See bottom of article for June 3 update.
On Monday, the Moscow Police Department responded to two reports of vandalism: one at Canon Press and the other at Roman Roads Press.
The incidents are not considered related, according to Moscow Police Department Captain William Krasselt. The MPD does not believe the imagery at these locations to be religiously connected, either, although both businesses publish Christian media.
Canon Press was vandalized with words and male genitalia. Roman Roads Press was spray painted with an upside-down cross and the numbers 1312, Krasselt said.
The numbers, painted on the brick wall entryway, likely reference “all cops are bastards.” As originally reported in The Moscow Pullman Daily News, the numbers may reference the first three letters of the alphabet — in the order ACAB — thus, the acronym.
On Tuesday morning, Christopher Liston showed up at One World Cafe to find six of the planters they used to create a fence torn up.
Liston said the wooden stakes in the planters were snapped, the succulents were uprooted and some were missing. Some planters had been tipped over.
Employees had finished setting up the planters the night before, Liston said.
Vandalism was also reported at Moscow Body and Glass on June 1, according to police logs, but the business is closed and could not be contacted by The Argonaut.
Update: June 3
Daniel Foucachon, founder of Roman Roads Press, said the vandalism of his business happened around 1:41 a.m. Monday.
Foucachon said the security cameras caught two people in the act. One of the people on the tape was wearing a motorcycle helmet.
“But my open offer to these two vandals are that if they’d be willing to meet with me and I’ll buy them a cup of coffee, and I’d like to talk about why they felt the need to do that. If they’re willing to go ahead help us get rid of the paint, I would like to not press charges so that’s a kind of an open invite to them,” Foucachon said.
At this time, there have been multiple offers to help clean the paint off the brick, Foucachon said. The spray paint at Roman Roads should be removed by Thursday, he said.
The paint at Canon Press had been covered up by Tuesday afternoon.
“In the context of everything happening nationwide, all the while this is very unfortunate, I’m grateful that we were able to get back to work and I wasn’t dealing with, the kind of vandalism that so much of the nation is having to deal with and business owners losing everything,” Foucachon said.
Foucachon said he believes the vandalism at his business and the one at Canon Press could be religiously motivated because both business owners attend the same church.
Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kalinelson6
Moscow local
Christ Church. They both go to chest church. That’s what you are leaving out btw. I have issues with christ church myself, however I think that giving them the opportunity to be martyrs while all this is going on in our country. I get it, but not the best way to go about it.