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

[EPluribisUnum]

Susquehanna County Pennsylvania Cross Burning After Obama Presidential Victory. Compelling Action News TV12 interview with interracial couple Ruth Cohen and Archie Johnson who found a burned cross in their yard Wednesday: http://www.wbng.com/news/local/34114559.html?video=YHI&t=a

[NoSillyName]

Sickos. They burned crosses when Kennedy was running as well. Why? Because he was Catholic. These freaks always need someone to hate. They need psychological help.

[LWkcma]

what they need is a lobotomy

[spacepac]

and need to be sterilized so they can't breed

[larry278]

Damn, I'm glad that I don't have a house in Jersey & I got out years ago. Jersey is strange, like rifle racks in most pick-up counties.

[aedelbert]

Thanks for lumping over 7 million largely liberal Jersey residents into one dumb pile. Says a lot about your powers of discernment.

[westcoastsc]

Obama won New Jersey, but I still have to agree with some of what you said about people I know from New Jersey.

[LHoney]

I wonder what these hat eful people do when their house is on fire and the first fire-fighter to appear is a black man? How stoopid...

[magwildwood]

it's hard to believe this happened in new jersey. i'm very disappointed with my state. The town that county is in did go red in the election...

[sylar]

That's the calibre of support McCain garnered. Sick.

[Tom95134]

And Palin. They all are case in the same mold.

[Indie2008]

There are some among the media who are still fighting the campaign. What could their motivation possibly be. Are they putting "country first", or their own ratings? A disgusting by-product of this is the enabling of those who refuse to accept the election results. Ironically, these are the people who like to consider themselves super-patriots.

[hildutus]

And these are the same people who ranted that we should all line up to support the new President-Elect Bush or else we would be unpatriotic. So what does that make them?

[ShyShea]

Well from what I've seen Republicans have always appeared proudly hypocritical.

[golfgoddess]

I find it amazing that bigots would use a cross as a symbol of their hatred. The cross is supossed to be a symbol of love and tolerance...

So ...message to hate mongers: Use the cross you burn as a tool to heal your fear and self loathing!

[rdiaz921]

whoever did that needs to move.

[rdiaz921]

LmAO!!!

I was thinking the same thing as the person below me!!!!

(NEW JERSEY!?)

[robXdion]

Ever been there? You'll be surprised.

[roninroshi]

Racism is alive and well,a terrible legacy in America...my state MT. is filled w/Redneck Racists the things i heard during President Elect Obama's campaign sickened me...i grew up in Northern NJ and remember
how bad it was then...my parents used the "n" word on a regular basis and i had many fights in school defending my Black friends...the McCain camp brought many of them out of the wood work.

[LWkcma]

racism is everywhere in America. small minded people, brought up wrong, filled with hatred of anyone different. We had an incident Wed. morning at our local QT in Independence, Mo. of a ignorant person, running thier mouth, trying to pick a fight. Sometimes it's so sad to see this in our country.

[Matt7]

It's actually a good thing this kind of fear/hatred IS exposed.

As much as people DESPERATELY want to believe that America has finally arrived, and can put talk of racial prejudice/inequality behind us, these incidents clearly illustrate how far we have yet to go, before we will have “turned the page” on the issue of race.

Obama won brilliantly, through excellent strategic planning and execution. He offered a clear choice to Washington’s business-as-usual. So, seemingly, this race should not have been even THAT close.

An extraordinary man, excellent candidate, potentially a great President, he's got top-notch credentials, temperament, personal/professional qualifications, and confidence/support of experienced professionals in their respective fields. But had it not been for “the economy,” even those qualities would not have been compelling enough for this man of color to win the support of SOME dyed-in-the-wool “Americans.”

We can't talk about our being "post'-" anything until we determine how we got to where we are, what needs to be done to progress beyond it; and do the work /take the steps to get it done. As anxious as we are to block out and forget about the ugly chapters of our nation's history, we can’t return our country to greatness through blindness and denial. We’ve got a lot of work to do; but we can do it.

We’ll know we’ve arrived when a black George Bush CAN (didn’t say SHOULD) get elected President. :-)

[isom74]

While the election of Barack Obama was a giant leap forward for our country, we are still a long way from eliminating the politics of fear and discrimination. My hope is that there will be more of an open dialogue on race relations in this country and that from this dialogue there will be a clear understanding of what constitutes institutionalized racism. Incidents such as the one described here are clearly overt and can be dealt with through enforcement of hate crime laws. What is harder to reveal and control are the covert actions that use race and/or creed to limit opportunities in jobs, education and health care.

[tbone99]

All crosses should be burned - they have to come to represent intolerance and hate, just like they began.

[blust8r]

uh... amen?

[Candace8383]

I live in NJ too
it was nearly impossible to have an Obama lawn sign up in fact on one main road Obama supporters hung the signs in tree to keep them.
I was out and about the neighborhood yesterday and this woman saw my bumper sticker she slammed her car door and literally snarled at me...charming
But this is the republicans, they cant imagine that anyone would disagree with them .they think that to be a democrat is to be a fake American
gee i wonder where they got that from?

Thanks Sarah
thanks talk radio
you are true patriots if destroying and dividing the country makes you one

[majii]

After the election of P-e Obama, folks here in GA are like rabid dogs. They are so outraged and disgusted that the M/P ticket didn't win this election. Oh, well, they'll have to suck it up and get on with their lives like I've had to do when Bush2 was elected and re-elected in 2000 + 2004. Many people on my job have looks of pure hatred and derision on their faces when they look at me, simply because I am a person of color who happened to vote for a person of color because he is the best person for the job of POTUS.

[pissdoffinohio]

i am not black. white blond hair blue eyes. and this kind of hatred racism makes me sik to my stomach. whn i encounter this i wil fite it evry step of th way. it is most likely th product of dumb kids. bt too oftn kids DO what ther parents talk abowt.
whatevr yuor politics, this shod nevr be toleratd on any level.
(exuse spellng erors, due to brain troma and spelchek wont help i wont regniz th wrds)