Community leaders in the Hartford suburb of Windsor are speaking out against recent acts of potentially hate-motivated vandalism.
Officials say a Pride flag was torn down from the town’s First Church, a plaque honoring Black veterans was stolen from a cemetery, and a bench honoring two Black community leaders was stolen from another cemetery.
“Hate is not welcome here in Windsor, Connecticut,” Mayor Nuchette Black-Burke said at a Friday morning press conference at Windsor Town Hall. “It will not be tolerated.”
Black-Burke said the Windsor police are investigating the incidents. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said the Connecticut State Police had been made aware of the vandalism and stand ready to assist in the investigation.
The acts are “despicable and reprehensible,” Bysiewicz said.
“When we see acts of hate, we must stand up and call them out,” she said.
Corrie Betts, president of the Greater Hartford branch of the NAACP, called for the events to be investigated as hate crimes.
“Some may choose to call these acts of vandalism, but when our history, our sacred spaces and symbols of inclusion and human dignity are targeted, we must be willing to confront the possibility of something much deeper,” Betts said. “I call it hate.”
Pastor Adrienne Armes of First Church read a letter from senior minister Rev. Ned Parker.
“We have replaced the Pride flag. We will keep welcoming. We will keep praying for the people who did this,” Armes said. “We will stand with our LGBTQIA+ neighbors.”
“We will continue to insist that the gospel is larger and more inclusive than fearmongering, and we will keep believing that even those who act out of hate are not beyond the reach of God's grace,” Armes said.
