Of course, they struck at night because they are too cowardly to stand up and be recognized.
A township in Michigan is reeling from a 24-hour period from early Sunday morning to early Monday morning that featured two major acts of hate, although authorities do not know if the two incidents are related.
The first incident occurred early Sunday morning and involved the family of a well-known surgical veterinarian in the community, Dr. Lucretia Greear. Greear specializes in holistic treatments and treating cancer patients — and happens to be in an interracial marriage.
Lucretia’s husband Tony was alerted to the incident by his son. Video cameras show that a single individual who was joined by additional people in two other vehicles drove up to the Greear’s vehicles and used a white marker to write a racial epithet and a swastika, as well as other expletives and vulgar images.
“I was furious,” said Tony Greear in an interview with WXYZ-TV in Michigan. “My son called me and said, ‘Dad, come outside. You won’t believe this.'”
Lucretia Greear took the high road in her response to the hate, but still feels the repercussions of the violation of her home.
“It’s very scary,” she said. “It’s like not feeling safe in my home, you know, how far is this going to go?” Greear continued. “I was up all night and I don’t think it registered to me how hurtful and how hateful it was. I — just processing that there’s nothing about me that should be wrong for my children but today there is. They have a Black mom.”
Grear also took the time to directly speak to the assailants.
“I feel sorry that your heart is filled with that much hate and that much hurt,” Greear said. “You have a miserable life.”
Roughly 24 hours later, early Monday morning in Brownstown Township, police were canvassing the same neighborhood after anti-Semitic fliers were found placed in small plastic bags and thrown outside of an estimated 20 homes. The same fliers have been found across Michigan previously. The small plastic bags are weighed down with rocks and gravel so they won’t blow away in the wind.
The events of the last 24 hours were a shock to Brownstown Township Supervisor Ed Smith, another prominent African-American in the community.
“Hate does not go away, it just hides,” Smith said. “So it’s important for all of us to be proactive.”