As a result of the tragedy in Charleston, Not In Our Town has reached out to its Law Enforcement Leaders Network to highlight how their agencies and their communities have come together to honor the victims and fight intolerance and hate.
Princeton, New Jersey
The community came together to support Charleston. Read more at NJ.com and see this video from Not In Our Town Princeton.
Bowling Green, Ohio
vigil
Photo Source: JanetMock.com
On Tuesday, members of New York City’s LGBTQ community came out to mourn and stand in solidarity with Islan Nettles, a transgender woman who died following an attack in Harlem.
After the murder of 75 year-old Mohammed Saleem in Birmingham, people came together for a vigil. Credit: ITV.
On June 4, a mosque and Islamic cultural center in Muswell Hill, North London was burned to the ground. The letters ‘EDL’, the acronym of the anti-Muslim group English Defense League, were found graffitied on a nearby wall. Hours after the news broke, EDL members took to Facebook with comments such as “Burn them all”, “love it!!” and “shoulda been full.”
High school students in Rochelle, GA campaign for integrated prom
CREDIT: Clutch Magazine
High school students in rural Georgia are campaigning to end the racial segregation of dances at their school, according to WSAV3. The four friends behind the campaign, two of them black and two of them white, say it is unfair that they can’t go to prom together.
Since the integration of Georgia schools in the early 1970s, racially segregated proms have been organized as private parties without funding from the school. Campaign organizers say the segregation is strictly enforced, and last year a biracial student who tried to attend the white prom was turned away by police.
Davis, CA community supports victim of anti-LGBT hate crime
CREDIT: Davis Enterprise
Three hundred people in Davis, CA attended a candlelit vigil on March 16 for Mikey Partida, a Davis resident who was badly beaten earlier this month in what police are investigating as a hate crime.
From Oak Creek Patch: About 100 people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday night at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin for victims of the Newtown school shootings. Credit: Mark Schaaf
Oak Creek Stands for NewtownMass shootings are happening all too often across the country, and no one knows this better than the residents of those communities affected.
The residents of Oak Creek, WI, understand the pain these shootings cause—just four months ago, a white supremacist shot and killed six people at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin.
That’s why Oak Creek stood with Newtown, CT, on Sunday, holding a vigil to remember the 26 people killed in a shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday. Read the full story about the vigil on Oak Creek Patch.
In communities across the country, people are joining together for vigils to remember the twenty-six people lost to mass violence on Dec. 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Twenty of those killed were six- to seven-year-old children; the adults were their teachers and school leaders.
President Obama joins a vigil Sunday evening in Newtown, CT. People are gathering from Bangor, Maine to Tucson, Arizona; Lubbock, Texas to Berkeley, California.
Why did this happen? Why Aurora, Tucson, Portland, Oak Creek, and cities like Oakland where young people are lost to violence almost every week? The answers may be different and hard, but the asking of the question is imperative if we want it to stop.
As the political battles swirl and blame gaming clouds our ability to seek solutions, the loss of these very little children may compel us to agree on one simple message and quest:
Stop the violence in our country.
Editor's Note: Not In Our Town covers communities that respond to reported hate crimes and this story details how residents of Lincoln, NE and nearby cities stepped forward when they believed a neighbor had been harmed. Sadly, police now believe that the victim fabricated the story. Despite this unfortunate episode, it is important for neighbors to support victims of hate crimes, which occur every day.
Prompted by a brutal attack against a lesbian in her own home, the Lincoln, NE community is organizing and speaking out in support of the victim and against hate-driven violence.
On July 22, Lincoln resident Linda Rappl heard a knock on her door around 4 a.m. She discovered her neighbor, a 33-year-old woman, naked and wrist-bound on her doorstep. The victim claimed three masked men had painted derogatory slurs in the victim’s home and carved slurs into her skin before they attempted to burn down her home. Rappl called 911.
“She is a wonderful, beautiful person," Rappl said. "I couldn't ask for a better neighbor."
Photo: Katie Sokoler/Gothamist
Lights have been rising throughout the community of Oak Creek and beyond in commemoration and honor of the fallen - six individuals shot last Sunday at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin.
Since the tragic killings, mourners of diverse backgrounds and religions have united in a number of candlelight vigils, from the immediate Sunday and then Tuesday night vigils in Oak Creek, to the vigils across the nation, of which more than 100 took place this week alone. A memorial service was held Friday morning for the six victims.
Friday's service took place at Oak Creek High School and drew hundreds of attendees wearing scarves over their heads in honor of Sikh tradition. Six coffins adorned with flowers stood in the gym, next to large, framed portraits of the deceased. A video projection commemorated the dead and wounded.