San Francisco, home to some of the earliest Chinese immigrants to the USA, has been hit with a spate of racist graffiti with hate messages targeting the Chinese community. Police are now investigating the messages as a hate crime.

Residents began noticing the first of five hate messages that said “NO MORE CHINESE” written with bright orange spray paint on Sunday. The anti-Chinese messages can be seen in the city’s Bay View and Portola neighborhoods, the latter of which contains a sizable Asian community.

Resident Vicky Chau, whose father found the first anti-Chinese message, described her reaction to the graffiti. “I’ve seen graffiti in my neighborhood before, but never with this type of message,” Chau said. “Overall based on the messages I’ve received, the community has been supportive and want to find the culprit.”

Blog Angry Asian Man has assembled a collection of the hate messages, some of which date back a couple of months:

Police spokeswoman Grace Gatpandan said they are investigating these incidents as vandalism and a hate crime. Police are looking for video footage from private security cameras in the area to help the investigation, along with any witnesses.

City workers have since removed the graffiti from the walls.

Looking to turn a negative situation into a positive one, at least one of the hate messages has been defaced to read “MORE CHINESE”, while Angry Asian Man also had his own creative response: