving off, sometime around 2 a.m. on Tuesday. Forty-five minutes later, another sticker was placed on Mad Myrna’s front door, reports ABC News.
Anchorage police are asking the public to help identify the man seen in the security footage. If further stickers are found on other buildings, people are advised to leave them in place but call the police to report the incident.
“There is no place for hate in our community,” the police department said in a statement asking for the public’s help in identifying the vandal.
The Anchorage Police Department said it has partnered with the FBI for an investigation into the incidents.
“What that sticker symbolizes is hate,” Anchorage police spokesperson MJ Thim told The Associated Press. “And we’re not going to stand for it, and there’s no place for it. And we’re going to investigate it and figure out what this is all about.”
Thim said that to his knowledge, the stickers were the first of their kind to show up in Anchorage, although several businesses in Bellingham, Washington, reported similar incidents.
“Swastikas have also become a symbol of white supremacy and the far right, and actions like this disproportionately impact people of color in the LGBTQ community,” Laura Carpenter, the executive director of the LGBTQ organization Identity Inc., told Alaska Public Media.
“This is just another example of people trying to demonize the LGBTQ community and Jewish people,” Carpenter said, noting that both Jewish people and gay men were persecuted and killed under the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.
See also: Gay D.C. man receives anonymous letter bearing a picture of a swastika with a rainbow flag
Both the museum and the bar have since hired private security to help monitor the premises.
Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, the president of the museum’s board of directors, said law enforcement has informed them the stickers are not part of any organized or serious threat.
“One guy got excited about something he read on the Internet and came and put [up] a sticker,” Greenberg said.
Mad Myrna’s largely brushed off the incident in a post on its Facebook page.
“While we will not be focusing or dwelling on the hateful sticker slapped on our door in the night, we do wish to thank everyone for the comments of love and support,” the post reads. “We love the community more than we can explain in a social media post, and truly hope that comes through in our nightly service.
“It hasn’t been an easy year,” the post continued, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, “but seeing your smiles, hearing laughter and applause for our incredible performers, seeing the dance floor buzzing… it’s what drives us. Keep being your wonderful, funny, unique beautiful and loving selves and we will keep being us, giving you our best every night.
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