Swastika Spotted, Removed By Local In Logan Square On Sunday

By Stephen Gossett in News on Feb 6, 2017 5:46PM

Photo: Brennan McDowell

Over the same weekend that saw a rash of swastika vandalism in several U.S. cities, an apparently spray-painted swastika was spotted underneath a highway overpass in Logan Square.

The hateful graffiti was photographed on Sunday evening by Brennan McDowell, 30, of Logan Square, near the Kennedy Expressway on-ramp at North California Avenue, just north of West Diversey Avenue. McDowell was heading to a Super Bowl party in Avondale at around 5 p.m. when he saw the swastika tag, which "seemed very fresh, like it had gone up the night before," McDowell told Chicagoist by email.

The vandalism was still on display when he walked home, so McDowell, inspired by the subway riders who erased swastika vandalism on New York City Trains on Saturday, returned at around 10:30 p.m. to paint over it, he said. "I made it a window frame so it would be unclear what it had been before," McDowell said.

Side-by-side shots on McDowell's Facebook show the before and after.

The Nazi vandalism in Logan Square was spotted the same weekend someone defaced a Loop synagogue with swastika stickers and smashed in its window. Police are investigating that hate-crime incident, which happened early on Saturday morning. Such acts of defacement with swastikas and hate speech appear to be the rise as of late in Chicago, as seen in incidents at the University of Chicago, in Beverly and in the South Loop. Chicago police said they did not have a report of vandalism in the 2800 block of N. California Ave. over the weekend before the swastika was painted over.