House on the lawn side hit by racist graffiti

A home in Camden County’s historically black community of Lawnside was hit with racist graffiti shortly after the election, leading to condemnations and a show of community support for the woman who lives there.

Dawn Hines, 53, said she learned from a neighbor on Thursday that someone had spray-painted a racist phrase for black people on her fence, which can be seen from the often busy Evesham Road.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Hines, who has lived in the home for 20 years and called the incident a hate crime.

Hines said the fence was not marked during the day Wednesday, so the graffiti occurred sometime Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning.

Besides being surprised and shocked, she immediately thought the timing was no coincidence.

“It has something to do with the election,” Hines said, suggesting someone felt emboldened by Republican Donald Trump’s presidential victory.

U.S. Representative Donald Norcross, a South Jersey Democrat whose district includes Lawnside, condemned the incident on social media: “Racism needs to be called out when we see it, especially when it occurs in our own community. I am pleased that the police are investigating this act of vandalism as a hate crime. There is no place for hatred here.”

The Anti-Defamation League of Philadelphia also condemned the racist graffiti: “This type of vandalism is despicable and only serves to intimidate. In light of this incident, we applaud the people of Lawnside who are coming together to act as neighbors. Thanks to the police for treating this like the hate crime that it is. We hope that the perpetrators are held accountable.”

Hines said Lawnside Borough Police and the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office told her they were investigating the incident. Both agencies could not be reached for comment on Monday evening.

A city work crew removed the racist word and vulgar sexual image, but the rest of the words, including “hate” and “sorry, sorry, sorry” remained intact, Hines said. A friend then came out and spouted the entire message.

Hines said a pressure washer owner offered to further clean the fence and a business owner offered to replace the fence.

“Love is winning,” Hines said.

She already had a security camera with a view of her back garden, but not of the fence and lawn beyond which stretched to Evesham Road.

Hines said she will add video surveillance to give her a complete picture of what is happening.