A-Infos (en) US, Media, Police Investigating Anarchist Graffiti in Spokane

Police are investigating a rash of graffiti that tagged numerous buildings in 
downtown Spokane Thursday morning. --- The graffiti scrawled allegations of 
corrupt police and the innocence of a protester arrested on July 4th for 
allegedly assaulting a police officer. ---- Clean up crews have used some paint 
remover and a pressure washer to wipe away a tagger's tantrum in downtown 
Spokane but one can still barely see the words ‘St John did no wrong’ on the 
window sill of the Olive Garden restaurant downtown. Almost every building along 
Wall Street was hit. ---- Because of the words used police are investigating if 
one of the protesters who demonstrated against police brutality had anything to 
do with it. The graffiti included anarchy symbols, swear words and the phrase 
‘St. John did no wrong’ and ‘As corrupt as SPD.’

 The scribbling refers to Zach St. John, a protester who was arrested for 
allegedly assaulting a police officer during a demonstration against police 
brutality.

 “I think it's terrible, there's no reason for this none whatsoever,” tourist 
Sandra Dowding said. “It’s useless, stupid whoever wrote it there.”

 Dowding didn't like it and neither did Claudia Kirkebo of the barber shop 
Leland’s on Wall, to see if anyone familiar with the protest in Riverfront Park 
tagged the wall outside her barber shop.

 Police are looking at video from surveillance cameras in the area to see if it 
captured the vandals.

 Travis Riehl is one of the protesters from the group ASAP that demonstrated on 
July 4th, and when asked if his group was taking responsibility for the 
overnight vandalism in downtown, he replied they “absolutely” did not.

 Riehl, who faces federal charges for allegedly throwing a rock through a 
Washington National Guard office window, says ASAP is not a criminal 
organization. However he said the tagging “demonstrates that frustration [is] 
abundant in the community” and that some are willing to take personal risks in 
order to vandalize “corporate property to get [their] message across.”

 Downtown Spokane is hit with graffiti everyday but clean-up crews says 
Thursday’s attack was extreme.

 “It’s a never ending deal,” Sergeant Anthony Scarano from the Geiger 
Corrections Facility said while supervising one of the graffiti removal crews. 
“They put it on we take it off, they put it on, it's a cat and mouse game. But 
we've got a lot of cleaner.”

 Spokane police say they have no leads on this graffiti right now but because 
of the amount of traffic downtown they hope someone saw something and will call 
in a tip.
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