Arlington Police Investigating Swastikas Painted on Commercial Building Along Bike Path

ARLINGTON, MA — Just a little over seven months after swastikas were found on the garage of an Arlington family, a second instance of similar graffiti was discovered on a commercial building near the Minuteman Bike Path Monday morning.

Arlington Police Capt. Richard Flynn told Patch that a resident had reported seeing graffiti on the bike path and submitted a photo to police which was not very clear. Police later scoured the bike path, discovering that three swastikas had been spray-painted on a commercial building located along the bike path in the area of Forest Street

Two of the swastikas were painted with black spray paint, and one was painted in green and white paint, Flynn said.

The owner of the building told police that he would remove the graffiti immediately, and he was not aware that the graffiti had been painted on the building. While the matter remains under investigation, police currently believe that the graffiti had been done over the weekend.

Flynn told Patch that the Arlington Human Rights Commission was immediately notified. The commission was not immediately available for further comment. We'll let you know when we hear back.

This is the second instance of a swastika painted on the outside of a building in Arlington within the past year. Back in July,the image was painted on the garage of a black family's home. There were also two separate incidents of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti at Ottoson Middle School; the slashing of a Black Lives Matter banner at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in April; and a printer at an Arlington home falling victim to a widespread anti-Semitic hack back in September.

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