Hate-crime graffiti in Petaluma draws community support for victims
PETALUMA -- The Petaluma community came together after one of their own became a target of hateful vandalism.
Racist graffiti covered the windows of Urban Deli in Petaluma's Theater District last week, leaving the owners scared and disheartened. Words that were meant to divide and hurt the community ended up doing just the opposite.
Three years ago, Wissam and Marla Qudsieh opened Urban Deli. Marla is a Mexican American and Wissam, a Palestinian. Wissam has been working 15 hour days the past week because customers are coming in nonstop.
"What do you think of the community support? Like I want to cry all the time. Like I can't believe this happened," Wissam Qudsieh said. "This is a lot and a lot of support from the community that we didn't expect. We know they like us but not that much."
"I'm very thankful to everybody. We didn't expect all this. Especially because I was very scared for my family and my husband," Marla Qudsieh added.
Seeing the disturbing images on their store window frightened Marla so much that she couldn't come to work for a couple days. A close family friend, Luigi Petrigh-Dove, sent out e-mails asking people to bring flowers. Now bouquets fill the store. Petrigh-Dove, a Palestinian himself, was also one of the first to come in to help erase the graffiti.
"It was hard to come and see it and the scraping -- it was this futile effort in making it not have happened," Petrigh-Dove said.
With the number of diners coming in, wait times have been a little longer but Wissam says there have been no complaints. Many Petaluma residents just want to come and support the family.
"I just wanted to come tell them I'm sorry. This isn't representative of my home town. It shouldn't be representative of my country either," said Ed Perrault, a Petaluma resident.
The Qudsieh family says this incident has reminded them that love can erase hate.
"We don't want any hate crime. We just want peace and love and help each other and be one community," Wissam said.
Petaluma police Sgt. Jake Gutierrez said his department is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
