Police viewing video showing vandalism at library park; Human Relations Committee plans vigil

LACONIA — Police are studying surveillance video which shows people vandalizing the park next to the library with graffiti.

Police Chief Matt Canfield said detectives started examining the video after the library reported on Tuesday incidents of vandalism at the facility.

Various types of graffiti were spray-painted in the park next to the library, while a swastika was found carved into a library bookshelf, Canfield said Wednesday.

The report of the swastika makes it the second instance of anti-Semitic graffiti reported to police in recent days.

Sometime overnight Friday one or more people spray-painted and carved swastikas in a vandalism spree at Opechee Point in Opechee Park, the city’s largest park.

Library Trustee Chair John Moriarty said the small park next to the library was hit by vandals on Aug. 31, and again on Sept. 16.

The Aug. 31 incident included the spray-painting of male genitals, similar to what was found at Opechee Point. The graffiti that vandals left on Sept. 16 consisted of insults of police.

The swastika that was carved into a bookshelf in the library’s teen reading room was discovered by library staff last February, Moriarty said. Once discovered, the anti-Semitic symbol was covered over with tape and books were placed on top of that part of the shelf, according to Canfield.

Meanwhile, news of these incidents has prompted plans to hold a public event this weekend to condemn such acts of hate and to show solidarity with the Jewish community.

The Laconia Human Relations Committee is planning a vigil for Sunday, Oct. 2, at 1 p.m. in Opechee Park.

"We call on the citizens and leadership in Laconia to join the vigil,” committee Chair David Stamps said in an email noticing the event. “The only way to fight hate is to shine our lights brighter by standing with those being targeted, supporting each other and raising our voices against the darkness.”

“Acts of hate hurt us, one and all,” Stamps continued. “These actions of painting swastikas, whether by ignorant children or hate-filled persons, are directed at our friends and neighbors in the Jewish community in a way that conjures ghosts of the past.”

Adolf Hitler adopted the swastika as the primary symbol for the Nazi Party in 1920. The murderous legacy of the Nazi regime, especially the Holocaust, permanently converted the swastika into a symbol of hate and anti-Semitism.