Police: Swastikas painted on black family's home in Arlington
Arlington Police report somebody painted swastikas Saturday on the garage door of a black family.
Coupled with other recent incidents in town - and across the country - police and the town Human Rights Commission are saying enough's enough. In a statement today, they say:
As members of the Arlington community, we offer our unconditional support and solidarity to anyone who has been a victim of racism or anti-Semitism. We are greatly disturbed by these recent events, and we assure you that we will not tolerate hateful acts in our town.
Police declined to release the street or even part of town where the swastika painting happened, to protect the family's privacy.
Other recent incidents cited by the police and the commission include:
Recurring racist and anti-Semitic graffiti at Ottoson Middle School, an unsolicited mailing of KKK material to someone's home, and Black Lives Matter signs repeatedly defaced or destroyed at local houses of worship.
Earlier this month, an Ottoson student made up racist text messages about another student and then reported receiving them.
APD and AHRC are committed to creating an atmosphere where everyone in Arlington feels safe and supported. All of us function best when living without fear of violence, discrimination, exclusion, or humiliation. Our children, families, businesses, and the community as a whole are hurt by hateful acts against anyone based on race, color, religious views, national origin, sex, gender identity, citizenship, age, ancestry, family/marital status, sexual orientation, disability, source of income, or military status.
"We are asking for your help in ensuring that all individuals who live, attend school, work, visit, shop, or receive services in Arlington feel welcome and protected here. If you know of an act of discrimination, intimidation, or other hate crime, please report it to APD (781-643-1212) and/or AHRC (781-316-3250, [email protected]).
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Comments
Can We Beat The Person Up?
If the tagger is caught, can we just smack them around a bit, instead of a Peace In or a banner in front of a church?
Someone is pushing the anti-tolerance envelope in Arlington a bit, sometimes it is ok to hit back. It sends a message to the closeted and non-closeted White Supremacists out there that maybe you should go away.
To paraphrase Jake E. Blues; I Hate Arlington Nazis.
Beat the person up??? How old
Beat the person up??? How old are you?
I defer to Woody Allen on that one
Isaac: "Yeah, a real self-destructive impulse. You know, I want
to write a book, so I, so I ... Has anybody read that
nazis are going to march in New Jersey, you know? I
read this in the newspaper, we should go down there, get
some guys together, you know, get some bricks and
baseball bats and really explain things to them."
Man: "There was this devastating satirical piece on that on the op-ed
page of the Times. It is devastating."
Isaac: "Well, well, a satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but
bricks and baseball bats really gets right to the
point."
Woman: "Oh, but really biting satire is always better than physical
force."
Isaac: "No, physical force is always better with nazis. Cos
it's hard to satirize a guy with shiny boots."
"Hard to satirize"...?
Tell it to Mel Brooks, not to mention Charlie Chaplain.
Moe Howard too...
The Stooges did it before Chaplin...
Don't forget
Don't forget that there are still people out there that may do this type of thing for attention or some other sick purpose... remember the Lunenburg, MA case from 2013?
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/breakingnews/ci_25019972/da-not-eno...
You mean
They arent just kids who messed up?
Blah blah, can't have any evil bike lock self defense when attacked or threatened but blah but beat these thems up?
Oh wait ... I guess you don't know their parents from church so tribal hypocrisy mode on!
It's a little bit different
If this thug sprayed the swastika on the bikeway or at Spy Pond, perhaps a lecture about why Nazis are bad and some community service would be in order, but this is the feckin house of a black family. Yes, if they were Jewish it would be worse, but there's no way there was no intent with this.
Swastika graffiti doesn't
Swastika graffiti doesn't even make sense for hate criming black people.
KKK often used swastikas, are
KKK often used swastikas, are you expecting hate to be rational or something?
Swastika graffiti doesn't
Uh - Black people can also be Jewish. We don't know that this family is not, only that their visible apparent race was reported.
Serious, you're playing the
Serious, you're playing the black Jew card? I raise you Jain graffiti artists.
I'm sure that makes the
I'm sure that makes the family in question feel much better about the whole incident.
Yes, it does. Blacks were
Yes, it does. Blacks were considered an inferior race and frequently used by the Nazis for medical experiments
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005479
Au contraire
White power?
Skin heads?
Neo-Nazis?
The location matters more
The location matters more than the content.
It all adds up to "we know where you live, we want you to leave, and we will break the law to make you leave."
Human Rights Commission
Does every city and town have a humans rights commission? The Arlington Commission reports several incidents of hate recently. I find it hard to believe that the tiny hamlet of Arlington is the only town in Massachusetts that is experiencing hate crimes.
Not a tiny hamlet
Town in name only of 50K people. Would be a large city in many states.
So a murder in Mattapan will
So a murder in Mattapan will send an avalanche of vitriolic comments condemning the "savages" that roam those streets. Yet Arlington is a haven of bigots for decades but there isn't a flood a comments that condemn this "idyllic" suburb for non "sub-groups".
So?
What's your point? That people who are bothered by racism express themselves in a different manner than people who are bothered by the existence of black people?
Go read the first comment
I think Costello's comment makes you look kind of thick.
Or did you just write your comment without seeing what others wrote?
Is Trump the symptom, or the cause
Of the resurgence in the Neo-Nazi, KKK, and other white terror groups, I wonder?
Tough call
I mean, there is the underlying issue of people feeling hopeless and powerless which helped give rise to politician Trump, but his political ascendancy certainly makes those on the racist/neo-Nazi extreme feel comfortable expressing their beliefs.
People on the racist/neo-Nazi Extreme:
The people who espouse those kind of attitudes are the people who Trump appeals to.
But this is the question
Is Trump exploiting these pre-existing feelings, or is he stirring the feelings up?
Both
He's directing them toward obvious targets and symbols.
That's how scapegoating works.
Were that the case
Pat Buchanan would have been elected President in 1992.