Police seeking assistance after someone painted swastikas on Atlanta's Rainbow Crosswalks
By Devon M. Sayers and Alta Spells, CNNUpdated: Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:28:24 GMTSource: CNNThe Atlanta Police Department is asking for assistance in finding the person who investigators believe defaced t
By Devon M. Sayers and Alta Spells, CNNUpdated: Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:28:24 GMT
Source: CNN
The Atlanta Police Department is asking for assistance in finding the person who investigators believe defaced the city's rainbow-painted crosswalks with swastikas two different times.
Police say the first incident happened on Wednesday, August 17. Two days later, police say the suspect defaced the crosswalk again at around 1:45 a.m.
The rainbow crosswalks are located at the intersection of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta's midtown community, in front of the site of the city's first LGBTQ+ bookstore. The crosswalks were originally installed ahead of the 2015 Pride festival. The city of Atlanta made the rainbow crosswalks a permanent feature in 2017 as a "remembrance of the 49 LGBTQ+ lives lost in the horrific 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting," the Mayor's Division of LGBTQ Affairs said on its website.
The painted walk is a "symbols of acceptance, unity and tolerance representing the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies," according to the group which pushed for its creation.
The swastika became a notorious symbol of hate after Adolf Hitler adopted it as the emblem for the Nazi Party.
Hitler launched a campaign of persecution against the gay community after he became chancellor of Germany in 1933.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 men "accused of homosexuality were deported to concentration camps" during World War II.
Authorities released surveillance videos of the incidents and are asking anyone with information to could help identify the person to contact 911 or CrimeStoppers Atlanta.
Tags:someone,
