Nazi, Racist Graffitti Found In Lake Bluff

LAKE BLUFF, IL — Police are investigating racist and anti-Semitic graffiti discovered in four different locations in Lake Bluff on Sunday. The defacement, including swastikas and racial slurs against African-Americans and Jews, was found on West Blodgett Avenue and inside the Tangley Oaks subdivision on a tree, a driveway and on two roads, according to Lake Bluff Police Chief David Belmonte.

“It does not appear the graffiti targeted any single person,” Belmonte said in a Thursday news release. “We should all view this as an assault on our values as a community. This hateful act has no place in our town and will not be tolerated.”

Belmonte told Patch the graffiti is believed to have occurred during the overnight hours of Oct. 21-22 and promised a thorough investigation of the matter. He said Lake Bluff has seen instances of graffiti in the past, "but not of this nature."

Lake Bluff officials emphasized anti-Semitism and racism have no place in the village.

"The Village Board is very concerned about what happened on Sunday," said Kathleen O'Hara, Lake Bluff village president, describing the graffiti as "nothing other than repugnant."

"This crime is completely inconsistent with who we are as a community and the direction we are heading," O'Hara said in the release. "There's no place for it. Period."

Workers from the Lake Bluff Public Works Department quickly removed the graffiti, according to the release.

Anyone with any information about the incident was asked to call the Lake Bluff Police Department's investigation division at 847-234-8760, extension 5.

_{Top photo via Patch archive}