‘Probably about 75 to 80 feet was scribbled on’: Anti-Semitic, offensive graffiti found on Salem seawall
Police are looking into several leads, they said.
During the month when thousands of visitors converge on Salem for Halloween festivities, what’s thought to be a group of juveniles covered a seawall with anti-Semitic, offensive graffiti.The Collins Cove Beach seawall was found vandalized Tuesday morning, and officials found a variety of symbols and phrases, from swastikas and a drawing of Adolf Hitler to references to music and video games and the anarchy symbol.Collins Cove, though not downtown, is just several blocks from the Salem Common.“Probably about 75 to 80 feet was scribbled on,” Capt. Conrad Prosniewski, a spokesman for Salem police, said.
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The department is working on several leads, he said.
“The messages are all over the map,” Prosniewski said. “There’s stuff about video games on there, there’s stuff about different music groups on there. … Someone else drew a picture of a rifle on there. … It wasn’t like it was one message directed at one specific group or people.”
As of Wednesday morning, the Essex County Sheriff Department’s graffiti team was working to remove it. The city’s Department of Public Works was also helping to repaint the wall, Prosniewski said.
“This incident is evidence that no community, even one as welcoming as Salem, is immune from hatred and that we must remain ever vigilant in denouncing these acts and in supporting efforts to combat bigotry and hatred in any form,” Mayor Kimberley Driscoll said in a statement.
While a community group planned to help repaint the wall, the sheriff’s group and DPW crew reportedly had the wall clean by Wednesday afternoon, according to a Facebook event.
