Civil society organizations gathered within the joint initiative “Free the Streets” condemn the practice of prosecuting citizens who restore public spaces to their original state by removing hate graffiti.
The latest such case occurred in Niš, where activists from the Green–Left Front, including Dejan Petrović, a teacher at the “Učitelj Tasa” Elementary School in Niš, repainted over the graffiti “When the army returns to Kosovo” that had been written on the wall of this school over the previous weekend. Following a complaint by citizens, municipal police issued Petrović a misdemeanor citation on Wednesday, February 4, stating that he had repainted the graffiti without the consent of the school principal.
Our organizations express solidarity with Dejan Petrović, as well as with other citizens who care about the cleanliness of their local public spaces. Militaristic, homophobic, and racist slogans that spread hate speech have no place in public spaces, especially not on the walls of schools and other public institutions. Such messages are dangerous and harmful, and it is particularly concerning that this content is being drawn in a coordinated and systematic manner.
Extremist and football hooligan groups are involved in this organized destruction of public space, while representatives of the authorities and institutions not only fail to problematize such graffiti, but often even praise it. Citizens and activists who have cleaned walls have frequently been targeted by extremists, received threats, and been subjected to organized harassment on social media; in some cases, hooligans directly warned them not to touch the graffiti they had painted. In all of these cases, the reaction of the competent authorities was absent.
In a series of misdemeanor proceedings conducted against activists from the association Krokodil and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights for removing graffiti of the same content from a public institution in Belgrade, we proved that cleaning public spaces cannot be characterized as a misdemeanor of disturbing public order and peace. Initiating such proceedings is undoubtedly a measure of intimidation and disciplining of citizens who refuse to accept warmongering messages in public spaces.
We consider the statement by Miloš Vučević, advisor to the President of the Republic and president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), to be discriminatory. He described the action of removing hate graffiti from the wall of a school in Niš as “auto-chauvinism,” adding that the graffiti was repainted by “those who hate everything Serbian.” The fight against hate speech, intolerance, and discrimination is not, and cannot be, “anti-Serbian.”
The “Free the Streets” initiative comprises the Association KROKODIL, Partners Serbia, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM), and the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights.
