I was the victim of a hate crime last Thursday

[Generic Other]

Last edited Sat Jul 11, 2020, 04:35 PM - Edit history (1)

Because my neighbors are inconsiderate Trumpers, I don’t interact with them other than an occasional wave and not even that after they put a Franklin Graham poster in their front yard advertising his appearance last year. They also tore down my sign on a telephone pole on the other side of my house facing me. They probably were the ones who tried to kick over my art installation "4th of Trump" of caged migrant children last 4th of July. These actions said all I ever wanted to know about them.

They rent out their house to college students, and they also rent the garage as well which wasn't even legal until recently. They usually don't do this when they are living in the home themselves. I have been wondering of late if the garage was occupied again as the lights are on late at night. Someone comes in the side gate after midnight as well. At first, I thought it was an animal. Then, I wondered if someone was casing the house. I even put a lock on my gate just in case. And actually worried about their property, wondering if I should say something as watchful neighbors should.

I had thought it odd the man moved his power tools and his motorcycle into the side yard, covering it with a tarp, just to rev the motor twice a day and also to run the power tools, especially when he had a large driveway and double car garage with workshop in the back enclosed by his fence, but I simply closed the window when he sawed so it would be quieter in my space. I assumed the noise would be temporary.

Having never really paid attention, I still knew his buddy came to the front gate every morning. I could hear their voices, but I never looked out knowing it was just the neighbor. No cause for alarm. Today, my window is wide open. I hear the gate open, hear the greetings being shared, so I look casually out the window and freeze!

My flag-waving neighbor is a Nazi.

From where I sit in my office upstairs working, I see his covered old man's uncool hog motorcycle with saddlebags and seats that make it look like a Highway patrolman's ride next to my side of the house, where he revs it twice a day to warm it up as he has every day during COVID because we are on lockdown in a state where mask-wearing is mandated. I have heard the sounds he made all last summer planing pickets for a fence he made, a planter box, and other projects which annoyed me but not enough to complain. Suddenly out of nowhere today though, I hear the sound of voices laughing, and he thanks his buddy for keeping us all safe. The American flag flaps in the breeze framing this scene for me.

I sit by the window typing and working because my street is a COVID soup of unmasked joggers, dog walkers, college students...no one wears a mask even when mandated. 100s walk past every day. Double that number drive past. The window is my safe place. I have sat here since February. Typing, singing, drawing, painting, napping, eating, just staring out.

And now this neighbor has invited an unmasked man who comes in the yard in a bulletproof flack jacket, fluorescent green, Seahawk colors. He's packing a sidearm! A Glock not twenty feet from my window!! His jacket says PASTOR on the back in huge huge letters, and he has a long thin blonde Duck Dynasty ponytail. I just then realize he is probably the man living in the garage, that he makes the noise I hear out the window at the gate in the morning and late at night, that he is why M-80s exploded like an attack on Ft. Lewis on the 4th of July. Vigilante hillbilly George Zimmerman has come in from patrolling my block to protect my neighbors from people of color like me -- an Asian woman who must be a threat to him because he is so afraid.

I LOSE my shit as they say. I call them "hypocritical small dick pussyass NAZI chickenshit fake Christians." Then, I start screaming Bible verses. My dad always made me study my Bible, and we all know the Devil can quote scripture with the best of them. Ask any Republican fundie. I am furious. "Chickenshit NAZIs."

I imagined hosting a BLM protest rally in front of my house. The people from CHOP. All masked. All carrying Skittles. All waving signs. All camping in my yard.

My peace-loving friends calmed me down. You know who you are, but I am a social justice warrior ready to fight. And I will be painting a BLM sign on the side of my house facing the neighbor's window.

I refuse to live in fear.

Starting tomorrow I will be folding cranes and hanging them on my trees and bushes. For George Floyd. For Trayvon Martin. For Emmett Till. For me.

In Japan, the Shinto belief is if you can fold 1000 cranes, you will heal. I hope they are right.

The next day, I posted this:

Sorry, I worried you all. I finally fell asleep this morning, exhausted by my thoughts. I jumped at every shadow and sound before I convinced myself that my ordeal was nothing compared to so many others who stood their ground against HATE.

This morning, when I looked out the window at the man's motorcycle, I noticed why he has been cracking the blinds next to his office window. 20 years, they never opened the blinds. I have three wonderful bay windows with open light in my dining room. To get from my bedroom to the bathroom, I crossed that chain of light. Day and night. No fears. Now, I am afraid that the camera spies on me. Will replace the superfluous door or add a curtain.
Please do not worry unnecessarily. Until then, my only refuge from this neighbor is my upstairs studio/study. And that faces the UPS freshman party house, but they are just noisy, not NAZIs.

I posted to FB where many responded with sympathy and even anger for my sake. Yesterday, the FB page had this response:

Citizen Z says this to me: Ignore them Antfarm. That would be their worst punishment.

Larkworthy: You try being an Asian-American and ignoring my new normal. Please don't trivialize how I am feeling. You have the privilege to ignore a*holes. I don't.

Citizen Z: I’m not trivializing your concerns. These crazy trump people are scary to everyone. But they live for confrontation. What else can you do? They are not going to change their attitude no matter what anyone says to them. I really just saying to avoid them like covid.

Larkworthy: Do you not understand that for POC, your fears are minor? You have the privilege to ignore people who annoy you for being a "libtard," the worst words they can hurl at you. POC die when they stand their ground. They cannot hide. They can't be invisible. If the cops come to my house, I will be the one with a gun to my head, but I also will have documented the truth for all who refuse to see. Don't tell me to live in fear because you are willing to avoid the issue because it does not impact your life.

This also includes LGBTQ, women, the disabled, the elderly, and non-Christians...only straight white rich men get a pass.

To those who unfriended me for calling out unChristian behavior, thanks.

I blocked Citizen Z because he told me to ignore racists.

Addendum: I warned my other neighbors -- the UPS party kids to be on the lookout for the vigilante. They have been marching across the alley from the racists' house singing like a Sunday School Choir:
"ain't no justice anywhere in the world today/ till the judge feel like he wanna play/ ain't no justice round here today..." The youth of tomorrow rock.

I would post in the gungeon, but I trashed them and blocked them years ago. And because they also would not consider this a hate crime.






Anyone else who wants to tell POC to be seen, terrorized, and not heard can expect the same response from me.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Might be time to get some security cameras...

[Generic Other]

5. He has his aimed at my window

To guard his motorcycle.

I guess you are right. I need some.

[blm]

2. ((Gen O))

[Generic Other]

6. I appreciate your support

BTW, how did you get that name so long ago? You clearly anticipated this movement.

[blm]

9. Heh

I came to DU from MWO and Bartcop where I’d draw attention to Bush and GOPs unholy alliance with RevMoon and his propaganda media machine. blm was the shortened form of bushlvsmoonies.

[Generic Other]

10. That is amazing!!

Sometimes things align and loop like parallel lines that cross and recross the universe forever!!

I was on MWO and Bartcop published my very first poster. Thanks for the memory. We have been here since Genesis.

[blm]

12. Yes, sister warrior.

; )

[sarcasmo]

3. Outdoor security camera on Amzaon, this one is highly rated.

https://www.amazon.com/Blink-Smart-Security-Camera/dp/B07MN67BCR/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2XKNURBQAUBTM&dchild=1&keywords=security+camera+outdoor&qid=1594497487&sprefix=Secuirty+cam%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyNDRDQkpQR1FaMVMzJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTMzODY2MzFIQlNRMDdFU1VNTCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzg0MTM0UkpPQUcwVTBEVFNLJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[Generic Other]

7. Will check this out

Thank you for the advice. I may send DU mail asking you how to install when I screw it up (as I inevitably will).

[sarcasmo]

20. I always put the make and model number into Youtube and watch the videos :) .

[Generic Other]

21. Brilliant!

I do that with Photoshop and my PC. Should have thought of that.

[iemitsu]

4. I'm so sorry you had to experience this.

No one deserves to be made uncomfortable or fearful in their own home or neighborhood.
The birds are beautiful.

[Generic Other]

8. The birds have special tags

Say Their Names: Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Emmett Till, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd...

I got this idea from a Native America writer, Sherman Alexie. He said Moses on the reservation whispered the names of all the Native American warriors who died and set them free on Memorial Day because they were not remembered any other way...

[MLAA]

11. Sending you 💕💕💖💖

The cranes are beautiful!

[Generic Other]

14. You should hear what my mum would say

Not 1000 by a long shot. "Kindegarten can do better" my Mum would say! Sometimes, I miss her encouraging words.

[MLAA]

19. She set some very high standards 😊

[FM123]

13. Sending you love, support and solidarity!

[Generic Other]

15. I thank you from the bottom of my heart

I am a timid, socially distancing person in the best of times.

I know if I had called the police like an Asian Karen, it would be my neck with a brave blue knee leaning on it.

[FirstLight]

17. That is so sad and scary...

:hugs:

They scare me too, but I am just a 50yr old white lady, I don't look like my Jewish & Cherokee ancestors, so I guess I get somewhat of a pass to. Except I have a big mouth too, and would have totally gone off and yelled at them too like you lol

So glad the University kids are looking out for you now, you should totally organize some form of candlelight vigil or something but then again, I'm a rabble-rouser. Antagonizing them is probably unwise as it would be useless, and since you are feeling threatened already, it could escalate things you don't want...not only that how awful to feel like your own space and neighborhood is a "war zone" of sorts.

I wish there was an easy answer to this - so many of us are being outright threatened by these bigots and bullies. I cannot imagine how much MORE scary it is for anyone who is "ethnically different" cuz these guys target anyone who isn't white like them.

Please stay safe and keep us posted if anything else happens or you just need to vent...

[Generic Other]

18. Yes these are sad and terrible times

I am done. I feel I said my piece. I stood my damn ground as bravely as I was able. If others can do this across America, I have to step up too. They faced way worse. I read the transcript of GeorgE Floyd's arrest. I get chills when I think of it. Triggered by the memory of reading it out loud to my friend. I channeled the dying man's words and it went through me like a ghost spirit. I never had such a strange out-of-body experience. I was already very sleepy when I saw the transcript at 1 am or so, and began to read thinking it would be 1/2 a page. It was 7-8 I think. When he invoked the memory of his dead mother as I was reading, when he begged for his life, I fell into a trance-like state (sleep deprivation caused). My friend kind of woke me up, said I was reading one word at a time so slow after that that he grew alarmed, said I slumped over the keyboard. He touched my shoulder, and I started reading faster again. I have been haunted ever since. I experienced his death in a sense. It was so jarring. I dreamed of his death, and when I awoke in the morning, I said, George Floyd spoke to me last night.

Not exactly an explainable experience. I didn't march, protest or risk my body for the first time in my life. But I awake now, knowing that COVID is a shit poor excuse not to speak out against this injustice. I am also one the gov of Texas said should just die for being old. No. "I will not go gentle into that good night."

[I_UndergroundPanther]

22. Tears

For you and George Floyd. And the others who died because they were treated as expendable or a threat that wasen't a threat except in the minds of who murdered them.

I have been treated as a threat where I was going for help with my trauma .

I'm transgender. A warrior too,however wounded. This racist sociopathic bullshit needs to stop.

Be safe,take care.

[Generic Other]

24. We are all expendable to the haters

[diva77]

23. so sorry for your situation; I hope the cranes will have some impact

they are beautiful and powerful

[Generic Other]

25. Oh if you saw the bungled folding job

You would laugh. The first one looked like a turkey.

[diva77]

26. Turkeys, cranes...it's all good!