A Dartmouth councillor is applauding city crew’s quick action in painting over racist and hateful graffiti in his area this weekend, saying the vandalism goes against the welcoming aspect of the neighbourhood.
On Sunday morning, Dartmouth’s Coun. Sam Austin said he woke up to find he had been tagged in photos of symbols like swastikas and other racist and hateful terms spray-painted around the Sullivan’s Pond gazebo, paths and benches.
After checking in with HRM crews, Austin said early Sunday afternoon that the graffiti had already been painted over and crews were quick to react because “obviously these things are a priority.”
Austin said there’s always some cost when crews have to go out on a weekend to clean up something like this, but it will fall under the municipality’s budget for graffiti removal so the monetary cost isn’t likely that significant.
What is important is the act of quickly refuting such hateful messaging, Austin said.
“To me it’s just disgusting and abhorrent. It goes against the whole motto of downtown Dartmouth, which is ‘all together,’” Austin said.
“I’m very pleased that staff are out there promptly on a Sunday to get rid of it.”
Although some residents on Twitter responded to the photos by saying the damage was likely caused by young people trying to get attention and the best course would be to ignore it, Austin said it’s important to call out even if it was done by a “small, fringe element” of locals — because as a society he hopes we are moving beyond that.
“You have to be on guard for it, but I don’t think we need to panic either. I don’t think these people speak for any sizable portion of the public at all,” Austin said.
Halifax Regional Police confirmed in a release they responded to two reports of “graphic and offensive graffiti” on Sunday. One location was the area of Sullivan’s Pond, where symbols were spray painted in several locations. The second location was 31 Woodlawn Rd., Prince Andrew High School Park, where numerous such symbols were also spray painted on the back of the school.
The graffiti appears to have been done overnight Saturday, the release said.
Police say they are in the early stages of investigation, and members of the Forensic Identification Section are gathering photographic evidence from the scenes.
https://www.thestar.com/halifax/201...g-hateful-graffiti-in-downtown-dartmouth.html
Besides the fines and / or jail time the racist idiots should be asked to pay back every cent of the cost to remove these disgusting graffiti from the parks, schools, churches etc.
On Sunday morning, Dartmouth’s Coun. Sam Austin said he woke up to find he had been tagged in photos of symbols like swastikas and other racist and hateful terms spray-painted around the Sullivan’s Pond gazebo, paths and benches.
After checking in with HRM crews, Austin said early Sunday afternoon that the graffiti had already been painted over and crews were quick to react because “obviously these things are a priority.”
Austin said there’s always some cost when crews have to go out on a weekend to clean up something like this, but it will fall under the municipality’s budget for graffiti removal so the monetary cost isn’t likely that significant.
What is important is the act of quickly refuting such hateful messaging, Austin said.
“To me it’s just disgusting and abhorrent. It goes against the whole motto of downtown Dartmouth, which is ‘all together,’” Austin said.
“I’m very pleased that staff are out there promptly on a Sunday to get rid of it.”
Although some residents on Twitter responded to the photos by saying the damage was likely caused by young people trying to get attention and the best course would be to ignore it, Austin said it’s important to call out even if it was done by a “small, fringe element” of locals — because as a society he hopes we are moving beyond that.
“You have to be on guard for it, but I don’t think we need to panic either. I don’t think these people speak for any sizable portion of the public at all,” Austin said.
Halifax Regional Police confirmed in a release they responded to two reports of “graphic and offensive graffiti” on Sunday. One location was the area of Sullivan’s Pond, where symbols were spray painted in several locations. The second location was 31 Woodlawn Rd., Prince Andrew High School Park, where numerous such symbols were also spray painted on the back of the school.
The graffiti appears to have been done overnight Saturday, the release said.
Police say they are in the early stages of investigation, and members of the Forensic Identification Section are gathering photographic evidence from the scenes.
https://www.thestar.com/halifax/201...g-hateful-graffiti-in-downtown-dartmouth.html
Besides the fines and / or jail time the racist idiots should be asked to pay back every cent of the cost to remove these disgusting graffiti from the parks, schools, churches etc.
