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Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Swastika on lawn leads to protests, apology By Ron Giofu A swastika cut into grass in the backyard of a Victoria St. S. home sparked outrage, protests and an eventual apology on the weekend. Photos of the home’s backyard with the swastika cut into the grass began circulating on social media and prompted a swift and forceful backlash by members of the community. The protests started with Windsor resident Tam Espin driving in with her sign only to be joined by residents from Amherstburg and other communities. By Sunday, over 100 people turned out with signs and chanted “Black Lives Matter” in front of the home before the homeowner came to the door, offered an explanation and apologized. “I saw the post this morning on Facebook showing the swastika,” explained Espin, who then created her sign and started the protest. Jordan Dagnolo, who was another of the protesters, said it was “unbelieveble in this day and age” that such things are happening. He gave credit to Espin for starting the protest. “If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here,” he said. He added his reaction to learning about the swastika was “not in my town.” Larry Hurst said he felt multiple emotions when he first heard of the swastika in the lawn, with those emotions ranging from hurt to anger to displeasure. Hurst said issues like this happen all over the world, but noted he knows of one other home in Amherstburg that has a black lawn jockey and wants that to go as well. He said symbols like that have to be eliminated and people are not going to stand for such things any longer. “We’re just here to show solidarity with (Espin),” Hurst said Saturday. He credited her for coming in from Windsor and said “Amherstburg should be ashamed of itself” for not getting out to protest sooner. "The more you don't speak up and stand up for something, the more that they will do it," he says. The swastika was cut out of the lawn once people noticed it and became upset.
RTT PHOTO BY RON GIOFU
Protesters take a knee on a Victoria Ave. home last Sunday afternoon. A swastika had been cut in the backyard of the home, though that had been removed, and outrage mounted among residents. The homeowner has apologized. After the homeowner, who only identified himself as Claudio, had apologized Sunday morning, Hurst said the apology was accepted but the true measure will be how the homeowner acts in the future. “We’ve informed him if he is apologetic, we’ll see it in his future,” Hurst told the large crowd. “If he’s sorry for what he did, it will show in the future.” After Hurst spoke to the crowd Sunday and the protesters took a knee, the crowd disbursed. Hurst said he hopes they accomplished something positive out of all of this. “We accepted his apology. We’re glad he did it. We
hope it’s from his heart,” he said. “We hope we don’t have to come back here.” Mayor Aldo DiCarlo said he spent the better part of the weekend dealing with the matter. One item he also had to deal with were reports of the town bringing in an outside contractor to wash “Black Lives Matter” that had been written in chalk on the sidewalk. "What I can say at this time, the town responded to what was essentially a police matter at the time. We were not trying to disrespect anyone in removing anything like that and our position has always been that we support that movement and we always will,"
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