A 40-year-old South Buffalo man was charged this morning with burning a cross on the lawn of a nearby house as a “hate crime” targeting a racially-diverse household.
Donald Napierala, of Macamley Street, is accused of igniting the cross on the lawn of a house a couple of blocks away in the 1600 block of South Park Avenue, which was occupied by four people – Hispanic and white.
Police and fire officials said Napierala placed a cross, described as seven feet by four feet, on the lawn of the home at about 1:30 a.m.
The cross was draped in gasoline-soaked cloth and ignited the cross, which was about two feet away from the occupied home, police reported.
The four people were inside sleeping, but an alert neighbor saw the flames and called the fire department.
Fire officials said the blaze caused about $250 in damages to the lawn, but was it was quickly contained and did not spread to the home. None of the occupants was injured.
Cross burning is largely considered a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan and extremist hate groups, but it is unclear if Napierala is a member of any of these groups.
Officer James T. Reese, along with Fire Marshals Edwin Ortiz and Harold Emerson, arrested Napierala at the Buffalo Fire Marshal’s Office on Elmwood Avenue at about 4 a.m.
They charged him with arson, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief.
Drive around Love joy…people put up “Stop racial mixing” stickers on street signs…and someone got their car blown up a couple years ago for trying to bring a black guy into a bar…
you know what tho, its probably the truth, they dont give a shit about other peoples privacy, trust me i lived in riverside for 3 years. Same thing there. Bass up and down the street at 3am.
She said its not even the partys or the loud cars its the fact that when they are 3 feet away from eachother they are still yelling at eachother and being fucking loud.
oh stop kevin,
it’s not the skin color it’s the mentality of the area.
when i lived in riverside a bunch of white kids would always make tons of racket SUPER late at night. Some white guy came to pick up his shitty kids for school every morning at 6AM and would just LAY on the HORN until they came out. It’s not because of a person’s skin color, it’s just the area where they are raised.
i was walking around LJ yesterday, actually and some guy in a POS 442 was doing burnouts at stop signs and a TON of shitty white kids were just unleashing bass into the neighborhood. It’s funny how everyone in lovejoy thinks that they’re a fucking hardass. Every car that drives by hollers something at the girl i’m with (maybe she’s a huge LJ skank, idk) and when you drive down the street, pedestrians cross SOOOOO slow and just fucking mean mug you while they do it.
