The paint barely had time to dry on a new rainbow crosswalk in Dresden before it was targeted by vandals this week.
But there is some hope for swift justice as the suspects who smeared it were caught on camera.
The new crosswalk was revealed at the intersection of Main Street and St. George Street in Dresden on Sunday and was promoted as a symbol of inclusivity -- especially for people in the LGBTQ+ community.
The colourful addition to Dresden's downtown followed a motion from North Kent municipal councillor Jamie McGrail in August to have municipal staff work with the Dresden Community Care Group and CK Pride to install a rainbow crosswalk in the community.
Myriam Armstrong, founder of the Dresden Community Care Group, said the vandals came out just before 9 p.m. Tuesday.
"If anybody thought this was just a ridiculous thing to paint a rainbow crosswalk because there's no need for it, this proves otherwise -- there's definitely a need for it," said Armstrong. "This kind of close-mindedness needs to be exposed and things have to change. It's 2022, it's really time to make sure everyone feels welcome anywhere they go."
Video surveillance from some cameras in the downtown area shows two suspects spreading paint across the rainbow sidewalk and Armstrong said she has already filed a report with Chatham-Kent police. You can find that footage at the bottom of the story.
She's hoping the video footage will help them bring the vandals to justice and expose them.
"I think that when you are anonymous, you can go ahead and spread hate across the community, but once you are exposed it's a little bit different -- it's a small community," said Armstrong. "The majority of people are amazing people who are very loving and very accepting, so for the handful of people who are not... I think it's time for the community to rally and make sure those people are known and know that their actions are not OK."
Armstrong said the group's next step is to contact the municipality to find out what their ideas are to clean up the sidewalk, adding that "if we have to scrub all day and all night, then that's what we'll do."
It's not the first incident of what appears to have been hate-motivated crime in Dresden in recent memory.
Chatham-Kent police put out a call for the public’s help to solve an apparent hate crime at Stranak Park on Brown Street in Dresden in August after someone used a red permanent marker to write several derogatory messages directed towards the LGBTQ+ community on several picnic tables there.
Investigators said they were treating the mischief to the picnic tables as a “hate-motivated” incident because of the nature of the messages.
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