An interracial couple whose Connecticut home was vandalized last month with a racial slur is refusing to erase the obscenity until Stamford police “do their job” and find the vandals, even as the city fines them $100 a day.
Heather Lindsay, who is white, and her common-law husband Lexene Charles, who is black, expressed their frustration with the fine to the Stamford Advocate Monday, sharing that this is not the first time someone in the neighborhood has harassed them over their race.
The difference this time, they said, is they’re insisting police make their case a priority. The graffiti has been on the couple’s garage door since Jan. 14, and they say they’re not removing it.
“[Authorities should] not just cover it up and sweep it under the table as they have done in the past,” Lindsay told the local news site.
Members of the local NAACP chapter agree.
“We think the police should open up a live investigation, and that means they should interview people,” Darnell Crosland, from the Connecticut NAACP, told ABC 7 during a press conference Monday.
“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,” he added.
City and police officials told the local ABC station they are working on the case but have been unable to find witnesses or video evidence of the culprits.
The police department has offered to remove the slur but the couple has refused, the Stamford Advocate reported. According to NBC New York, Stamford Police Chief Jonathan Fontneau visited the home and said that the couple faces arrest, in addition to the daily $100 blight citation, if the slur stays on their garage door.
The couple said they’ll go to court if they have to.
“I’d like to find out who did it because it has to stop,” Charles told ABC 7.
The Stamford police did not immediately return a request for comment.
The police department’s website stresses the harm graffiti has on communities.
“Its existence has serious economic as well as psychological consequences in neighborhoods and communicates alarm,” the website reads. It further encourages the removal of graffiti within 24-48 hours to “prevent the vandals from receiving the recognition they desire.”
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