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Highland Park water tower defaced by extremist group Patriot Front
City leaders say they are working to contact Patriot Front which has been labeled as a white supremacist group by the Anti-Defamation League.
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - The Highland Park water tower is a landmark that thousands of motorists drive-by every day. but recently it was defaced with racist graffiti.
"Being persecuted already as a Black person is hard enough, but to do it on property that belongs to a Black community in a racist way - it baffles me," said Highland Park Mayor Glenda McDonald.
McDonald said the community wants to urge that hate and racism is not tolerated in the predominantly African-American city.
"Because the water tower is located in the City of Detroit and it reaches above the freeway for all to see it’s also been shut down, our water plant has been shut down for years," the mayor said. "People think they can do whatever they want.
"This is happening in the middle of the night obviously, and we can not have that," she said.
FOX 2's drone captured these images Friday. It appears the message "Free Free Palestine" was spray-painted first. The message was then partially covered by several phrases like "America First" and "Patriot Front.US."
A banner was hung on one of the railings with the message Patriot Front.US.
"We have laws that prohibit you from destroying city property," she said. "Even if it weren’t a law to me personally, this cannot happen. We will not allow it to happen and we will prosecute anyone who is caught doing this."
City leaders say they are working to contact Patriot Front which has been labeled as a white supremacist group by the Anti-Defamation League.
"I spoke to the lawyers we’re reaching out, we’re going have our people reach out to this organization," McDonald said.
And the city’s mayor says she looking to prevent this type of vandalism from happening in the future.
"I talked to the chief of police yesterday," she said. "They’re going to place cameras over there to see who they can catch doing it. We're also going to start patrolling a little bit more over there."
And that’s good news for residents who live in the area because they say the hate needs to stop.