Hopkinton Road, Signs Tagged With Swastikas, Racist, Juvenile Graffiti

HOPKINTON, NH — Residents in Hopkinton were shocked to find a road in the town, as well as signs, utility poles, and mailboxes, spray painted with racist, hateful, and juvenile graffiti.

Steve Rothenberg, the former principal of the Concord Regional Technical Center and an assistant principal at Concord High School, found some of the graffiti early Sunday morning on Penacook Road at the intersection with Briar Hill Road and with Gould Hill Road. He reported it to the police. Other residents, too, saw the graffiti and reported it. The graffiti included Swastikas, n-words, penises, the words “my pussy,” the word “go” on a stop sign, and “f--- school.”

It is unknown when, exactly, the area was hit, but the spray paint was not there Saturday, according to residents.

Around 11:30 a.m., Richard Sala, a state board of education member and a law professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School in South Royalton, Vermont, began cleaning off a Swastika on a speed limit sign.

“I just saw it on my way in,” Sala, who was working on building a treehouse for his kids, said, “and didn’t want my kids to see it (tomorrow) while going to school.”

Sala, who lives not far from the sign, said he had not seen any problems on the road. He moved to Hopkinton 14 months ago from Dorchester, where he served as a selectman. While he loved his old home, Sala said moving to Hopkinton had been a great experience, with good schools and friendly people.

While the times were divided, Sala did not believe the graffiti was motivated by divisive times but probably, instead, by kids doing something stupid.

“The election is coming up,” he said. “But I think everybody agrees this is bad.”

While Sala was cleaning the sign, Rothenberg came by with a bucket, sponges, and sprays and began walking around, spraying the painted items with cleaners — including private mailboxes.

Sabrina Dunlap, the chairwoman of the Hopkinton Select Board, who lives nearby, also inspected the graffiti. She said police had been contacted, and an official from general services would also stop by and inspect the graffiti. Dunlap pointed out the n-words in the street to Rothenberg and Swastikas on poles, and he sprayed those, too.

Dunlap, who has lived in New Hampshire for around 30 years and in town for about eight, could not recall such incidents during all that time.

“Honestly,” she said, “We have never seen anything like this. It’s deeply disturbing.”

Dunlap said it did not matter who did it or whether they live in Hopkinton or not; the graffiti needed to be denounced.

“It’s in our town, it’s disturbing, and we have to unequivocally condemn it,” she said. “As a community, we don’t tolerate this.”

Rothenberg, who has lived in town for about two decades, also did not recall the town being hit with Nazi or racist graffiti before. Having worked in schools for many decades, he had seen a lot of things. But Rothenberg, who was also Jewish, said seeing tagging like this “had a particular meaning to it,” and having it very close to his home was alarming, too.

“I think, like most people, my first instinct is to cover it,” he said. “A parallel instinct is to call the police. And a third instinct is that you want to kill somebody.”

While raking up leaves at his home, he had some time to think about it — and came out to take pictures and help clean the graffiti.

“What you realize is, people need to see this,” he said. “It’s not a matter of covering it up. We need folks to see it. We need to sort of reconcile it. That it exists around here. And it’s not just popular culture of Ye (Kayne West) or Kyrie (Irving).”

At the same time, Rothenberg said, this could be a teaching moment, too.

“And, at the end, you have to help who did it, figure out and help them reconcile that it’s not OK,” he said.

Rothenberg said Hopkinton was a “great town, in every way, shape, and form,” but like Dunlap, he agreed it did not matter if the people inside or outside town did it — because it happened in their town. And, with challenging times, it was even more important to face and confront it.

“Right now,” he said, “there is a lot going on in the world. I think, in the end, the most important thing that I, when I got to think about it, is folks need to see it, they need to talk about it, ask questions about it, and we need to recognize that it’s not OK. And, hopefully, people will talk about it.”

Later, an employee spray-painted the Swastikas and n-words with black paint to cover them up until employees could permanently clean it up later.

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