By Mark Drayton, Community Development Worker for Portslade and Portland Road.
The community of Stoneham Park responded quickly to racist graffiti recently, by clearing it up themselves.
Nazi graffiti was daubed over the children’s playground in Hove at the end of January on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and disgusted residents cleared it themselves so as to remove it immediately. Jon Pike who has children who use the park said “I wasn’t happy sitting at home knowing that graffiti was up. I picked up some paint stripper and said that if it hasn’t been cleared up then I’m going to do it”. Residents clearly won’t put up with this vile anti-semitism and care deeply about a safe park environment for their children – a great example of the community acting quickly and ‘doing it for themselves’. You can read more about this on Brighton & Hove News and in local newspaper The Argus.
Brighton and Hove City Council has denounced the graffiti and pledged resources to prevent repeat attacks. The council will work with police to track down the vandals behind the graffiti. According to The Argus, a council spokeswoman said: “We do not tolerate any offensive graffiti in the city and it’s particularly disturbing to see anti-Semitic graffiti on the anniversary of the Holocaust. The offensive graffiti had already been removed from Stoneham Park by the time we got there, so a big thank you to the residents who helped with this removal.”