PETER KOHN

AN Ivanhoe house covered in racist graffiti has had a local resident deeply offended and frustrated because the local council and a local politician have been dragging their feet in getting it cleaned up.

Graffiti, including the slogan “white power”, swastikas and hate messages against Indians, was scrawled over almost all the outside of the dilapidated house -– some of it reportedly smeared on the fibro walls in blood.

The local resident, who is not Jewish and asked The AJN that his name be withheld, alerted the Banyule Council and his local MP -– Victorian Government Whip Craig Langdon -– about the hate messages, but his pleas for rapid removal seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“No-one needs to see that,” the resident said. “We’re almost in 2010, not 1910.”

Writing to Banyule Mayor Tom Melican on August 30, he stated: “We as a multicultural society, in my opinion, have a moral responsibility to protect our community from such insulting prejudice.”

But the resident said a council officer replied to his email, suggesting that as the graffiti was on private property, its removal “may be a police issue”.

A council spokesperson told The AJN this week the council had contacted the owner and the scrawls had been removed on September 4. The spokesperson said offensive graffiti is a criminal offence prohibited under the Graffiti Prevention Act 2007.

The resident said Langdon, the Member for Ivanhoe, replied to an August 23 email he sent him, promising to “investigate this matter and get back to you in due course”.

When the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) heard of the incident, it contacted Banyule Council and police to speed up the removal of the material.

ADC information officer Deborah Stone told The AJN that public messages that constitute racial vilification are a police matter, but that as the house appeared unoccupied, there were expectations on the local council to remove the graffiti.

“When material like this is left around, people get used to it, and they fail to realise how distressing it is for those who are abused. There’s also a tendency for copycat crimes.”

Meanwhile, homes, vehicles and stores in several Footscray streets were reportedly daubed with anti-Semitic, anti-Indian and anti-gay slogans on September 5.