Swastika on Miami-Dade County Bar Association building.

A Miami judge said he was sickened to discover two swastikas spray painted on government buildings. Now, authorities are renewing calls to help find the person behind the defacement.

David Young, a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge in the family division, never imagined a person would mark a hate symbol on a government building. Young was walking back to work after lunch around 1:30 p.m. Feb. 27, when he noticed the drawing on the Dade County Bar Association building.

Zachary James, a Miami-Dade Circuit judge in the domestic violence division, was chatting with Young outside of the building when they saw the hate symbol—most known for its association with the German Nazi political party linked to the death of about 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust.

"No. It can't be. Zack, look at this!" Young remembers saying as anger boiled inside of him.

The Honorable Zachary James, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida.

Before their eyes was a swastika spray painted in front of the public building that houses the Dade County Bar Association.

"It was pretty horrifying," said James, a grandson of a Holocaust survivor.

The two judges immediately went into the building and met with Jacqueline B. Kiviat, the bar association's executive director. They took Kiviat outside, and James said Kiviat too became outraged.

"I'm going to deal with this," he remembers Kiviat saying before she ordered the symbol to be covered up until it could be removed.

Young, who practices Judaism, has heard homophobic slurs made in his courtroom. But he said that does not compare to what he saw that day.

A homophobic statement in a courtroom could be said out of emotion, Young said. But the intent was different with the swastika. The spray painting of the hate symbol was premeditated and "an intent there that was very scary." After seeing the swastika, Young reached out to others, including the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, about the graffiti.

The Honorable David Young, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida.

"All incidents of hate are absolutely not tolerated," Stephanie Viegas, director of community security at the Jewish Federation, said Wednesday. She noted anti-Semitic hate crime incidents are rising, attributing social media as a platform that is inciting others.

Around 4 p.m. on the day he first noticed it, Young walked out of the bar association building to see if the symbol had been removed. It had been. But then, Young was told by a valet worker that there was a second swastika at the nearby Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center. Young said he was "sickened" that someone "would be so cruel."

Gilbert K. Squires, the president of the Dade County Bar Association, said he has zero tolerance for such criminal acts. The incident still infuriates him.

"I believe that their attempt is to intimidate and to harass and particularly the institutions of law at the Dade County Bar Association, the courthouse," Squires said. "Our constitution is alive and well, and those types of individuals cannot destroy it."

The Miami-Dade Police Department is asking that anyone with information about who drew the symbols to contact (305) 471-2350. Anyone who is targeted or is a witness to a hate crime can report the incident online through the ADL incident portal.