Vandals scrawl ‘Jew’ on rats in DC art display

Vandals repeatedly scrawl the word “Jew” on images of rats that appear in an outdoor Chinese Zodiac art display in Washington, DC’s Chinatown.

Maintenance crews employed by DowntownDC, a private non-profit that encourages business in the city center, cleaned the graffiti from the Zodiac artwork, the DCist news website says.

Michael Villafranca, a passerby, notified police when he saw the defaced Zodiac animals, which are stenciled among the crosswalk lines at 8th and H Street in Washington’s northwest quadrant. He posted a photo on Twitter and tagged the mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser.

https://twitter.com/MCVillafranca/status/762676831900360704

It is the third time in a week that the installation has been defaced with the word “Jew.”

“I am so disturbed and sickened to see this walking into work, and in DC of all places,” Villafranca says in an Aug. 3 tweet, which also includes an image of the vandalism taken by another passerby.

There is no damage to the rest of the animals in the Zodiac display.

https://twitter.com/MCVillafranca/status/760849563687223296


— JTA

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