Swastikas, Hate Messages, Found on Councilman's Office

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2007 (KABC-TV) (KABC) -- The LAPD is investigating a hate message on the doorstep of an L.A. city council field office. There has been no arrest yet. However, the LAPD says it has some leads on who is responsible. L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss held a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Outside Jack Weiss' office, the windows and doors have been cleaned up. The investigation continues, as does the search for the suspect who vandalized the councilman's office.

Jack Weiss, L.A. City Council: "This is pretty grotesque".

This is what was glued on his front doors -- three swastikas and two flyers. One flyer was written in German and the other in English. Little of it contained language suitable for television.

Weiss' staff showed up for work at 8:00 a.m. Thursday morning and discovered the signs.

Jack Weiss, L.A. City Council: "In this line of work, you do encounter irate people every once in a while. But nothing that looks like this."

Police say they have a good idea who did it, but won't say much about who it is.

Capt. Jim Miller, LAPD: "We have located a witness who observed someone about 6 a.m. this morning posting these materials. Based on that description, and some other incidents that have occurred involving the council office in the previous days, we believe we have identified the suspect in the case and we're working further towards his apprehension."

There was anger and frustration from Jewish community leaders who came to see this.

Alison Mayersohn, Anti-Defamation League: "There is no place for hate on the table here in Los Angeles. We live in the most diverse city in the history of the world, and we are well aware that anti-Semitism is alive and well."

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Simon Wiesenthal Center: "When you walk in and see his name up there next to the swastika, it's like the cross burning. It's bad. Whatever the mental process of who did it, why they did it, they knew enough. It's the equivalent of, God forbid, someone experiencing a cross burning, just to try to give it a more personal sense of that kind of impact."

Again, the search continues for the suspect. Police say they've got a good idea who they're looking for. Once he's caught, the suspect is facing felony vandalism charge with a hate crime enhancement -- which means if convicted, he's facing state prison time.

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