PORTSMOUTH, NH (WGME) - Police are investigating "hate motivated crimes" in Portsmouth, where they found spray painted symbols, including swastikas, overnight.
Portsmouth Police say at least 14 different places across downtown were hit with spray-painted symbols of hate.
Including Temple Israel, the city’s only synagogue.
“The community is upset. They’re not going to tolerate it and we’re not going to tolerate it,” said Police Chief Mark Newport.
Christine Groleau is with the North Church of Portsmouth which was not vandalized.
However, she feels for the houses of worship that were.
“It’s wrong and it’s not okay,” she said. “We stand by anyone who is affected by it.”
Police provided surveillance video taken on High Street that appears to show a person spray-painting a building around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Much of the vandalism has now been cleaned up.
“We don’t accept that in our community, and we’re using all of our available resources to locate the people and hold them accountable for their actions,” Chief Newport said.
Police are asking for the public’s help to identify any and all suspects.
“We’re asking them to call and give us any information they have. If you have personal cameras in the area of some of the places that were hit,” said Chief Newport.
A swastika was found at Cup of Joe, a popular coffee shop on Market Street.
The shop was packed Tuesday night with folks in the community wanting to show support.
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“There are folks here just to show solidarity and make sure Joe knows that there’s more love in our community than hatred,” said New Hampshire State Senator Rebecca Perkins-Kwoka.
Senator Perkins Kwoka says this is not the first act of hatred in the area.
“We just recently had a hate group target our local community theater around events supporting drag queens,” she said. “Unfortunately this has been sort of a pattern. So, I think the best thing we can do as a community is mostly social and civic outreach. Make sure that we’re all standing up against hate speech.”
The community is planning to deliver flowers to all those that were affected by the vandalism on Friday, as a showing of support and resilience.
Anyone with any further information is asked to call Detective Sergeant McCarthy at 603-616-7656, or remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers at 431-1199 or 1-207-439-1199.