Cross burned in front of interracial couples' LI home

Cross burned in front of interracial couples' LI home

November 21, 2004, 12:49 PM EST

LAKE GROVE, N.Y. -- Two interracial couples woke up early Sunday to discover a cross burning in front of their Long Island home, police said.

The couples awoke about 3 a.m. when someone rang the doorbell of their Lake Grove home, said Suffolk County Detective Sgt. Robert Reeks. When they opened the door they found a wooden cross burning on the front lawn.

The two-family home is occupied by an interracial family on the first floor and an interracial couple on the second floor, Reeks said.

Bias crime detectives and the FBI are investigating, Reeks said.

I'm in a mixed marriage myself (I'm white, my wife is black), and I hate that shit.

Sometimes acquaintances who have never met my wife have made racial comments around me, and I exploded in rage....I just hate it. These little assholes wouldn't say shit to somebody in their face (or if they knew my wife was black), but they'll sure talk on the down low.

your DU name and avatar!

I love the man and his music. I wish he was still here.


Undergroundrailroad :hi:

and it's off the news already. I'd like to see a database of hate crimes and watch for an increase under a fundamentalist majority.

Cross-burning case looks at possible teen dispute

BY JENNIFER SMITH, INDRANI SEN AND ROBERT E. KESSLER
STAFF WRITERS

November 23, 2004

Suffolk police investigating a Sunday morning cross-burning at a home in Lake Grove said Monday that tensions about a possible relationship between a white girl and a biracial teenage boy who lives at the house may have provoked the incident.

"The rumor's out there ... " Det. Sgt. Robert R. Reecks of the Bias Crimes Bureau said Monday. "Certainly that's one of the avenues we're looking at."

Police and FBI investigators are checking various stories of hostility between white teens in the neighborhood and one of the two teenage brothers whose family lives on the lower floor of the house, law enforcement sources said. But the sources stressed that no motive had been established yet, nor suspects identified.
<snip>

Because of the bias element, the incident -- which normally would be considered fourth-degree mischief, a misdemeanor -- will be prosecuted as a felony, which under state law could call for a sentence of between 1 1/2 to four years.

do you? Whether the cross was because of her marriage to a black man or her biracial son dating a white girl, it was still a cross burning! I don't know if it's her justifying it away or the police looking for a more palatable explanation.

I like her ending quote though: "I don't wish anyone harm," she said. "But the Bible also says be wise as serpents, as well as being as innocent as doves. I will defend myself against these types of things."

I know the area very well. As a matter of fact, I would not want to be in that neighborhood after dark for fear of arrest (yeah, they'll make something up on you) or worse. Perhaps they are just scared or the police told them not to comment to the press. What I think is someone didn't like seeing a white girl with a black male and decided to send a message.

This is a hate crime no matter who was dating who or who lived up/down stairs. This is a Long Island story that is getting a lot of national attention. Let's hope they find the person who did this.

UndergroundRR

Move fast to apprehend cross-burner

November 24, 2004

Law enforcement officials are working hard to determine whether the person or persons who planted a burning cross on a lawn of a home occupied by two interracial couples in Lake Grove Sunday did so out of adolescent stupidity or some simmering racist rage.

Whatever the motive, Suffolk County police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. attorney's office are right to treat the matter for what it is - a hate crime. "When we remain silent, we allow it to fester," County Executive Steve Levy said Monday. And he's right.

Hate crimes - and yes, that includes cross burnings - are hardly new on Long Island. Over the years, police in Suffolk and Nassau have been called to a variety of ugly scenes, among them synagogues scrawled with swastikas; homes defaced by racist graffiti; malls where shoppers found "white power" leaflets tucked under their windshield wipers, and the vicious beatings of two day laborers.

Long Island's decades of entrenched segregation and racial steering in home sales didn't help; instead it virtually guaranteed that white and non-white residents had little daily contact with one another. But that's changing.

many feelings for me.

It's horrible that in 2004, people still burn crosses. It's also completely horrible that some people are too chicken shit to say it to your face that they hate you and wish you harm. Or as Maya Angelou said, "I refuse to allow myself to be pecked to death by ducks...' Those that are too cowardly to express their true intent, but take refuge in taking small swipes and little pieces of a person with passive agressive behaviour, etc.

I hope by 'protecting herself' the woman in the article meant, "I'm packin' heat and I know how to use it--you sorry bastards!"

Bliss

..."I refuse to allow myself to be pecked to death by ducks..."

I love that line.

I just love Maya Angelou! Two of her quotes have changed the way I approach issues in life. She's so wise and wonderful. Actually, I should give Oprah some credit too, as I was only privy to this great quote due to the interview w/ Maya in Oprah's magazine.

Bliss