Priory Avenue swastika graffiti left woman 'crying'

The graffiti, which includes a Star of David next to a Nazi swastika and an equals sign appeared in Priory Avenue, on Friday morning - leaving residents "shocked and disturbed".

A mum of Jewish heritage, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Echo the "massive" graffiti left her in tears.

The graffiti has been reported to both Southend Council and Essex Police.

The mum said: “I was coming back from school and saw it on the turn into Boxal News, at the end of the avenue there is a fence where it is.

“'Its massive’ was my reaction, I was alone in my car, and I was shaking and crying, it is a hate crime.

“I have not seen anything like this around Southend, when I recently went to London, I saw something quite similar there but there is nothing in Southend. Southend is a happy place and we are happy here, but this is awful.”

The woman added that “it is causing anxiety, it is hard to describe my feeling, but it is just completely wrong, this is 2024 England.”

Martin Terry, Independent councillor responsible for community safety, added that the graffiti is “unacceptable.”

He said: “I absolutely condemn this, any form of hate and any community it involves is unacceptable.

“The trend is down nonetheless but there are things happening in the world people are making obscene comments about and we will do what we can to prevent this.

“When Southend Council did the flag raising for Pride for instance, we received some online abuse and I raised that at out weekly meetings, there are sadly people who want to discriminate against others and we need to reduce the level of hate no matter the subject.”

Mr Terry added further that regular community safety meetings make hate crime “a priority” to tackle and the council is “focused on it and discuss it regularly.”

“We are all aware of the current scenario and in the case of international politics, we are aware that can create a spike,” he said.