Maryland man charged with hate crimes after 'groomer' painted on libraries

A Maryland man has been charged with a hate crime after allegedly spray-painting the outside of two public libraries with the phrase “groomer,” which officers say they imagine was meant for use as a homophobic slur.

Charles Sutherland, 30, was arrested Thursday on prices of vandalism of the Greenbelt Department Library and the New Carrollton Department Library on June 4 and June 9, respectively. Each buildings had been spray-painted with the phrase “groomer” in big yellow letters on the surface home windows.

Sutherland was charged with two counts of malicious destruction of property and a number of hate crimes associated to defacing the constructing. He has confessed to the incidents, based on the Prince George’s County Police. It’s not totally clear when he’ll face trial as courtroom information on the incident haven't but been up to date on-line.

DC MAYOR UNVEILS $20,000 HIRING BONUS TO RECRUIT MORE POLICE AMID RISE IN CRIME

The time period groomer refers to somebody who creates and maintains a relationship with a younger little one to allow them to “manipulate, exploit and abuse them,” based on the Nationwide Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Kids. The phrase has sometimes been used to explain the habits of convicted intercourse offenders, but it surely has entered the mainstream as a slur towards LGBT individuals.

“Groomer” insults concentrating on LGBT activists have elevated on-line over the previous few months. Posts together with the slur on Reddit have elevated 100% because the starting of the yr, based on a examine by an assistant professor of pc science at Binghamton College in New York.

“The vast majority of subreddits which can be adopting the rhetoric have a reasonably lengthy historical past of content material moderation issues and are undoubtedly not what I'd take into account LGBTQ-friendly,” Jeremy Blackburn, who makes a speciality of on-line extremism, informed NBC News. “Whereas it isn't precisely stunning to me that this rhetoric has been adopted, I'm considerably shocked the rhetoric was so shortly adopted.”