Swastika Found In Salem As Report Finds Anti-Semitism On Rise
SALEM (CBS) - Salem Police are investigating after the bandstand in the Salem Common was vandalized with an image of a swastika.
Police say the hateful symbol was found on one of the columns on Sunday. They reviewed surveillance video and discovered that two children, possibly no older than 12, painted it in the middle of the day last Thursday.
Police are now working to identify the children.
"Places like Salem that strive to be welcoming and diverse can't stand silent when things like this happen and that's one of the reasons we did want to call attention to the fact that it occurred," Salem's Mayor Kimberley Driscoll said.
The incident comes on the heels of an alarming new report by the Anti-Defamation League which finds that anti-Semitic incidents spiked in Massachusetts last year. According to the report, there were 50 incidents of vandalism, harassment, and assault aimed at the Jewish community in the Commonwealth in 2015.
The incident count rose to 125 in 2016. The report also finds that anti-Semitic incidents across the nation rose by 34 percent between 2015 and 2016.
Residents in Salem say they do not want this sort of hateful speech in their city. "This is about ignorance and hate. And, we don't need to be spreading that. We need to have more peace in the world and caring about others," resident Cheryl Kusiak said.