Black-owned South Philly deli vandalized with white supremacist graffiti

Police are investigating after graffiti touting a white supremacist group were found painted outside a Black-owned deli in South Philadelphia.

Larry Boone, the CEO of AM Deli at Fourth and Wharton Streets, said he reported the vandalism on the ATM outside his shop on Wednesday evening to Philadelphia police after a customer alerted him to the defaced machine. He said he did not know how long the graffiti had been there. The store has security cameras, but they don’t capture the ATM, he said.

“It’s kind of shocking,” Boone said. “It’s really unfamiliar for this neighborhood. Even though we grew up in this neighborhood in the ’70s and ’80s, still it’s a little different than something we’re used to.”

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On Thursday evening, a representative from the ATM company cleaned the graffiti from the machine.

The lightning-bolt-emblazoned graffiti advertised an “active club,” which the Anti-Defamation League has dubbed “America’s White Supremacist Fight Club.” According to the ADL, “active clubs” are often inspired by and largely affiliated with the Rise Above Movement white supremacist organization, which encourages white nationalists to engage in physical acts like mixed martial arts training and spreading propaganda.

Other “active club” propaganda has cropped up elsewhere in Pennsylvania in recent months, with LancasterOnline reporting that another club had taken credit for more than two dozen instances in central Pennsylvania — concentrated in the York and Lancaster areas.

Boone has lived in South Philadelphia for more than four decades and said he wants to “have a conversation with” whomever defaced the store’s ATM.

“Anyone that feels that way … . We could treat them for lunch, maybe kind of talk about it, maybe agree to disagree,” he said. “I would prefer to talk about it than they vandalize people’s stuff.”

Boone took over the corner deli with a dozen other community members around two months ago. He said they eventually hope to rebrand the store as “Perfect Ingredients,” a bistro selling specialty sandwiches, hot meals, and groceries.

“My idea was to feed the community, and provide them with healthy, good products so they can go home and maybe have a family meal or something with friends,” Boone said.

Boone said his customers and community are generally “very supportive.”

“We’re a little shaken, a little stirred, but whatever happens, I really feel confident the community will have our back.”