‘A white neighborhood’: Neighbor leaves note for new family with black son, Ind. cops say
A neighbor in Indiana is accused of greeting a new family in her neighborhood with a racist note posted to their front door.
Deborah Cantwell, 63, was charged Thursday with two misdemeanors — intimidation and criminal mischief, according to jail records. Police said in a news release that she posted a typed letter laced with racial slurs on the front door of the new neighbors’ home, after noticing that their son is black.
The family members who allegedly received and reported the racist note have not been identified by authorities — by name, race or any other potentially identifying information. They moved into the small central Indiana town of Greenwood earlier this month.
“The letter contained erroneous information concerning the property and also made derogatory racial comments towards a juvenile family member,” the release stated.
A GoFundMe campaign in the family’s name, which says its mission is to raise money for a lawyer, posted a photo of part of the letter last week that police say was written by Cantwell. That campaign had raised more than $4,300 of its $5,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.
“THIS IS A WHITE NEIGHBORHOOD,” the note reads, drifting back and forth between all caps and incomplete thoughts, but never deviating from the discriminatory language at its core. “Perhaps you should have considered the neighbors before bringing your n----- kid to the neighborhood. Your n----- kid is not welcome.”
Cantwell posted her $8,000 bond and was released from jail Friday, according to the Kokomo Tribune, but she was also ordered by the county court to have no further contact with her new neighbors, a protective order based on the court’s finding that “stalking has occurred.”
The 63-year-old admitted to police that she not only wrote the letter out of anger, but also toilet-papered the new family’s home, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the newspaper.
“Just rage, I was trying to vent,” Cantwell said, according to the affidavit.
Free on bond and facing the two misdemeanor counts, Cantwell will be back in court on Nov. 19 for a hearing in her case, according to the Associated Press.
Indiana does not have hate crime laws in place to protect minorities or religious and other groups from discrimination by increasing the penalties associated with vandalism, intimidation and other crimes targeting these populations. That makes it one of just five states where that is the case, according to RTV6.
This story was originally published October 30, 2018 at 4:47 PM.