Nov 12, 2008 6:56 pm US/Eastern
Cops Probe Racist, Anti-Obama Slurs Found On L.I.
Residents In 'Quiet, Diverse' Town Find More Than 3 Dozen Cars Spray-Painted With Hateful, Sexually Graphic Graffiti
MASTIC, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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President-elect Barack Obama (file).
Ryan Anson/AFP/Getty Images
The U.S. Secret Service is now involved after cars were vandalized on Long Island.
Several neighbors in Suffolk County woke up to racist slurs, and threats against President-elect Barack Obama spray-painted on their cars.
Hallock Nash struggled to remove the racist graffiti from his vintage cars. Some of the slurs targeted Obama.
"We have to unite together instead of putting hatred stuff on people's cars," Nash said. "It's not going to change anything. He's still going to be president."
"I think it's because Obama was elected president," added Mastic resident Nicole Grullon. "I think they're mad about it, honestly."
In this Mastic neighborhood, residents call diverse and harmonious, police said more than 40 vehicles were damaged overnight with sexually graphic references and racial slurs.
"Definitely a lot of the 'N' word and as you walked further down this way, 'Kill Obama' on one car and 'Obama-bleep.' I hate using the word," resident Ron Richardson said.
The Rodriguez family snapped photos and shared them with police after shielding their children's eyes, as they walked to school, from messages of hate and divisiveness, directed at the president-elect.
"That doesn't bring our nation together at all," Amanda Rodriguez said. "We have to pray for our president."
Late Wednesday Suffolk police announced the department's Hate Crimes Unit is investigating, joined by the Secret Service, due to the nature of the threats.
Wednesday's incidents occurred about 10 miles from Patchogue, where a Hispanic man was fatally stabbed last weekend following a confrontation with seven teenagers. That investigation also continues.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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