Residents of a quiet Dundas neighbourhood awoke Thursday morning to hateful, racist and profane messages spray painted on homes, garages and vehicles.
The messages, in black paint, targeted black and Jewish people, and included swastikas and anti-suburbia sentiment.
Fernando Gastaldo said another neighbour called him around 7 a.m. and told him to take a look outside. He was shocked to see his white vehicle and four neighbour’s homes on Woodlawn Court covered in the hateful graffiti.
“It’s the hate that’s so shocking,” he said.
Neighbour Joan Hynes said her home was not vandalized, but she said the graffiti is disturbing for the whole neighbourhood.
Her 10-year-old son read the messages and asked her what some of the words meant.
Now I have to explain that there are bad people out there,” she said, adding that there are many young children on the street.
Neighbours believe the incident likely occurred around 2 a.m., when a dog in one home began barking.
Hamilton police were on the scene around 8 a.m. taking pictures of the graffiti.
The path of the graffiti appears to show that the suspect or suspects walked up Queen Street, took climbed a hill that is a commonly used pathway up to Woodlawn, and then chose houses at random before the paint wore out. An empty spray paint can was discarded at one of the homes.
Graffiti at a home on Queen Street included the message RIP Arty and Jake.
The front walkway of another home was littered with tree branches arranged in crosses.
The neighbourhood has had an issue in the past with items being stolen from cars, but never anything like this, neighbours said.
More to come.
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