Cross Burned On Obama Supporters' Lawn

A family who had supported Barack Obama's presidential campaign emerged from their home in the northwestern New Jersey town of Hardwick Thursday morning to find the charred remnants of a 6-foot wooden cross on their front lawn.

Pieces of a homemade bedsheet banner reading "President Obama , Victory '08," which had been stolen from the yard the night before, also were found, leading investigators to believe the banner had been wrapped around the cross before it was set afire. Lt. Gerald Lewis of the New Jersey State Police said his agency is treating the incident as a bias crime.

Police believe the cross, made of two-by-fours bolted to a metal pole like those used to support road signs, was placed on the lawn sometime between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m., and fell over after being set on fire. Homeowner Gary Grewal said he had noticed the Obama banner missing from his lawn the night before and reported it to police.

Grewal said his 8-year-old daughter, Arianna, spotted the banner wrapped around the burnt cross as they walked toward their car to drive to school. "She saw it, that's what bothered me the most," Grewal said Thursday. "You can imagine the types of questions she was asking. It was very tough to explain."

Comments

[dimplesmile7]

This is an act of domestic terrorism and these people need to be severely punished. They need to be tried as terrorist. Isn't this the very anti-American too? It is ok to burn a cross that represents Christianity, but people get heated over burning a flag? This is well said in the posting below by JimmyJones22. These folks are dumber than a bag of rocks. Get an education please! I hope the Feds catch them.

[fedupinpa]

I have a little different take on this than most. I hope I am right. I see this as a futile act of a dying breed. It's just plain sad. So very sad.

[majorteddy]

If the republicans were to closely examine the actuarial tables (maybe they have), they would be very scared . This attitude is more prevalent in the older segments of society. Over the next four years approximately 18 million people over the age of 55 will die. They will be directly replace at the polls by new voters who will be more predominately for the Democrats. Yet the Republicans foster this culture of hate that pervades the Far Right and will only make them a more isolated group in an ever more minority prone society. Even the Neanderthals were more concentrated in a smaller area on their path to extinction.

[jimmyjones22]

I don't get right wing nutcases.

it's not ok to burn a flag, but a cross is okay? how about a bible?

[PLT23]

We as a society should not / will not put up with this!
As a majority we can put an end to this!

[LiberTLover]

I hope someone tells Obama of this and he puts the FBI on it once he is in office.

[Retrofuturistic]

This is 2008. Why does evolution take so long?

Answer: Because religion nurtures ignorance.

[Xenopus]

Ignorance is such a burden, it comes wrapped in hate and intolerance.

[PoorVets]

It's time for us to respond to this hatred ciminals that use the flag and pseudo patriotism to cause fear and hatred amongst us.

This are the bushshits that brought America down.

Well now is the perfect time to call upon them and to make them show their true colors.
It's up to the law enforcers to deal with them, unless ofcourse they are hiding them?

[Felicty]

This is just White Republicans expressing themselves.

[Retrofuturistic]

The rest of us are evolving and doing things like rising above race when we choose the best candidate for president. Too bad the Repugs are being Left Behind.

[BowlingForRevenge]

CNN's Rick Sanchez reported white Baylor University students in Waco Texas burned Obama signs in a taunt to Obama supporters (black and white) who were celebrating in front of a dorm Tuesday night.
The police were called and they arrested several white students and confiscated a noose that one was brandishing.
Baylor University is a Southern Baptist school and, as you can imagine, the students (not so much the faculty) are by and large Republican. The fact that it is a Christian school where everyone studies the Bible and attends chapel makes these incidents even more sad (not surprising though).

[DiBaskin]

These cowards tried to stop Blacks from voting for Obama. These kind of acts just make me more determined to hold my head up and be proud of who I am. I voted for Obama and I would do it again. Sadly they won't come out and fight fair they have to sneak around in the middle of the night and do the dirty deeds. These are the same cowards that are happy to send our young men and women to fight so they can be safe and sound.

[onalimb]

New Jersey is the most densely populated state and consequently we have an interesting combination of individuals. While the northeastern part of the state has a diverse predominately democratic population the northwest – Warren & Sussex Counties are predominately white & republican. So while this news is disturbing it is not a surprise. Both counties fell victim to newsletters a year or so ago that portrayed a blonde white girl as endangered and eluded that black people were taking over. Fear and ignorance is a really bad combination and plenty of both were fueled by the McCain campaign. Even his concession speech seemed to plant a seed that black people are taking over. Sussex & Warren are beautiful - truly a contradiction to the stereotype of an armpit that stains this great state. However the level of prejudice that exists emits a stench that makes Port Newark smell like a rose. It is my hope that more open-minded people will move here to compliment the natural beauty and dilute the ignorance.

[ohmetoo]

Palin incited this type of behavior and John McCain sanctioned it by not putting an immediate end to it and looking the other way. This is unacceptable in any campaign as we can see the effects on hate filled intolerance and shameful campaigning rhetoric. The socialist, communist, and ugly monikers and innuendos used in the McCain campaign cannot be written off as easily as they wish.

Look for much more of the same in the Martin/Shameless redo.

[wrenny]

I agree about McCain and Palin. It seems to me that both of them should drop whatever they're doing to apologize and take a lead in trying to repair the damage - they owe it to the nation.

[ohioan73]

I live in Northeast Ohio and about 10 years ago a black family who had recently moved to Parma had a cross burned in their yard and it made the local news. Parma is known to be unfriendly to blacks in particular. My ex and I were stopped by Parma police a total of 22 times in 18 months by Parma police. My ex kept getting pulled over by the SAME cops over and over. We spent so much money on impound because they took his car EVERY time but he never went to jail. He was in traffic court so much that eventually his license was suspended and he could no longer drive. My ex is a black nerd who wears thick glasses. He looks like Erkel. He's an I.T expert. Computer geek, not thug. The cops knew we lived in Parma and I believed they plotted to harass us out of the city because we never got pulled over by any other cops. Ever. 22 times in 18 months? WTF?

I wish I would hear another white person tell me racism is in the past. I never lived in Parma again after that and I'm pretty sure that black family that had a cross burned in their yard that same year sold their house and left by now.

[diane12]

Palin and Mccain, with their hateful smear campaign have legitimized this behavior and fed it's flames. Please read this article about how real threats to Obama's life spiked as Palin's hateful rhetoric at her rallies spiked.
The article seems to only take Palin to task, but sorry- Mccain allowed the ugly ads, mailings and robocalls to continue up to the last moment of his campaign. He never made a bold, public repudiation of this kind of talk or behavior.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/sarahpalin/3405336/Sarah-Palin-blamed-by-the-US-Secret-Service-for-death-threats-against-Barack-Obama.html

[AndrewInToronto]

Not from me. That is really horrible.

Unfortunately racism still pervades elements of society all over the globe. I live in Canada (obviously from my name) and I remember a while ago during a general strike in our city when two anti-racists groups got together and demonstrated outside the downtown house of Ernst Zundel -- a holocaust denier and a neo-Nazi supporter. I was there demonstrating there too and it was incredible to witness these huge thugs out there along with a video cam recording us. His home was symbolically painted red, black and white. Fortunately he was eventually extradited back to Germany and is in prison there.

[Culturemaven]

That makes my heart ache. Talk about terrorists...

[westcoastsc]

Take it to court. Make complaints. Call the ACLU. Here in California if the same cops pull you over again and, if it is even in the slightest way viewed as harassment, then the case is thrown out. This may even be considered a hatecrime. You and your ex-boyfriend may be entitled to punitive damages for this blatant harassment.

[bbridges1962]

Noone ever said racism is in the past. There are individuals from every race that are holding on to resentments that need to be resolved. If we don't do it now...when will it ever get done? What is the best way to begin a resolution? I am open for ideas.....