Hate Speech Graffitied On Gravestone In Jersey City Cemetery

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Swastikas, Nazi symbols and racial epithets were drawn on a gravestone in the Bayview Cemetery in Jersey City.

A resident snapped a photo of the vandalized gravestone and posted it to Facebook, angered by the hate on display. "Sharing this to say. They stopped wearing hoods. They smile in your face and call you neighbor," Pamela Roundtree wrote.

The vandalism was spotted on April 22, the gravestone is for an Isaac Culver.

Roundtree, a Greenville native, told Patch she was in the cemetery to visit her uncle's gravestone and honor the one-year anniversary of his death. As she walked to her uncle's stone she spotted the racist graffiti scrawled in chalk and quickly took a picture.

She said the sight of the hate speech was shocking.

"This was the first time I’ve seen this type of hate symbols and speech in Jersey City. I’ve seen this in Delaware and Virginia. But never Jersey City. We are a very diverse city and I never thought I would see this here. In a cemetery nonetheless," Roundtree said.

The cemetery groundskeepers told Roundtree and her friends they would be reviewing camera footage to find the person responsible.