Graffiti depicting Nazi symbols and sentiments were seen at a bus shelter in Coos Bay on Sunday. Images of swastikas and a message that appeared to read "Hitler did nothing wrong” covered the shelter. The bus shelter, which is currently not in use, is on 9th and Commercial Street near the Mingus Skate Park.
“(Sunday) I received an email from a city employee about the graffiti being on the shelter,” said Coos County Area Transit general manager David Hope. “We sent (someone) out there to clean it, when he got there, he talked to some people that were hanging around there, regular riders of the system. They said it was not there Saturday or earlier in the day on Sunday, it must have been put there sometime on Sunday afternoon or so.”
The graffiti was removed on Sunday.
The incident was not called in to the Coos Bay Police Department, but officers learned of the incident on Sunday via email.
“We don’t have any suspect information at this point. We did pull a case number, we are looking into it,” said Deputy Chief of Police Chris Chapanar. “We would request anybody that has any additional information about it, they can certainly call in to the police department. And we did document it in case this is something that happens in the future.”
Chapanar noted that this Nazi graffiti seemed to be an outlier.
“This is very random. There has not been a pattern. To my knowledge we have not had any types of graffiti of such in a long time. Actually, I can’t even remember the last time we had anything like this. So it’s random. Definitely not a pattern. Not right now anyway,” he said.
For Hope of CCAT, this is not his first time he has seen such images on a bus stop.
“I am new to Coos County, I have been here since October of last year. I have been in transit for about 35 years in Florida and this happens frequently to bus stops and shelters and everything,” he said.
“It can be graffiti, broken windows, all sorts of things that can happen to bus stop signs and shelters. So not uncommon nationwide."