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

[foxbat]

I found it odd that the Wall Street Journal, the day after the election, wrote about how now the specter of racism had now been vanquished with Obama's election. It will take more than one Black president to vanquish racism. We've come a very long way in this country, but incidents like this show us that we still have a ways to go and should continue our vigilance in fighting intolerance.

[bellepepper02]

The specter (as in ghost) of racism has been vanquished. Now we see that racism wasn't a ghost, something that whites like to believe belongs to the American past. Now we see it is REAL. And that's one of the blessings of Obama's win--that now America can work to address something finally that they have long loved to deny.

[notthistime]

co-signing

[magnolialiberal]

The specter of stupidity may never completely fade away.

[pporter]

That is one thing inever understood with the McCain/Palin rallies. they evoked 'HATRED' and the Obama/Biden's rallies were always, exciting, uplifting, hopeful, beautigul and there were a sea of races, creed, religion, men, women and children....it was always peacful and beautiful.

I will never understand racist. Get over it! Obama/Biden for the next 8 years! I can not understand how some people can carry around all that 'Hate' in there hearts. Must suck to be them!

[ChangeNeeder]

Intolerance is deplorable.

[rollingdivision]

I'll wait and see on this one, sounds like a story from Pennsylvania.

[brooklyncitizen]

THese incident will be less frequent if people are held accountable. We are all weary of stupid and have too many other problems that demand our attention.

[ElBruce]

Stay classy, Republicans.

[Dave01]

Too late!

[twiggy2]

hannity and limbaugh need to be stopped. there only goal is to spread hatred. i don't know how promoting hatred toward people of color is protected under the law ,as freedom of speech. there has to be a law that does not allow these men and women to continue - degrading human beings.
anybody an attorney in constitutional law, civil rights law?

[TKFraz]

What is astonishing is that someone is paying them $200,000,000 and $400,000,000 to spread evil and hatred cloaked in religion.

The devil is busy.

[rollingdivision]

Specifically, what has either said or done to promote hatred?

[Stadium]

Can't comment on Rush or Hannity (listen to neither much) but heard Lars Larsen the day after the election saying Michelle Obama hates her country in response to a caller saying how angry he was. Instead of dialing the guy down, he got stirred up himself and kept the hate going. Sad and dangerous.

[RationalDubSteppa]

Wow! Christians doing what they do best!

[druidlady42]

Just as Islam was highjacked by a bunch of fundamentalist radicals, so has "Christianity" been highjacked in this country by the same kind of fervent fundamentalist radicals! I see it in my own extended family; I see it in my neighborhood; I see it in the hate-filled rallies/ro­bocalls/ma­ilings of this recent Republican campaign.

This is not the kind of Christianity which inspired our founders, nor the kind my family imbued me with! "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

[fan4truth]

amen.

[PeaceOnEarth62]

Unfortunately this sort of thing will continue. Racists, whether real or posers, are out there. It may be a teen prank or a serious assault on this persons First Amendment Rights. Whichever it is, these people function on the fringe, they won't ever fit in anywhere and feel the need to reach out and destroy things. They should be constructive instead of be destructive. Our schools and colleges promote racial diversity so I think this all stems from what goes on in the individuals home. They learn racism and intolerance from their family.

Thankfully the folks that had the cross burned on their lawn are teaching their children by example that living within a civilized society means that you accept those that are different from ourselves and not just "tolerate" them.

[formerprosecutor]

Imagine the residual fear that leaves with you . "What will happen next ? Are they really cra zy or just having 15 minutes of fame ? will they hurt my pet ?My children ? How can I sleep well knowing they might be back ? I was sitting at home minding my business; I didn't do anything to these people. They are full of h ate ; I am scared, my family is scared." This is why the ha te crime statutes were necessary; a simple misd. vandalism does not cover this damage to a family.

[TheyAllSuck]

No, the disgrace is that if the homeowner had a firearm and shot at the pieces of human refuse that put up the burning cross, he'd be the one getting grief from law enforcement. Hate crime statutes are a bad legal policy used to cover up bad legal policy.

[Whinger]

WoW! How courageous, get those black ops men shipped to Afghanistan!

[ilovemycat]

This should be treated like any other crime. I hope they find who did this and make an example of them to show the Country that this type of KKK mentality needs to end!

[dcoxucla]

SILLY PEOPLE

[dadele]

Just remember, there are more of us than there are of them. Racists will always exist, albeit in smaller and smaller numbers. The republicans stoked the fires of hatred, it will take a while for it to quiet down. Americans, of all colors and backgrounds, voted for a man of color in numbers large enough for a landslide win. It was a victory for, not only Obama, but for our ideals.

[Shelly1970]

These freaks can move to Alaska then if they want their leader.