'No N-----s' Graffiti Spotted In West Loop Day After 'KKK' Vandalism
By Stephen Gossett in News on May 5, 2017 2:48PM
Warning: Disturbing images below.
Update:
A spokesperson for Streets and Sanitation confirmed that the graffiti has been removed as of 10:15 a.m. on Friday.
Police told Chicagoist that they were made aware of the graffiti at Monroe at around 8 a.m. on Friday. The incident has not been classified as a hate crime, but it was brought to the attention of CPD's Civil Rights Section, according to officer Jose Estrada. No arrests have been made as of Friday morning.
Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (Ward 27) called the graffiti "very, very distasteful" and championed the neighborhood's overall spirit of progressivism. "We won't tolerate that in our community," he told Chicagoist. "We have a very diverse neighborhood... where everybody gets along. We're in the 21st century, and we're far past those kinds of things."
Original:
West Loop residents were again alarmed to discover more racist graffiti near a busy highway of ramp on Thursday evening. Vandalism that reads “No N---ers” and “No N----r” was seen tagged on Monroe Street sidewalks, one on the south side of the street, one on the north, near the I-90/94 ramp. They were spotted roughly one block from where “KKK” graffiti were seen on Wednesday night and Thursday morning—which was subsequently removed.
Photo: True West Loop
Photo: True West Loop
As with the "KKK" graffiti—which had been scrawled across three roadside traffic safety barriers on Madison Street, near the highway ramp—images of the most recent acts of vandalism were shared out of concern in the True West Loop community group.
Residents in the group rallied to counteract the racist messages, dialing 911 to notify authorities and urging members of the community message board to pursue the Hate Has No Home project—which urges citizens to take anti-intolerant action at grassroots levels.
One user in the group said at least one of the hateful tags had been removed as of 7:30 a.m. on Friday. A spokesperson for the Department of Streets and Sanitation told Chicagoist at around 9:15 a.m. on Friday that crews were headed out to take remove the tags. The representative said yesterday that cleanup of racially- or hate-motivated vandalism is expedited by the department.
Chicagoist has also reached out to the Chicago Police Department and the office of Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (Ward 27) for further details. This post will be updated as more information becomes available.
Police told Chicagoist on Thursday that they did not have video to share of the "KKK" incident and that no one was in custody. It's not yet clear if video of the incidents on Monroe was captured.
Chicago has seen multiple acts of high-profile, racially-charged acts of vandalism within the last several months. UChicago was targeted with racist posters in December of last year and January and February of this year. Anti-Semitic flyers were found distributed at UIC in March. And Pilsen man Stuart Wright faces a hate-crime charge in the vandalism of a Loop synagogue earlier this year.