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A SCRAWL OF HATE

The first-floor windows are shattered, the screens behind them torn and frayed. The inside of the red-brick rowhouse - which was recently cleaned, cleared out and painted in anticipation of new renters - is now stained with venomous hatred in every room.

The first-floor windows are shattered, the screens behind them torn and frayed.

The inside of the red-brick rowhouse - which was recently cleaned, cleared out and painted in anticipation of new renters - is now stained with venomous hatred in every room.

Grafitti on the floor declares, "All n-----s should be hung," next to a spray-painted cross and the letters "KKK." Similar phrases are tattooed in stairways and even the bathtub.

While this disturbing act of vandalism reads like a page from a civil-rights-era history book, it actually occurred earlier this week in a predominantly white Port Richmond neighborhood that police say a black couple soon planned to move into.

Crime-scene investigators and members of the police Conflict Prevention and Resolution Unit spent most of yesterday inside 2917 Edgemont St., searching for evidence and surveying the damage.

A police source said the unidentified couple signed a lease agreement for the property earlier this month and last visited the house on Saturday.

Police declined to identify the owner of the house, who neighbors said used to live in the area.

They believe that the house was vandalized late Saturday or early Sunday, long after the couple left. "They pretty much hit every room in the house," the source said of the hate-filled vandals.

The N-word could be found scrawled in the basement, on the walls and even the carpets, the source said.

Investigators dusted the house for fingerprints, but so far have not developed any leads.

City leaders promised action when the Daily News informed them of the apparent hate crime last night.

"We take it very seriously, based on the allegations. It's reprehensible behavior," said mayoral spokesman Joe Grace.

"We condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There's simply no place for it in the city of Philadelphia. None. We're supporting the Police Department as they attempt to get to the bottom of this and identify the perpetrators of this awful incident."

"It's very sad to see this," said J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP.

Mondesire said he would "contact the family to see if they want to file a formal complaint with us, which would give us the power to investigate the probability . . . that it was a hate crime.

"We get those reports from time to time west of Harrisburg or north of Scranton, but that kind of outright hate has not been seen in a while in Philadelphia," he said.

"At this point, the whole city is integrated," Mondesire said. "Here you have some nut-job who wants to play the Klan game in the city."

Few neighbors on Edgemont Street near Cambria were willing to talk on the record last night.

One woman who declined to be identified was asked by the Daily News if residents were going to have a problem with a black family living on the block. "Obviously, since this happened," she said.

Other residents said that having a black family on Edgemont Street wouldn't have made a difference.

"I don't think it would bother people up here. There's a lot of older people on the block." said Kim Keebler, 47. "We feel really bad. It's a shame." *