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‘White planet only': Oklahoma woman accused of racist, anti-Jewish graffiti tirade

Allison Christine Johnson, 45, of Norman, Oklahoma, is accused of spraying racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti across buildings in Oklahoma City and Norman. Photo: Cleveland County Sheriff's Office, Cody Giles/The Norman Transcript via AP

NORMAN, Okla. — An Oklahoma woman is accused of scrawling racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti outside Democratic Party offices, a Chickasaw Nation office, a school, an art center and a home in two cities over the past several weeks.

Allison Christine Johnson, 45, of Norman, is charged with four counts of malicious injury or destruction of property, including one felony count, and one count of malicious intimidation or harassment, according to Cleveland County court and jail records. She is being held in the Cleveland County Jail in lieu of $125,000 bond.

Johnson turned herself in Thursday. According to Fox25 in Oklahoma City, court documents allege Johnson confessed to each of the acts of vandalism she is accused of committing in Oklahoma City and Norman, a city located about 20 miles south of Oklahoma City.

The Washington Post reported that the incidents began March 28, when someone using blue spray paint covered the entrances to the office of Oklahoma's Democratic Party and the home office of the Chickasaw Nation, both located in Oklahoma City, with offensive language, including "Gas the Jews," "Welcome to Germany" and 1488, which the Anti-Defamation League classifies as a hate symbol.

According to the ADL, the 14 is shorthand for the "14 Words" slogan: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." The 88 stands for "Heil Hitler."

The day after the vandalism occurred, the Oklahoma City Police Department released surveillance footage of a suspect, who was described as a white woman driving a gray sedan.

Can you help investigators ID this woman, wanted for questioning in connection with graffiti found at a business in the...

Posted by Oklahoma City Police Department on Thursday, March 28, 2019

Pam Pollard, chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party, stood outside the Democratic Party headquarters and tearfully repudiated the vandalism, calling it “disgusting.”

“I want the Oklahomans to know, and I want the world to know, we stand against this,” Pollard said. “This has got to stop. This is not what our country is about.”

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt also tweeted out a statement against the vandal.

“One bigot with a spray paint can, or even a group of bigots, do not speak for the hundreds of thousands in this city who stand strongly together against hate and bigotry,” Holt wrote. “Let’s love each other just a little bit more today, OKC.”

Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, called the graffiti “abhorrent” in a statement and Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby also issued a statement in which he spoke out.

"It is very disheartening to see our building defaced by this type of hateful message, which is so out of place for Oklahoma," Anoatubby said, according to the Post. "We believe it is important to move past this isolated incident and focus our attention on the important work we do."

As Oklahoma City detectives worked to solve the case there, the vandal struck again the night of Tuesday, April 2 in Norman, where the Cleveland County Democratic Party headquarters, McKinley Elementary School and the Firehouse Art Center were hit. The graffiti was discovered Wednesday morning.

Outside the art center, a sculpture of a young girl was defaced, painted to look like blood was pouring from her head, the Post reported. The word "Jewess" was written across her forehead.

At the elementary school two blocks away, the vandal wrote, using a racial slur, that black boys “rape white girls.” Another part of the graffiti said, “Save very, very young blonde Aryan girls.”

At the Democratic headquarters in Norman, like its counterpart in Oklahoma City, the vandal had written “Gas the Jews.”

Another phrase said, “Hang (N-word) kids.”

A handwritten note affixed to the building’s door handle said, in part, “White men have built this civilization. White men have been, and still are, the backbone. You women and other races know this.”

On the door to which the note was attached was a threat.

“Every race but white will die,” the graffiti, done in black spray paint, read.

Norman investigators on Wednesday released footage of a woman matching the appearance of the Oklahoma City suspect fleeing the scene of one of the crimes.

Request to Identify: Vandalism Suspect Video

UPDATE: The Norman Police Department arrested 45-year-old Allison Johnson (DOB: 11/04/1973) in connection to the recent vandalisms in both Norman and Oklahoma City this afternoon. Johnson is currently being booked into the Cleveland County Detention Center on a complaint of Terroristic Threats. The investigation is ongoing. -------- SHARE: Do you recognize the female or vehicle in this video? She is believed to be involved in three incidents of vandalism that occurred overnight in at McKinley Elementary School, the Firehouse Arts Center, and the Cleveland County Democratic Party Headquarters in Norman. Investigators believe the alleged suspect for all three incidents is the same suspect believed to be involved in similar incidents that recently occurred at various locations in Oklahoma City. NPD is working closely with the Oklahoma City Police Department on this investigation. Anyone with information regarding the identity of the female suspect or the owner of the vehicle in the attached images is asked to contact the NPD Criminal Investigations Division at 405-366-6447 or anonymously through Norman Crime Stoppers at 405-366-STOP (7867) or http://bit.ly/2X0n840.

Posted by Norman Police Department on Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Norman City Councilwoman Kate Bierman, who is Jewish, was brought to tears by the damage to the sculpture of the girl, according to the Oklahoman. Along with the red paint, swastikas were painted over the sculpture's eyes and at the base of the artwork.

"I'd like to say that it's surprising to me that this kind of thing still happens in 2019, but it is not," Bierman told the newspaper. "It is surprising that they were as vocal as they were and as public as they were."

Bierman was among volunteers who cleaned up the paint from in front of the Democratic Party headquarters, the Oklahoman reported.

Johnson walked into the Norman Police Department the following day and turned herself in. According to The Norman Transcript, she spoke in detail about what she did and why she did it.

“Allison said that her intention was to scare Jewish people, and people of different races, other than white,” the probable cause affidavit stated. “Allison spoke at length about her racist beliefs and her efforts to ‘wake people up.’”

She was initially charged with making a terroristic threat, but Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn explained that Johnson’s crimes did not fit the Oklahoma statute for that particular crime.

"We went to the statute, but the statute says, 'committing acts of violence to intimidate a civilian population,' and she did not really commit an act of violence to intimidate the population," Mashburn told the Transcript. "Absolutely hate speech, absolutely a crime, but not necessarily a terroristic threat."

A judge on Monday explained via video the charges against Johnson, who attended her first court appearance from jail. The felony malicious injury or destruction of property charge, which applies to property worth more than $1,000, is from the vandalism of the sculpture outside the Firehouse Art Center, which the Transcript identified as a piece titled "Olivia" by artist Richard McKown.

The three misdemeanor charges are related to the graffiti at the Cleveland County Democratic Party building, the windows of the Junior League of Norman and on the sidewalks outside the elementary school, the newspaper said.

The malicious intimidation charge stems from allegations she defaced the driveway of a Native American family.

That charge falls under the state hate crime statute, the Transcript reported.

Johnson blurted out, “that’s crazy, because I only drew a (unintelligible) and a swastika on ….”

Judge Jequita Napoli interrupted Johnson, keeping her from incriminating herself, the Transcript said.

"We're not going to talk about that," Napoli told her, according to the newspaper. "You have a right against self-incrimination. Please, please get an attorney."

Johnson requested a court-appointed attorney.

Mashburn said there could be additional charges pending against Johnson. The Transcript reported that the probable cause affidavit stated there were other reports of racist, religious and ethnic-based threats of violence over the past four weeks that detectives are investigating to determine if Johnson was the culprit.

The recipients of those threats include two schools, two churches and two private homes. There were no other instances of graffiti or vandalism, however.

Charges are also pending against Johnson in Oklahoma City.