Gary Fire Officials Investigating Blaze As Hate Crime
Monday, September 13, 2004 at 03:47AM
TheSpook
Racism may have been the motive in a fire on Saturday in Gary's Black
Oak neighborhood, according to published reports. A Habitat for
Humanity home at 2411 Calhoun St. was extensively damaged by the fire,
authorities told the Times of Northwest Indiana. A black family was
scheduled to move into the house, which was valued at $95,000, next
week, fire officials said. Authorities are investigating the incident
as a hate crime. The family was supposed to move into the house next
week. "There were some issues as to why blacks got this home and whites
didn't," said Gary Police Chief Garnett Anderson. "They built two
Habitat For Humanity homes in this neighborhood. We'll investigate all
that and see if we can come to the bottom of it." Kramer also reported
that during the construction of the house, there was an incident where
there was some racial graffiti and vandalism at the site. [more ]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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