Vandals Hit Oakland Co. Law Office With Pro-Palestinian Graffiti: Cops

SOUTHFIELD, MI — A Southfield law office of University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Regent Jordan Acker was vandalized early Monday morning with spray-painted graffiti in support of Palestine, according to police.

Videos posted to social media showed the words "FREE PALESTINE," "DIVEST NOW" and "UM KILLS" across the sidewalk and the front of the Goodman Acker building, located on Ten Mile Road between Southfield and Greenfield roads.

Police said surveillance video captured four people outside the office at 1:39 a.m. when three of them vandalized the building while the other person worked as a lookout. The group left roughly seven minutes later, police said.

Police plan to release surveillance video at some point as they continue investigating the incident.

In the meantime, anyone who witnessed the vandalism or has any information about the incident was asked to call police.

"Make no mistake that targeting individual Jewish elected officials is antisemitism," Acker said at a Monday morning news conference. "This has nothing to do with Palestine or the war in Gaza or anything else. This is done as a message to scare Jews."

The incident comes nearly two weeks after University of Michigan-Ann Arbor police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment on university grounds. Police cleared a similar encampment at Wayne State University last Thursday.

"Michigan has been a place where people from all backgrounds, religions, and cultures have lived together peacefully for decades," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said. "Violence, vandalism, threats, and intimidation are unacceptable, and what we saw today in Southfield is abhorrent. We must remain united in calling out hatred of any kind and continue working together toward peace in Michigan."