No jail for two vandals who admitted scrawling antisemitic graffiti outside synagogue in Hamilton, Canada

Two vandals who admitted scrawling antisemitic graffiti outside a synagogue in Hamilton, Canada, have avoided jail.

Liam Greaves and Blake Trautman were both nineteen when they daubed the graffiti on Beth Jacob Synagogue in 2019. They and two friends had drunk alcohol on the night of Friday 4th October at Mr Trautman’s family home. While walking to a pool club, the group stopped in the parking lot of the synagogue on Aberdeen Avenue for about a minute and a half as Mr Greaves wrote the word “Jews” on the wall and draw a red chalk line through it. Mr Trautman drew a swastika.

On nearby Kent Street, another in the group reportedly wrote “sign heil [sic]” and Mr Greaves wrote a message attacking the black community.

The synagogue increased its security measures in the wake of the incident.

Mr Greaves and Mr Trautman turned themselves in a week after the incident and a day after one of their group identified all of those involved that night. In court, they claimed that the vandalism was a “joke” intended to shock people and entertain their friends, and expressed remorse.

They were initially set to be given house arrest, but following joint submissions by the Crown and defence counsel, it was decided that the time would be served with conditional sentences including more than 100 hours of community service with a religious organisation and assessment counselling with relation to inclusion of the Jewish and black communities.

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Image credit: Google