A racial slur is seen in a Chinatown crosswalk on Sunday. (Photo by Melissa Miller)

After a spate of anti-Semitic graffiti in a specially designed Chinatown crosswalk appeared over the summer, someone vandalized the same artwork with apparent slurs over the weekend.

Melissa Miller was on her way to see a friend when she spotted the words “MOP HEAD” and “no pork” scrawled inside pigs depicted in the intersection, which represents the Chinese zodiac. When she passed by two hours later and it was still there, she notified someone in uniform nearby and filed a report with 311.

By Monday afternoon, the words had been washed over and were no longer visible, though a bystander looking closely could spot the remnants of a cleaning solution.

The incident appears to be among the growing list of hate crimes and other racist incidents reported in and around D.C. Someone slashed a sign at a Silver Spring church and wrote “Trump nation. Whites only.” CNN journalist David Gregory reported that a police officer threatened his Pakistani-born driver with “I will take your head off.” A belligerent man on a Green line train shouted to a fellow passenger: “Does he know what deodorant is? Is he ever going to wear some, in America?”

Alone, “no pork” could conceivably be a reference to earmarks for local pet projects, but next to a variant of more common ethnic slurs, it appears to be a reference to the Muslim dietary restriction.

Located next to the Chinatown arch, the crosswalk is arranged so that pedestrians can cross diagonally, known as a Barnes Dance or pedestrian scramble. Artist Charles Bergen was commissioned to enliven the intersection, and he chose a Chinese New Year-inspired design. The diagonals feature colorful dragons, while the dozen animals that rotate throughout the Chinese zodiac seem to jump between the old crossings.

But this isn’t the first time they’ve been used to sinister effect. The crosswalk was repeatedly vandalized over the summer with anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas and the word “JEW” inside the rats. D.C. police arrested Generoso Anthony Capodilupo and charged him with multiple counts of defacing property.

When asked about this latest incident, a spokeswoman for Metropolitan Police Department said the commander of the first district wasn’t aware of it and that it “possibly” wasn’t reported.

In fact, it isn’t even entirely clear who cleaned it up. Spokespeople for DDOT and DPW both said their teams weren’t involved, and that it was likely the DowntownDC BID—which cleaned up the slurs over the summer.

“It’s very likely that if it was there, the ambassadors removed it,” said DowntownDC spokeswoman Rachel Rose Hartman, adding that they get multiple vandalism reports a day and employ a full-time staffer to clean them up. “Regular graffiti” doesn’t get reported, she said.

Hartman hasn’t responded to repeated requests if the BID indeed cleaned up the slur or if it has been reported to MPD.