Couple fined after finding racist graffiti on garage door
STAMFORD, CT -- An interracial couple is speaking out after finding disturbing racist graffiti on their home in Stamford.
59-year-old Heather Lindsay says the graffiti was spray painted on her garage door - the 'N' word in big, bold letters. She says the graffiti has been there since her black husband, Lexene Charles noticed it on the Saturday before Martin Luther King Day.
"I'd like to find out who did it, because this has to stop," Charles says.
To make sure that happens, the interracial couple decided not to remove the graffiti, and now the City of Stamford has cited them with a $100 'Notice of Blight Violation.' One civil rights leader says it is 'shocking.' Darnell Crosland from the Connecticut NAACP believes if the graffiti is covered up, the whole matter will be swept away.
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"We think the police should open up a live investigation, and means they should interview people. They should create a police report, and they should have a case number. I don't even know if this situation has a case number yet, and I think that is an affront to all of us," Crosland says.
City leaders say the Stamford police is looking into what happened. In a statement, the Director of Public Safety says,
"Officers spoke with the homeowner and neighbors immediately but could not find a witness who saw or heard anyone spray painting the sheet-metal garage door. There were few security cameras in the neighborhood and none captured the incident."
"That's not the message I think anyone around here would want to send. I hope not. I'm assuming they are people from somewhere else, I hope. I don't know who would want to go through the effort to do that. That's ridiculous," says neighbor Kristine Redlien.
