Bellevue Home Tagged With 'KKK', Owners See Tie To Political Signs

BELLEVUE, WA - Bellevue police are investigating hateful graffiti found written near a Bellevue couple's home. Sometime during the day Sunday, someone wrote "KKK" on the driveway of the Newport Hills home. The owners of the home believe the graffiti was scrawled there because of several political signs outside the home.

Homeowner Carrie Lang, a nurse with the Bellevue School District, told the Seattle Times she believes the hateful message is in retaliation for pro-Muslim, pro-gay, and anti-racist signs at her home. Bellevue police spokesman Officer Seth Tyler told Patch.com that police are investigating the matter under the state's malicious harassment law, which applies to crimes committed over a person's "race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, or sensory handicap."

Police responded to the home along the 5400 block of 125th Avenue Southeast around 5 p.m. Sunday and observed the graffiti was written with some type of black rubber paint. Lang believes the vandal struck between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday, but no neighbors saw anything suspicious during the day. There is no surveillance video of the area, Tyler said.

This is a least the second incident recently where hate graffiti has been found in Bellevue. On Aug. 18, officers responded to a bus stop at the intersection of 100th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 8th Street and found three swastikas spray-painted on the sidewalk.

The swastikas and Sunday's "KKK" graffiti are the only two such incidents police have responded to recently, Tyler said.

If you have information about the incident, contact Bellevue police.

Have you been a victim to or have witnessed a hate crime? Tell your story here.

Image via Carrie Lang