Dallas Police Look into '666' Graffiti on Landmarks as Hate Crime

Dallas police are investigating the tagging of a gay community landmark and other locations with "666" in red spray paint as a possible hate crime.

The Dallas News reports over the weekend, the gay landmark The Legacy of Love Monument in the gayborhood near Cedar Springs Road and Oak Lawn Avenue was spray painted with the tag.

Other spots that got the "666" treatment included the Cathedral of Hope and its driveway, the Dallas Observer building, the Dallas Morning News building and D Magazine's offices at St. Paul Street and Ross Avenue. Dallas police now say that between six and nine tags have been found.

Dallas police believe that because June is LGBT Pride Month and the graffiti were made in a gay part of town, the vandalism may be a hate crime.

The vandalism shook up the community, especially volunteers from the Oak Lawn Committee, a neighborhood group who maintains the monument and who worked on Sunday to clean the graffiti off the 35-foot Legacy of Love Monument.

"This one broke my heart," said committee president Brenda Marks. "The symbol, it's the mark of the devil on a monument that's dedicated to those who have lost their lives to AIDS."

Marks said the monument has been a gathering place for gay and lesbian rallies since it was unveiled in 2006. She filed a police report about the graffiti, saying that of all the repairs that the group has had to make over the years, this hurt the most, because it was intentional.

She said they may have to sandblast the monument to remove the paint.

According to the Dallas Voice, Detective Laura Martin, the Dallas Police Department's liaison to the LGBT community, said that a detective had been specially assigned to investigate all cases related to "the number '666' -- a number linked to Satan through the Book of Revelations in the Christian Bible where it is called 'the mark of the Beast.'"