Dartmouth police ask for help investigating hate crime after racist graffiti found on dumpster

Dartmouth police are asking the public for help investigating a hate crime after the president of a youth sports organization found a racist slur spray-painted on a dumpster at the organization’s facility on Saturday.

Police were called to the Burgo Basketball Association facility at 101 Slocum Rd. around 5 p.m. for a report that a “derogatory term” had been spray-painted on a dumpster, they said in a news release Sunday.

Police said there are currently no suspects in the case. They are asking the public for any information they might have about the crime, as well as any security video from neighbors that might help them in their investigation.

“I am extremely discouraged and upset by this egregious and heinous act of vandalism,” Police Chief Brian Levesque said in the release. “It is certainly the hope of every member of the Dartmouth Police Department that if someone has information that can help us identify a suspect that they will immediately come forward with it.”

Steven Burgo, president of the Burgo Basketball Association, told The Boston Globe that he found the graffiti, and that the word was a “derogatory term aimed at the Black population.”

“Something like this makes me feel more out of place in my town than ever,” Burgo, who is 71 and Black, told the Globe.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Dartmouth Police Department by calling 508-910-1735.

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