JAMESTOWN, N.Y. (WKBW) — A swastika on one statue, “white power” written on the other.
“We’re not going to tolerate this, and we want to make sure that people understand we are going to do everything in our power to stop this from occurring,” Jamestown City Council President Anthony Dolce said.
This is the second incident at the Underground Railroad display in Dow Park in the past few months. One statue was stolen in May, and now this.
Community leaders said they are shocked, and that this should be a call to action.
“The statues have been here for almost two decades and we’ve never had a problem with them,” Dolce said.
“This is not the time for us to be scared into silence, this is the time for us to come out and said this is our city and we are not going to allow this to be tolerated,” Coordinator of the Jamestown Justice Coalition Justin Hubbard said.
Dolce said they plan to install cameras in the park to help stop more incidents like this from happening.
“We take this seriously, the police department is looking at this as a hate crime,” Dolce said.
And Dolce said there have been incidents in other parks in the area as well.
“It’s very upsetting to the community, it’s very upsetting to us, to have this type of vandalism in our area,” Dolce said.
Hubbard said there will be a rally in Dow Park at 11 AM on Saturday. The theme of the rally is “Hate has no Home Here.”
