Gisbourne’s Rainbow Crossing Paint Over - A Hate Crime
Police are treating the painting over of a rainbow crossing in Auckland this morning as a hate crime. The crossing on Karangahape Road was vandalised by three people in the early hours of Thursday morning. A spokesperson from Auckland Council confirmed the crossing had been painted over, although rain overnight had washed much of the white paint away, but remnants could still be seen on the crossing. In a statement, Auckland City Central Area Commander Inspector Grant Tetzlaff said police made a number of enquiries into the incident on Thursday afternoon and founds some items of interest.
Officers had raided a property in Flat Bush, which was linked to the owners of a vehicle involved, he said.
However, that vehicle had not yet been located.
Police wanted those responsible for the incident to come forward, he said.
“We are aware of the hurt and confusion from the community at what has occurred and we want to reassure the public we are committed to holding those involved to account,” Tetzlaff said.
“Police have no tolerance for reports of this nature, which appear to directly target a particular sector of our diverse community, and we are treating this as a hate crime.”
Meanwhile, Auckland Transport said they could have crews out to remove the white paint spattered over the Karangahape Road rainbow crossing as soon as tonight.
Group manager of infrastructure projects Mark Banfield said crews would be removing the water-based paint tonight. But, he said they would only re-paint the rainbow if they had to.
He said they would treat any re-painting of the crossing with urgency, but it would take longer to organise.
The latest incident comes after members of Destiny Church painted over a rainbow crossing in Gisborne, action which was linked on social media to a drag queen story time event at the city’s library.
Hastings District Council then cancelled its upcoming Rainbow Storytime event citing safety concerns after councillors and staff received “a large number of threatening and intimidating messages.
Contacted by RNZ, a Destiny Church spokesperson denied that the police search warrant was carried out at any of its properties. They also declined having any involvement with the rainbow crossing vandalism.