Car vandalism case cuts deep in Thibodaux

On its surface, the damage done to cars in a West Thibodaux church parking lot appears as a simple property crime, which was easily solved with surveillance video and fast work by detectives.

“Detectives identified and made contact with the individual on Tuesday and the juvenile confessed to damaging the vehicles,” a statement issued by Lafourche Sheriff Craig Webre’s office Sept. 7 reads. “The teen indicated a rock was used to scratch the vehicles and gave no motive other than ‘boredom.'”

But for some members of the predominantly black congregation at St. Peter Baptist Church, the car-scratching spree – one of two such incidents within

a few weeks’ time – has fueled suspicions of something more sinister at work than boredom. They question whether authorities did enough to probe the young suspect’s motives, and are rankled by what they perceive as a dismissal of their concerns by detectives.

“I definitely believe it was motivated by hate,” said Qiana Daniels-Jones, the daughter of St. Peter’s pastor, the Rev. Herman Daniels. “Who targets a congregation of church members twice? Even once? If we were an LBGTQ event in a specific community and only the LBGTQ population was targeted, you would think it was a hateful act. So it looks like we were targeted.”

The pastor and some other members of his flock are more circumspect.

“In my position I wouldn’t want to believe that, although It is a predominantly white neighborhood and we are the only black people there,” Rev. Daniels said.

The ordeal began on the Sunday before Labor Day. Rev. Daniels’ sermon concerned the ever-present nature of evil. It was later regarded by some in attendance as prophetic.

“The devil is riding someone right at this moment,” the pastor told churchgoers, having no idea that as he spoke those words, someone indeed was committing a crime in the parking lot, just on the other side of the church’s tall wooden doors.

When the service ended, departing faithful discovered that their parked cars had been scratched and marred. Some bore scars on roofs, others hoods, and others fenders or doors.

The initial toll was twelve. Victims later learned of similar damage to other cars in the church lot, during the previous month; Congregants who had left before being counted were later contacted, which brought the number of damaged cars to more than twenty. Estimates from body shops suggest the total value of the damage could be anywhere from $6,000 to $22,000 in total.

But financial cost is for some victims the least reason for concern. A Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to the church and took a report. She also knocked on the doors of nearby homes but gleaned no information.

A business near the church had surveillance video that detectives were able to view Tuesday, Sept. 6, confirming what they had already been told. A 14-year-old who lives a short distance from the church was observed. He was questioned, charged with twelve counts of criminal damage to property, and released to his mother, with whom he resides.

Quiana Daniels-Jones was not happy with the response she got from the detectives when she tried to learn more, in particular what role race may have played in the decision to victimize members of the church by the teen, who is white. The detectives told her she was reading too much into the incident, she said. She said she was told that the boy was off of medication that regulates his behavior that morning, along with elements of family history including the fact that the teen’s mother works two jobs was also communicated.

“I didn’t need to hear any of that, I didn’t ask for any of that” said a frustrated Daniels-Jones. “We had gone to find out what is next in the system, and to let them know this was not a one-time event, not to hear this boy’s family history. All of this is irrelevant. If this is in the judge’s hands, let that be in the judge’s hands.”

Burnell Tolbert, president of the Lafourche Parish Branch of the NAACP, shares some of Daniels-Jones’ concerns and has offered to help broker dialogue between her and authorities.

Louisiana has a hate-crime statute, which imposes an additional five years in prison or jail for each misdemeanor count and ten years for each felony count. The detectives said they had no evidence to indicate motive other than what the teen had said, a prerequisite for a hate crime charge.

National experts on hate crimes and how they are handled agree generally that without an overt hate message or prior history indicating a perpetrator’s state of mind, branding such an attack a hate crime – as well as charging an individual with a hate crime – is not likely.

“Without the proof of bias you don’t have a hate crime,” said Allison Goodman, the New Orleans-based southern regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, one of the nation’s largest anti-hate crime organizations. It is nonetheless important, she said, for victims to know that police are taking their concerns about the potential that a hate crime was committed seriously.

“It is worth it to look into some background and to communicate with the victims that you are doing that, that you are doing due diligence and not dismissing their feelings,” Goodman said.

Sheriff Webre said he was not familiar with all the details of the case, although he was aware of the crime and of the arrest. From what he knows of the case, he said, he has no reason at this point to believe his detectives acted inappropriately.

“A victim and a perpetrator being of different races or different demographics is not what a hate crime is,” said Webre, adding that misuse of the hate crime statute in cases where it likely does not apply devalues its purpose, and the ability to properly use it where victimization because of a specific demographic can be proven. “Law enforcement officers are trained to look at the intent and if there is some

Mark Potok of the Southern Law Center in Montgomery, is an expert on hate crimes and statutes defining them.

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The parking lot of St. Peter Baptist Church in West Thibodaux was the scene of mass defacing of automobiles during Labor Day weekend.

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