ATLANTA — For the second straight weekend, the iconic rainbow crosswalks in Midtown Atlanta were damaged by cars laying drag and doing doughnuts early Sunday morning.
Video from ATLScoop on Instagram shows a large crowd watching multiple cars spinning in circles and leaving remnants of tire marks at the intersection.
11Alive photojournalists also captured the aftermath of the act at the intersection.
"Maybe, potentially they were targeting the gays, and if they were, shame on you," Jesse Obara said, who lives nearby. “I have pride in myself. I’ve crossed a whole lot of bridges of overcoming people’s opinions about who I am and our community and what we stand for. I’m going to do me regardless of whether or not you’re doing donuts over the Rainbow Crosswalk."
After the crosswalks were damaged last weekend, Atlanta Dept. of Transportation crews quickly cleaned up the destruction last weekend when neighbors and city officials were outraged. They told 11Alive on Sunday that crews would be out there again on Monday to clean them up.
"We want to be clear, we have zero tolerance for this in our city," the Atlanta Police Department previously wrote in a statement. They went as far as offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the drivers involved.
When contacted on Sunday about the most recent incident, they said "the racers were gone by the time officers arrived on scene." They added that the investigation is ongoing.
The crosswalks were first temporarily installed in 2015, then the city took over the project in 2017, paying $196,000 to make them permanent. That high price tag is because the rainbow colors are actually not made up of paint, but thermoplastic tiles instead.
There is a surveillance camera at the corner that could've captured what happened, but as of now, Atlanta Police are not releasing the video when asked about the incident last weekend.
11Alive asked the city if it believes the LGBTQ+ community was purposely targeted, a city spokesperson responded saying: "We have no reason to believe this is anything more than reckless, idiotic driving. Our teams are looking into the matter."
Anyone with information on who caused the damage is asked to call Crime Stoppers. Information can be submitted anonymously to the tip line at 404-577-TIPS (8477) or online.