LINCOLN SQUARE — The number of Lincoln Square homes targeted over the weekend with racist graffiti has risen to five, according to a community alert issued by Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th).
Homes had "Black Lives Matter" yard signs painted over, and messages reading "anti white" and "cuck" were sprayed on sidewalks. Stickers affiliated with hate groups were also affixed to some neighbors' "socially conscious" signs, the alderman said.
The recent incidents — reported in an area bounded by Lawrence, Foster, Leavitt and California — come a month after white supremacist graffiti was sprayed throughout the Greater Rockwell area of Lincoln Square.
"Our community will not accept these displays of hate and intolerance," O'Connor said.
He urged neighbors to stop by his office, 5850 N. Lincoln Ave., to pick up "Hate Has No Home Here" signs to show solidarity.
"It is important that our neighborhood residents support each other and reject the rhetoric and politics of division and hate," O'Connor said.
Bradd Easton, whose home was among those targeted, echoed the alderman's sentiments.
"The more people put [signs] in their yards and windows, it shows we stand together," said Easton.
Though Easton doesn't believe he and his husband Jeff Zacharias were personally targeted, he does think the vandals' actions were premeditated and that they chose homes in advance.
"I don't think they were happening to walk on Winnemac," he said. "We had a sign they didn't like."
Easton suspects the criminals were specifically looked for homes with "Black Lives Matter" signs, a message he said he had felt comfortable displaying in liberal-minded Lincoln Square.
Though some have dismissed the graffiti as pranks, Easton said regardless of motive, "It's being hateful. Their actions show ... it's racism."
"They are preying on people who are expressing tolerance," he said. "I think they feel emboldened by the Racist-in-Charge."
Easton said his initial reaction to seeing the graffiti and having signs defaced was a "combination of shock and feeling attacked, physically attacked."
He's been encouraged by expressions of support from the community, as well as the response from the alderman and police, who sent detectives and a forensics team to his home.
But the graffiti, and the possibility that it could have been written by a neighbor, is disturbing.
"It does make me uneasy in my own home," Easton said. "I wonder what's next for these people. Is it breaking windows? Is it hurting people?"
Ald. O'Connor advised neighbors to call 911 if they hear or see something suspicious, or to take the time to look out the window if a pet reacts to something.
