Recognize these 2? State College police ask for help in ID’ing suspects tied to hate group’s stickers
State College’s police department is seeking help from the public in identifying two suspects who are believed to have helped plaster a hate group’s recruitment stickers in more than 30 different locations downtown on Thursday afternoon and who “most likely” also vandalized a rainbow-colored mural in Bellefonte.
According to State College police, the two suspects are part of a group of four persons accused of criminal mischief. Bellefonte Police Chief Shawn Weaver also acknowledged in a text Monday that his department is corroborating with “several law enforcement agencies in the county” and that the individuals are “most likely” involved in both incidents.
Anyone with more information is asked to contact State College police at 234-7150, via email at police@statecollegepa.us or with an anonymous tip online.
The State College borough acknowledged Friday that publics works staff and code enforcement officers had removed the stickers, which were treated like graffiti and plastered on light poles, traffic signs and benches. The names of the suspects, or the individuals involved, is not yet known — but the group responsible had its name printed on the stickers: Patriot Front, a white supremacist group as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
According to the SPLC and other reports, Patriot Front started in 2017 with a Texas teenager who broke off from a neo-Nazi group called Vanguard America. Patriot Front is known for supporting homophobia, white supremacy, antisemitism and fascism.
Patriot Front is also believed to be responsible for vandalizing Bellefonte’s rainbow-colored Pride wall on Friday, as its stenciled slogans included the group’s name. The community repainted the Pride wall by Saturday.
Several stickers were also found around downtown Bellefonte, including a few not far from the office of House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff.
“Leader Benninghoff has strongly condemned white supremacy and divisive ideologies of all kinds his entire career,” spokesperson Jason Gottesman said Monday in a written statement. “The vandalism in the State College and Bellefonte communities over the weekend is wrong and goes against everything these great communities believe in.
“Again, if the perpetrators are apprehended and criminality is found, then they should be held accountable for their actions.”
In October, Buzzfeed reported Patriot Front was preparing for violence if President Donald Trump lost the election to Joe Biden. Last Wednesday, rioters invaded the U.S. Capitol Building in what many Republicans and Democrats have jointly referred to as one of America’s darkest days.
A police spokesperson from State College did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 4:49 PM.
