Residents concerned about racist graffiti in Swissvale
Port Authority to place cameras at transit stop
Residents and activists on Wednesday decried a recent incident of racist graffiti at a Swissvale transit parklet and demanded a stronger response from the borough government.
The group of eight that held a press conference outside of the Swissvale council meeting said they were “troubled” by graffiti on a garbage can in early November that included a racial slur and suggested ending racism by killing African Americans.
The racist graffiti was in a Port Authority parklet adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway’s Roslyn Street stop.
“Let us remember what these kind of remarks do to our people, let us remind council of the trauma that it leaves on our community members,” said the Rev. Justin Eidinger, pastor of the Union Baptist Church in Swissvale, and member of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, which organized the news conference.
“Let us be reminded of what happened a few miles away when a deranged white supremacist went into a house of worship and gunned down 11 innocent souls,” he continued, referring to the October 2018 Squirrel Hill attack.
Rev. Eidinger said he was “profoundly saddened” that borough officials did not communicate with residents about an investigation after the graffiti was reported around Nov. 3.
A few days later a resident reported it to Port Authority police, and they found the graffiti had been painted over, said Adam Brandolph of Port Authority.
Mr. Brandolph said Port Authority Chief Matt Porter attended a November Swissvale Council meeting, where the incident was discussed to tell people the agency takes such incidents seriously.
The transit authority and Swissvale police vowed to work together, and the authority will install cameras at the stop in the coming months, Mr. Brandolph said.
Amy Kennedy, of Swissvale, attended that November meeting and said officials “were speaking of the incident as vandalism. This is still just old thinking. Vandalism versus hate speech. That’s a different thing.”
Mayor Deneen Swartzwelder denied that the borough lagged in response.
“We didn’t know about it until it was covered up,” she said. “I don’t know what they want.”