To the editor:

Beer cans and Gatorade bottles, potential food fights and condiment theft — typical teenage stuff? Is it “typical teenage stuff” to spray paint a NAZI SWASTIKA with the word, HEIL above it? This is much more than “ugly spray painted grafitti.” This is more than a bunch of “knuckleheads.” 

“We don’t as a league want to emphasize that,” Barrington Little League President Aaron Aguiar said.

What is that exactly? The possibility that this NAZI SWASTIKA spray painted on the side of a building could actually be a NAZI SWASTIKA? What does it take to take this seriously? 

At least the title of the article [“ ‘Knuckleheads’ spray hate on Barrington ball field” used the word “hate,” but I had to reread this article at least five times to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me. 

The Barrington Police Department is vigilant in their quest to control underage drinking, parties and drunk driving among the teen population, but when a NAZI SWASTIKA is spray painted on the back wall of a concession stand, on a Little League baseball field, the kids being referred to as knuckleheads sound more like an Archie comic strip.

The one very brief mention of “anti semitic and racial slurs” does not occur until 18 paragraphs down. This is serious. This is not typical teenage stuff. These are not, “misguided juveniles,” as the chief of the Barrington Police Department labeled them. 

It looks like this article is making a failed attempt to minimize the seriousness of what this really is. 

When a NAZI SWASTIKA is used on a public building, this is hate. This is hate against Jews. This is more than a bunch of “knuckleheads” doing “typical teenage stuff.” And although the DPW superintendent reminded us about the financial costs to the town of Barrington, I personally think that this could cost all of our communities far more if we don’t take these random but ever increasing HATE CRIMES more seriously.

Alayne White

Bristol