Racist backlash

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Some Long Islanders have responded with intolerance to the dozens of peaceful anti-police brutality protests that have swept Nassau and Suffolk counties in the past week.

Merrick residents infamously tried to block Black Lives Matter demonstrators from marching through their mostly white community this week and told them to “go west” toward more diverse neighboring Freeport. The owner of Huntington-based restaurant Tutto Pazzo apologized after calling marchers “savages” and saying he was going to throw watermelons at the protesters. The CEO of Dominican Village, a nonprofit assisted living facility in Amityville, was put on leave after commenting on a Facebook photo of a rally that someone should “run the dirt down.” Someone tried to run over protesters in West Babylon while yelling “white lives matter!” And an ex-Nassau County police employee was caught on video using a racial slur and spitting at a black man on Merrick Avenue in Merrick.

Despite many Long Islanders falling for false social media claims that the protests were going to turn into riots as they had elsewhere, such as New York City, which is under a week-long curfew to curb looting, the biggest disruption on LI to date has been marchers blocking traffic and kneeling in roadways in non-violent civil disobedience.

The reaction is unsurprising, given LI’s long history of segregation

With more protests expected through the weekend and people already on edge due to the coronavirus pandemic, tensions are sure to remain high in the days ahead.

A driver was arrested after being caught on video nearly running over 16-year-old girl who was part of a George Floyd protest in West Babylon on Tuesday evening, Suffolk County police said.

The victim reported that she was standing near the driveway of the 7-Eleven on Little East Neck Road when a man driving a truck veered the vehicle towards her, forcing her to move out of the way to avoid being hit, according to First Precinct Crime Section officers investigating the incident.

The video shows the victim jumping out of the way as the white Chevrolet SUV veers over a curb and onto the sidewalk toward her. WABC reported that the girl said as the driver drove off, he shouted, “white lives matter.”

The man was arrested Friday for Reckless Endangerment and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. Police did not immediately release the suspect’s name.

We have had some demonstrations in solidarity but they have been peaceful and in Trafalgar Square and outside the US embassy.

A “vigilante hell-bent" on chasing two black men out of his Queens neighborhood raced after the panicked pair in his SUV, firing one shot at them as the frightened men drove away, prosecutors said Monday.

Yosef Aranbayev, 41, faces attempted murder as a hate crime and other charges for the troubling Saturday night attack.

“I was chasing those guys…We’re chasing them out of our neighborhood,” Aranbayev bragged after cops stopped him, prosecutors said. “I wasn’t shooting to kill them - just shooting to scare them.”

Aranbayev, driving a black Dodge Durango, bore down on the two men at 7:25 p.m. near at the intersection of 73rd Ave. and Parsons Blvd. in Pomonok, prosecutors allege.

The victims were so rattled that they drove their Chevy Tahoe the wrong way down the street to escape him, nearly striking a police car, authorities said.

The Tahoe driver pulled alongside the police car, said he and his passenger were being followed, pointed at the Durango — and reported someone inside had shot at them.

Meanwhile, Aranbayev cut through a gas station to avoid a traffic light, but to no avail Cops quickly caught up with him.

"Those guys were in my neighborhood. I’m sorry, officer, I didn’t do nothing wrong. They were scouting my whole neighborhood the whole day,” Aranbayev claimed, according to a criminal complaint.

“I’m chasing them. All of us were chasing them. We’re chasing them out of our neighborhood,” he added, the complaint alleges.

Aranbayev lives in Jamaica Estates, about two miles from the location where he was stopped. Cops found a loaded .357 revolver ditched along the route he was driving. One of the five bullets inside had been fired.

He admitted firing the gun, and said his shot “100% hit their car,” the complaint alleges.

"Public streets belong to everyone — and it offends the public conscience to think that someone believes they have the right to chase down and shoot at anyone because they’re not from the neighborhood,” Queens D.A. Melinda Katz said Monday.

“This could have ended with someone being killed. The defendant is accused of being a vigilante hell-bent on clearing his neighborhood of the two black men who drove through.”

Judge Eugene Guarino ordered Aranbayev held on $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash bail at his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Sunday night.

His lawyer, Gregory Bitterman, said prosecutors mis-charged the case as a hate crime to grab headlines, arguing there’s no proof anything he’s alleged to have done was based on discrimination.

“It was charged as a hate crime, but they’re never going to prove it was a hate crime because it wasn’t. Anything that occurred had nothing to do with racism or hate,” Bitterman said. “My client is not a racist.”

He added, "If anybody can show a scintilla of evidence it was a hate crime, I’d be very impressed.”

NASCAR said it is investigating after a noose was found in the garage of Bubba Wallace, who is NASCAR's only black driver, on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama.

"Late this afternoon, NASCAR was made aware that a noose was found in the garage stall of the 43 team. We are angry and outraged, and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act," NASCAR said in a statement. "We have launched an immediate investigation, and will do everything we can to identify the person(s) responsible and eliminate them from the sport.

"As we have stated unequivocally, there is no place for racism in NASCAR, and this act only strengthens our resolve to make the sport open and welcoming to all."

Wallace never saw the noose, ESPN's Marty Smith reported. It was first seen by a member of Wallace's team, who immediately brought it to the attention of NASCAR, Smith reported. NASCAR told Fox Sports it will work with law enforcement on the incident.

Wallace, who drives the No. 43 Chevrolet for racing icon Richard Petty, said in a statement that he was "incredibly saddened" by the act.

"Today's despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism," Wallace wrote on Twitter. "Over the last several weeks, I have been overwhelmed by the support from people across the NASCAR industry, including other drivers and team members in the garage. Together, our sport has made a commitment to driving real change and championing a community that is accepting and welcoming of everyone.

"Nothing is more important and we will not be deterred by the reprehensible actions of those who seek to spread hate. As my mother told me today, "they are just trying to scare you." This will not break me, I will not give in nor will I back down. I will continue to proudly stand for what I believe in."

The incident comes after NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from being displayed at its events earlier this month after Wallace called for the sanctioning body to prohibit it.
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But outside the track Sunday, vehicles waving and flying Confederate flags lined the boulevard running past the massive speedway, while a plane flew above the track pulling a banner of the Confederate flag that said, "Defund NASCAR."

NASCAR has not stated how exactly it plans to stop fans from displaying the flag on track property and none of the instances Sunday at Talladega were inside the facility.

Andrew Murstein, the co-owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, told Sports Business Journal that he was "shocked and saddened" by the incident, adding: "You would like to think that the country has changed for the better in the last 40-plus years. Unfortunately, in many ways it hasn't."

Driver Michael McDowell, who drives the No. 34 Ford, tweeted: "God help us. The level of evil it takes to do something like this is disgusting. This is enraging and heartbreaking all at the same time."

Sunday's race, which was pushed back to 3 p.m. ET on Monday because of inclement weather, is the first amid the coronavirus pandemic in which NASCAR opened the gates for up to 5,000 fans.

NASCAR drivers stood behind racer Bubba Wallace on Monday, presenting a unified front with the circuit's only Black competitor after he reported finding a noose in his racetrack garage stall.

Wallace tweeted a picture of the moving image, just ahead of the rain-delayed Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, with a one-word caption: "Together."

NASCAR President Steve Phelps on Monday said anyone responsible for the threat will be “caught and dealt with swiftly and severely.”

"This is a difficult time for our sport but we are going to react swiftly and again we’re going to use all the means, resources at our disposal and of those of the FBI to make sure this person or persons are caught and dealt with swiftly and severely,” Phelps told reporters

“There’s no room for this at all and we won’t tolerate it.”

Wallace races for Richard Petty Motorsports, and the Hall of Fame racer said he stands in complete support of the driver.

“I’m enraged by the act of someone placing a noose in the garage stall of my race team,” Petty said in statement on Monday. “There is absolutely no place in our sport or our society for racism. This filthy act serves as a reminder of how far we still have to go to eradicate racial prejudice and it galvanizes my resolve to use the resources of Richard Petty Motorsports to create change."

Petty added: “I stand shoulder to shoulder with Bubba yesterday, today, tomorrow, and every day forwards.”

But Wallace’s mother, Desiree Wallace, told a radio host on Monday that her son had faced racism before on the track.

“This is not his first incident,” she said on SiriusXM’s “The Joe Madison Show.” “If he gets into it with another driver they’re quick to bring out the n-word.”

The FBI has determined that NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime and that a pull rope fashioned like a noose had been on a garage door at Talladega Superspeedway since as early as October, NASCAR said Tuesday.

"The FBI report concludes, and photographic evidence confirms, that the garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose had been positioned there since as early as last fall," NASCAR said in its statement. "This was obviously well before the 43 team's arrival and garage assignment.

"We appreciate the FBI's quick and thorough investigation and are thankful to learn that this was not an intentional, racist act against Bubba. We remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all who love racing."

U.S. Attorney Jay Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr. said their investigation determined that "although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week."

The agencies said no crime was committed and the evidence did not support federal charges.

"For us in NASCAR, this is the best result we could hope for," NASCAR president Steve Phelps said during a teleconference Tuesday. "This is ... disturbing to hear that it was thought that one of our own had committed this heinous act. It is fantastic to hear from the FBI, definitively, that there was not a hate crime."

Phelps said NASCAR would continue its investigation as to why a rope was fashioned into a noose, regardless of when it was done.

"I do want to make sure everyone understands that, if given the evidence that we had was delivered to us on late Saturday afternoon, we would do the same thing," Phelps said. "We would have done the same investigation. It was important for us to do. There is no place in our sport for this type of racism or hatred. It's not part of who we are as a sport."

A crew member for Richard Petty Motorsports discovered the noose Sunday at the Alabama racetrack. NASCAR was alerted and contacted the FBI, which sent 15 agents to the track to investigate.

"I want to be clear about the 43 team: The 43 team had nothing to do with this," Phelps said. "The evidence is very clear that the noose that was in that garage had been in the garage previously. The last race we had there in October, that noose was present."

The Wood Brothers Racing team said one of its employees informed the team he recalled "seeing a tied handle in the garage pull down rope from last fall," when NASCAR raced at Talladega in October. The team said it immediately alerted NASCAR and assisted the investigation.

The FBI has determined that NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime and that a pull rope fashioned like a noose had been on a garage door at Talladega Superspeedway since as early as October, NASCAR said Tuesday.

So the noose was only aimed at black folks in general vicinity? gee that's a relief

what possible utility could a noose-shaped garage door rope serve, other than the nominal?