Vandals strike Kingston church
Brazilian service said to be target
Kingston police are investigating a possible hate crime at First Congregational Parish church early Sunday.
Sometime between 1 and 5 a.m. vandals stole a sign from the church that advertised services for a Brazilian Assembly of God congregation that meets in the Unitarian Universalist church on Sunday evenings.
The sign was returned, riddled with more than 100 bullet holes, and defaced with graffiti reading ''Viva deportation," said the Rev. Bonnie Devlin, minister for the Unitarian congregation. The vandals also covered the sign's Brazilian flag with an American one, she said.
''We deplore what happened," Devlin said. ''It's not acceptable. This is a hate crime."
About 30 Brazilian worshipers had been meeting at Devlin's church for about six months, she said. She said the worshipers were reluctant to call police.
''They were shocked and intimidated and embarrassed," Devlin said.
Kingston police said there had been no previous incidents reported by the congregation.
Anti-Brazilian sentiment is on the rise in Massachusetts, said Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center. He said there have been several attacks on Brazilians in Framingham, which has the state's largest Brazilian immigrant population. At the center's Allston office, vandals spray-painted the door last year with the words ''illegal immigrants inside."
''These sentiments keep growing," da Rocha said. ''It is going to destroy Massachusetts. Right now, we have this huge diversity. They want to make this a state just for white people, and all the others they want to kick out."
One in five of the state's new immigrants between 2000 and 2003 was Brazilian, according to a study by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a nonpartisan think tank. Though the 2000 Census recorded 39,000 Brazilians living in the state, some estimates now put the number as high as 230,000.
''We need to find a way to stop this sentiment before it gets worse," da Rocha said. ''Today it's these hate crimes. Tomorrow maybe they are going to kill someone."
Yvonne Abraham can be reached at abraham@globe.com. 