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How a Capitol Hill swastika was painted over: ‘LOVE WINS’

In the wake of terribleness following the election victory of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, a swastika appeared on a utility pole at Mercer and Belmont. One may have appeared there before but, before Election Night 2016, we had never seen that symbol, that bold.

“This is a historic LGBTQ neighborhood in Seattle,” a Capitol Hill resident who recorded the scene said, according to the Stranger. “Overnight, a swastika has appeared on a light pole… the after effects of Trump are real.” The Stranger reports a local business owner quickly painted over the hate symbol “so people in the neighborhood didn’t have to see it.”

Instead, they saw something else. Neighbor Roy sent CHS the pictures at the top of this post showing “the quick and awesome response by the community.”

The messages are a few of many appearing around Capitol Hill joining ongoing rallies, forums, and protests against the Trump presidency. It’s not new — one of the Naked Trump statues appeared at 11th and Pike, after all — but the messages like the actions are a sign that the is still plenty of fight in the neighborhood.

There is also some love. Cloth strips available outside E Pike First Covenant Church have been left for parishioners and passersby to leave messages of support for one another “in the aftermath” of the election:

There is also plenty of plain old fighting spirit:

And, yes, there will be more protest:

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Max
Max
7 years ago

Remember the person who painted it initially may be someone who lives on Capitol Hill. Tempting to think it’s an outsider but the world doesn’t work that way. Also painting it over doesn’t change that person’s beliefs and intent. The white supremacist next door.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
7 years ago
Reply to  Max

Or it may not be someone who’s a white supremacist at all– just someone yanking everybody’s chain and hoping to get everyone to piss their panties like weenies in the predicable Capitol Hill over-reaction that ensues from seeing a swastika. Or even someone registering their disgust at the outcome of the election. But just to be sure, we should probably all crap our pants about it anyway…

ERF
ERF
7 years ago
Reply to  Max

I’m going to agree with Jim98122x. Out of the 318+ million people in the US, there’s only about 100,000 white supremacist. They are not known to be lurking in the alleyways of Seattle.

Tom
Tom
7 years ago
Reply to  Max

100,000 out and proud, but how many more sympathize with their views?

Max
Max
7 years ago

@jim and erf Violence against minorities is not hypothetical. It’s real. I don’t know if your point is to try to make people not take note of it, to put their heads in the sand that yes, it is real and more of it is possible. Just basically telling people they are overreacting to what is the symbol of white, heterosexual supremacy. That is disgusting activity on your part, to basically try to stifle those of us in the neighborhood saying, this isn’t okay. Is it the same as an armada of government forces rounding people up in the neighborhood and killing us? Guess what, it isn’t. It’s paint. But it’s also representative of an unacceptable idealogy that as a gay Jew (who would have been killed for BOTH in the Holocaust) and who would have more relatives alive right now had it not been for the Holocaust, I do NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED. Your smarmy, condescending ignorance/wishful thinking is exactly what the bigots want. You are part of the problem. Yet I still will defend your right to exist and have freedom of speech and identity. Perhaps I’ll see you both in the camps in person. Your smarmy denials won’t help you then. Perhaps you can mutter “but it was just paint” then and see if it protects you from a hail of bullets. It is sane and correct to be alert to rising tides of hate. People are watching and learning from how a community responds. Your infighting with those who actually have empathy, actually care, actually respond, actually act out of love, is REPULSIVE and INHUMANE. Your ignorance may be bliss at the moment, but a fake, dangerous, temporary bliss that weakens our community.

Whichever
Whichever
7 years ago

Re: the bottom one about the protest – the Portland arrestees from last weekend got out of jail, I see.

CC-Haus
CC-Haus
7 years ago

Just re-examined pictures of the symbol before it got painted over, it was a clockwise swastika, opposite of that used by the Nazis. Ignorantly paraphrased: Somewhere in Hinduism the swastika has a good direction and a bad direction, Capitol Hill’s pointed bad. To me, it seems very unlikely a Trump supporter or white nationalist would paint that symbol in reaction to Trump getting elected. Also seems unlikely that a person motivated enough to paint that symbol would accidentally paint it in the wrong direction… Just now stumbled on an old news story from 2/2016, Trump’s Hollywood star was graffiti painted with the same clockwise symbol, didn’t look complimentary.

pod
pod
7 years ago
Reply to  CC-Haus

It’s also possible that the vandal only has cursory knowledge of the swastika (and even less about which direction it should be facing) and use it to be an asshole. They don’t have to be someone to be well-versed in white nationalim, or neo-Nazism, or the symbolism to agree with the tenets of such groups. All they have to do is be a racist dick.

CC-Haus
CC-Haus
7 years ago
Reply to  CC-Haus

Come on, it was obviously a protest against Trump.

ltfd
ltfd
7 years ago

Hindu Swastika:

The Swastika symbol which look like the Nazi emblem, holds a great religious significance for the Hindus. Swastika is a pictorial character in the shape of a cross with branches bent at right angles and facing in a clockwise direction. The word SWASTIKA stems from the Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language and means ‘being happy’. In India the word is related to things of good fortune because it means being happy. The cause of all life and all manifestations of life is movement.