SPRINGFIELD — Police are investigating after hateful graffiti messaging was sprayed all over a park.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:30, families were out enjoying the playground at Davey Moore Park on a warm and windy day in Springfield Wednesday.
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Not far from there, city crews recently scrubbed some vulgar and hateful graffiti someone sprayed on bleachers and the restroom near the ball fields.
“Kids should not have to see that at all anywhere. Especially at a park,” Brent Forrest of Springfield said.
Springfield Police said park employees found it last week.
Before police cleaned it up Friday morning a video was posted on Facebook documenting the damage.
The graffiti included explicit imagery, misspelled homophobic slurs, racial slurs for black people, and white supremacist messaging including swastikas.
“It’s not a good thing that happened. But am I taken back like, I can’t believe that would happen,” Larry Samson of Springfield said
Springfield police said the damage is a clear-cut case of vandalism.
“But it was the message that is very concerning. Some of those messages were pretty hateful,” Sgt. James Byron with Springfield police said.
Police are investigating to find out who did this.
“I mean, it just shows that racism is alive, hate is alive. It’s not going anywhere,” Samson said.
Springfield police asked anyone with information to call at (937) 324-7680.
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