Police investigate golf ball hate crime

Police are trying to figure out who’s responsible for smashing a car window with a golf ball covered in hate speech. About 150 people were inside Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday afternoon.

They were celebrating Pastor Anita Hill’s installation as the regional director of a specialized ministry that reaches out to gay, lesbian and transgender congregants. Hill is an openly gay pastor in the E.L.C.A. (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). After the service, Robert Paddock found a golf ball in his car with gay slurs written on it.

“It’s one thing to have your opinion – you may not accept this – but when you go out and damage people’s property, that’s another thing,” said Paddock. “It’s not changing anything by doing an act like that. It’s simply vandalism.” Emily Eastwood, the executive director of Lutherans for Full Participation, says they ball will be kept as a reminder.

“The St. Paul P.D. came, and they made a police report and documented the evidence. They said we could have the ball if we wanted it, they didn’t need it. So it’s going to live on my desk as a sign of the work we still have to do,” said Eastwood. There is a golf course across the street, but police say it’s impossible for the ball found in the car to have been an accidental hit.