Jarrod Hodson and his brother spent about 40 minutes yesterday painting over graffiti in Ravensbourne which targeted United States President Donald Trump — "F... Trump" — and included an anti-Semitic slur the Otago Daily Times has chosen not to repeat.
Mr Hodson said he believed it appeared early yesterday morning, following US and Israeli strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliation.
Speaking in his personal capacity, he said it was important to respond quickly to remove such displays.
"It sends a really clear message to whoever’s doing it — they might do it 10 other times, I’ve got 20litres of paint, we’ll just go down and remove it again.
"We’re not going to tolerate that sort of s... in our community."
Mr Hodson, who is also chairman of the West Harbour Community Board, said he was contacted by residents upset by the graffiti, which appeared facing State Highway88, near Wanaka St.
"It’s absolutely disgusting and I was quite upset myself.
"[The] anti-Jewish sentiment side of it that was in that message [is] hurtful to a lot of people.
"You know, Trump, take it or leave it, I’m not too worried about that, but when you start actually separating out different cultures, that’s a different thing."
He had not seen such messages around the West Harbour area before, but they were common on social media.
"There’s a lot going on in the world, and we have to be mindful of anything that we say or do has ramifications on other people.
"Especially if it’s something like this, where you’re putting 2m-high messages against any particular group in the public view on a road that probably has 20,000 cars a day on it."
