UNM police are looking into nine separate instances of graffiti vandalism at campus buildings -- all expressing anti-war themes and occurring only hours after the first attacks on Iraq.
The anti-war messages, including "War is murder;" "Bush is a terrorist;" and "No war," were spray painted onto the walls of the Navy and Air Force ROTC buildings, the north wall of the Fine Arts Building and along the south wall of the city reservoir on South Redondo Drive sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
UNM Police Department Lt. Michael Omtvedt said it is unknown if there is a connection between the crimes and anti-war protests occurring at the time of the vandalism.
"It's the same type of material," Omtvedt said.
Police first received reports of the vandalism at about 8:30 a.m., Thursday. Omtvedt said police were then steadily contacted throughout the morning about the graffiti.
"Somebody defaced UNM property," said Capt. Chris Mazzei of the UNM Air Force ROTC.
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A member of the Air Force ROTC gave police a description of a man who may be a suspect in at least one instance of the vandalism.
The vandalism occurred within hours after the United States began its war in Iraq with bombings directed toward the country's top military leaders, a strike that would precede the ground invasion by the Bush administration's coalition forces.
Since then, anti-war protests and demonstrations have increased in frequency and visibility in Albuquerque and abroad.
One of the messages painted on the city reservoir read "Rally today."
Graffiti was painted over by employees of the UNM Physical Plant Department early Thursday, said Harvey Chace, associate director of physical plant for maintenance and construction.
Chace said his department was alerted to the graffiti by Navy and Air Force ROTC members and by employees of physical plant. He said employees will go back later to better match stucco colors but it is the department's policy to cover up graffiti as soon as possible to deter any other potential vandalism.
"Our objective is to cover it immediately because that discourages other graffiti," Chace said.
Omtvedt said graffiti is a petty misdemeanor and reiterated that police are not aware of a link between any protesters and last week's vandalism.
