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Lansing community groups rally to clean up anti-gay graffiti

LANSING- An upsetting display of homophobia turned into a community clean up on April 26 in Lansing's Old Town.
Residents and business owners responded to a series of anti-gay tags spray-painted on buildings in the city's trendy Old Town district on April 9. The area is known for its artist community, trendy lofts, and two of the city's three bars catering to homosexual clients.
Spray painted throughout an alley and parking area were the words "Kills Gays," "KG," presumably meaning "Kill Gays," and "Mushroom Militia Kill Gays." It was all spray painted in fluorescent orange paint. The graffiti appeared on doors, walls, and second floor walls.
Two suspects were arrested.
Scott Patrick Saren, 18, has been arraigned on one count of felony malicious destruction of property, Lansing police spokesman Noel Garcia said. The charge carries a maximum one-year jail time. Also charged in connection with the graffiti was Dustin Corey Green, 18, also of Lansing. Green was charged with one count each felony malicious destruction of property, minor in possession of alcohol, and a weapons possession charge for having a knife with a blade over three inches.
Saren turned himself in to the Lansing police on April 18 and was arraigned on the felony charge.
Community response to the graffiti was substantial.
Jamie Shriner-Hooper, executive director of Old Town Mainstreet, a nonprofit community group in Old Town, said the community was angry. "Old town is a very open and welcoming community. This is a time we need to unite together and show more than ever we are," Shriner-Hooper said. "The one thing we don't welcome is the message of hate. What occurred here is not acceptable anywhere, but especially not in our neighborhood."
"This infuriates me," Shriner-Hooper said.
Shriner-Hooper also praised the response of police. Within moments of her phone call about the graffiti, officers from Lansing Police were on the scene, followed shortly by a member of the department's gang officer, as well as a photographer. She also said Capt. Ray Hall, who runs the Lansing Police Department's North Precinct, called and said police were taking the incident "very seriously."
"Just the idea of it is despicable," said Lansing City Council member Carol Wood. "It is heart wrenching that people would have to walk into their businesses or leave their homes and see that kind of hate painted all over. Especially in a city that has embraced diversity as a part of the fiber of this community."
In response to the graffiti, Michigan Equality, a statewide LGBT rights advocacy organization headquartered in Old Town, worked with the Old Town Mainstreet Association to clean up Old Town on Saturday, April 26. One dozen people joined in the clean up.
Amy Miller and her boyfriend Blaine Cressman were two of the participants in the clean up. "The recent events in Old Town have saddened me," she said. "To see people come together and work side by side to clean up Old Town reassured me that there are more people who care about this community than the ones who practice intolerance."

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