Anyone with information about the vandalism at the Idaho Human Rights Education Center in Boise is asked to call 343-COPS.
A $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the vandals is being offered by the Ada County Human Rights Task Force; Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward.
To make monetary or other donations to the center, call 345-0304, or visit 777 S. 8th St.
The word "forgive" appears in the center of a new mural on the side of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center in Boise.
And that's something one center official is prepared to do after an upsetting Friday spent cleaning up after vandals who flooded the building, leaving as much as 2 inches of water on the carpet and damaging furniture, artwork and other items.
"It's a senseless act. It's ignorance," said Ellen Suchar, president of the center's board. "We do have to forgive who did this ... To forgive is not to condone."
Late Thursday or early Friday, vandals hooked a garden hose up to a spigot near the entrance of the building, put the hose through a mail slot in the front door and turned the water on.
Suchar believes the vandals found the hose on the ground next to the building.
The vandals may be forgiven, but their actions won't be forgotten - the Ada County Human Rights Task Force is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward.
There was no graffiti or other indication that the damage was a hate crime, Suchar and police said.
But the damage is expected to exceed $1,000, so the vandals could face felony charges.
"It's disgusting and criminal and shouldn't be tolerated," said Boise Public Library Director Kevin Booe. "The closest thing we've had to this was when the (Anne Frank) statue was tipped over last year."
The Idaho Human Rights Education Center is housed in a tiny gray building at 777 S. 8th Street, behind the library. The city owns the building, and the library is responsible for it.
Booe said officials will replace the door to prevent future acts of vandalism via the mail slot.
The boxes, posters, paper files and other items that were piled outside the building Friday by a Disaster Kleenup crew are now safely stored in a nearby library warehouse and area homes.
The Human Rights Education Center has only been in the 800-square-foot building about a year, Suchar said. The "forgive" mural on the 9th Street side, which shows strings of barbed wire and a bright sunflower, was painted in the past few weeks.
The mural is based on a book by Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal titled "The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness."
"The barbed wire represents the pain and grief we have to overcome," Suchar said of the mural's symbolism. "The sunflower represents growth, change and the possibility of peaceful reconciliation."
The center, which is funded through donations, was founded in 1996 to build a memorial to human rights. In 2002, the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial was completed.
Now the center's mission is to "promote respect for human dignity and diversity" through educational programs for students and human rights and diversity training for teachers, businesses and groups.
The damage at the human rights center building was discovered between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Friday by a docent who was there to give a tour at the nearby human rights memorial, Suchar said.
The timing - the night after Holocaust Remembrance Day - was unfortunate for several reasons.
The nonprofit center's three-member staff was out of town Friday, and student artwork from an annual statewide contest was on the walls and floor.
Cathy Mansell, an art consultant for the Boise School District, spent Friday afternoon trying to rescue and dry out charcoal drawings, sculptures and other artwork in the building.
"This is a horrible time for this to happen," she said.
Katy Moeller: 377-6413
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