Calgary police are turning over evidence to the hate crimes unit after some disturbing graffiti was found at a popular skatepark Monday.
Investigators said the markings, which included homophobic and racist language, appeared sometime overnight Sunday at New Brighton Athletic Park.
It was found by a group of skateboarders that frequent the park every week.
“We have an old group,” said 57-year-old George Medeiros. “We have been riding, some of us, since the ’70s and ’80s.”
While graffiti at skateparks isn’t new, users say the frequency and tone of the markings have changed.
“The graffiti is getting raunchier lately… It’s getting more racial,” Medeiros said.
If the city doesn’t get to it first, Medeiros’ group usually cleans it themselves — something that has become a constant chore.
“You look up and you have the Canada flag flying — probably the biggest one in the city — and then you have stuff like this. It doesn’t go well together,” said Todd Lafontaine, who skates with Medeiros.
At this point, police said they do not have suspects, and there’s no surveillance video available from the park.
“There is a camera up there, but I’m not sure if it works or has ever worked,” said Medeiros.
“But it would be nice if they had a camera. It might slow some of this stuff down because it happens in the same spot every time.”
Among the seasoned skateboarders at the park on Monday morning was a mix of bikers, rollerbladers and scooter riders, young and old.
“I was talking to some of the other skaters, and it makes us sad,” said Quinn Kingscote, one of the young riders.
That feeling isn’t lost on Lafontaine and his friends.
“We didn’t have stuff like this as kids — these beautiful concrete bowls. To have the city do this for us… it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, and then to have some people deface it like that, we don’t like it. It upsets us, so we take care of it,” Lafontaine said.
Medeiros said he would like to see police increase patrols of the area as the problem persists.