Related: Sunday Globe Special: Lunenburg Lunacy
"Police search Lunenburg home where graffiti found" by Wesley Lowery | Globe Staff, December 03, 2013
LUNENBURG — The investigation into who spray-painted a racial slur on the home of a biracial high school football player took another twist Tuesday, as state and local police conducted a search of the house.
The search took place a day after police said they had concluded that the football team was not involved in the graffiti and said they were investigating other suspects. That has spawned speculation in the town of nearly 10,000 people that the message left on the home’s foundation last month was a hoax.
Oh, no.
On Tuesday, state and local officers executed a search warrant at the Chase Road home of Anthony J. Phillips, the father of 13-year-old Isaac Phillips, a former Lunenburg Blue Knights football player who reported being harassed by teammates. Authorities declined to comment Tuesday evening on the search and what they had found.
The handful of vile words has sent this small town northwest of Boston abuzz. On Nov. 15, graffiti that included the N-word was discovered, and the team was forced to forfeit the remainder of the season while police investigated who was responsible.
Related:
Racist comments alleged at Lunenburg game in Worcester
The rush to judgment didn't allow for a measurement for a first down?
Now, with the team cleared, some here felt a measure of vindication Tuesday, but are still awaiting answers about the origins of the vandalism that thrust the town into the national spotlight.
About a dozen residents stood in the roadway outside the Phillips’ home as police went about their search. Among them were members of the team.
“We would have never done this,” said Danny Szabady, 18, a senior and a team cocaptain. “We always knew it wasn’t us.’’
Steve Boone, the school’s head football coach, said in an e-mail to the Globe: “I am very happy that the team was cleared of the allegations.’’
The incident has prompted soul-searching in Lunenburg, where racial minorities make up just a small sliver of the population. Days after the vandalism, several hundred residents gathered in the center of town for a candlelight vigil to show their support for Isaac Phillips, who played on Lunenburg’s freshman and junior varsity teams.
I'm always amazed at how quickly people can have their emotions manipulated.
“I’m sick to my stomach,” said Michelle Belleza, who runs the Boys and Girls Club that sits just a few hundred feet from the high school, where she graduated in 1995. “As much as you want to know who did it, you also don’t want to know. There’s no good answer.”
Students at the high school said that the confusion dominated conversation between classes and in the lunchroom Tuesday.
“We don’t know what to think, or who did it,” said one student as he headed to his car after classes ended.
“I just don’t want to speculate,” added one of his friends.
Students said that the news that the football team had been cleared provided little solace to a campus that feels that it was robbed of the football season.
They sure as hell were!
“There’s not much that can be done at this point,” said John Gervais, a 15-year-old freshman. “I think everyone just wishes they would have figured this out before they canceled the end of the football season.”
So WHO DID THIS?
The football field and bright blue track that surround it were deserted as hundreds of students boarded buses when classes ended in the early afternoon. Out front, the large white sign outside of the high school, which houses grades 8 to 12 declared: “Many hands. One community.”
Phillips’ parents, who after the incident were vocal in decrying what they saw as an act of racial intimidation targeting their son, have stopped responding to reporters’ calls.
The parents were out front and vocal, huh? But now do not wish to talk with a pre$$ that has turned on them?
Phillips’ father, who is black, and his mother, who is white, could be seen walking around the property as police conducted the search Tuesday. They both declined to speak with reporters gathered outside of their home.
“You all can camp out here all night,” Anthony Phillips said after the police left. “I have no comment.”
Asked by a reporter whether the police were there to arrest him, Anthony Phillips responded, “Well, what does it look like?” He then walked back up his driveway and into the house.
In the early evening, the boy’s grandfather, James Phillips, arrived to ask about the search.
After speaking briefly with Anthony, James Phillips walked back down the driveway. His son, he said, refused to give him any information about the police search.
“Whoever is responsible for this needs to be held accountable,” James Phillips said outside the house, adding that if his son was responsible for carrying out a hoax, he should be punished.
“Wrong is wrong,” he said.
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Turns out it was the WHITE WIFE that did it (or she is taking the fall for it):
"Police focus on victim’s mother in Lunenburg racist graffiti case" by David Abel and John R. Ellement | Globe Staff, December 04, 2013
LUNENBURG — After telling police her house was spray-painted with racist graffiti, the mother of a former Lunenburg High School football player is now a “strong suspect” in the investigation of the incident, according to court records and police.
Andrea Brazier was questioned by local police and an FBI agent Nov. 25, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Fitchburg District Court. During that interview, the FBI agent suggested that Brazier was pushing for the investigation to end because she was the one who had scrawled the graffiti on her family’s home, the affidavit said.
“Andrea stated ‘OK,’ ” according to the affidavit filed by Detective Jeffrey Thibodeau of the Lunenburg police. “Andrea just kept answering ‘OK’ and that she wanted everything to end and that we did not understand.”
We sure don't. Was this just a pathetic attempt at attention?
Investigators searched the family’s home Tuesday, where they seized cans of spray paint.
At the Lunenburg Police Department Wednesday, Lieutenant Mike Luth said that Brazier was the only active suspect in the case and that his officers are working with the Worcester district attorney’s office and the US attorney’s office “to plan a course of action that’s best for the situation.” He said that an arrest was not imminent. Officials at the Worcester district attorney’s office declined to comment.
I'm thinking a visit to a mental health facility.
The discovery of the graffiti on Nov. 15 led school officials to cancel the football team’s season and stirred deep concerns in the town. But authorities have since said that the football team has been cleared.
But the SEASON has been RUINED!
“Most of the leads that we have followed up throughout the investigation have led back toward the house,” Luth said.
The graffiti, which included a racist slur, was first reported Nov. 15, by Brazier, who is white. Her husband, Anthony J. Phillips, is black, and their son, Isaac Phillips, who played on Lunenburg’s freshman and junior varsity teams, is biracial.
The biracial aspect really means nothing here; the true question is why would she have done such a thing.
Days after the vandalism, several hundred residents gathered in the center of town for a candlelight vigil to show their support for 13-year-old Isaac Phillips, who has since transferred to a school in a neighboring town.
Now things are even tougher for the kid.
The elder Phillips had told reporters that his son had been harassed by his teammates. The comments apparently led police to first focus their attention on the team.
Was that a lie?
But according to the documents made public on Wednesday, police observed two burnt aerosol cans in a fire pit outside the family’s house on Nov. 18. Anthony Phillips gave authorities three different accounts of where the cans had come from, according to investigators.
On Nov. 19, Brazier told investigators her 6-year-old daughter told her that she had seen someone outside her bedroom window who had blue hair, a feathered headdress, and a pink nose. Brazier said she went outside the night of Nov. 14 to show her daughter that no one was out there, the affidavit said.
She also told police during that interview that she had heard a Lunenburg football player make a racial comment at a Worcester South High School football game Nov. 1 and another player make a racial comment during the junior varsity game against the same school on Nov. 4. School officials said those incidents had been confirmed.
Even if so, that justified escalating the situation with a whopper of a lie?
Brazier told investigators Nov. 25 that neither her husband nor their son had spray-painted their home.
“She was emotionally upset and crying and was saying we did not understand,’’ said the affidavit, which outlined the police investigation and asked for a warrant to search the home....
The sharp turn in the investigation sparked a mix of concern and outrage among students and parents at the school.
“It’s pretty shocking, if it’s really his mom,” said Sam Sargent, 15, a sophomore who plays on the varsity basketball team. “If it’s true, she didn’t just put her son through a lot; she put this whole town through a lot.”
Not shocking to me, sorry. It's the rule, not the exception. Hoaxes and false flags abound in our society.
Cathy Hennessy, 46, who has three children in Lunenburg schools, said she could not understand why someone would do such a thing.
“This isn’t that kind of town,” she said. “If it was the mother, that’s just really sad.”
Sean Cunningham, 14, an eighth-grader who described himself as a close friend of Isaac Phillips, said he had been to the house many times over the years.
He called Brazier a “very nice lady.”
“I don’t see why she would do such a thing and have our school disgraced,” he said.
He said he has not spoken to his friend since the allegations against his mother surfaced. “I can’t imagine he’s doing well,” Cunningham said. “I feel really bad for him.”
The elder Phillips declined to respond to questions Wednesday afternoon outside the family home, where “no trespassing signs” have been placed.
In a statement, Superintendent Loxi Calmes called the school’s experience “unprecedented.” She said that the cancellation of the football season was not a punishment, but was done as a matter of safety. School personnel had met with representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, the US Justice Department, and the Center for Community Development and Civic Engagement at Fitchburg State University, she said, in attempt to find a path forward.
Look at the agenda-pushing crews that quickly jumped in and wanted to stir the racial division pot. Better take a grain of salt next time they holler hate.
“No community should ever have to experience something like this,” she said. “It has challenged, angered, and saddened us. We are trying to get to a place of healing and unity.”
Yeah, forget about all the lies and stuff. Just retreat to the nest, shelter in place, and heal. Don't question anything or think about uncomfortable realities!
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Maybe a good start would be having the wife publicly flogged and humiliated on the town common. I'm sure people would unite to see that after she ruined the football season.
Also see: Teen pleads not guilty in Danvers teacher’s murder
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Disturbing Details of Danvers Death
UPDATES: Toys for Tots donations stolen from Danvers storage unit
"Faked hate? Lunenburg not the exception" by Jeff Jacoby | Globe Columnist, December 11, 2013
WHEN A racist slur was spray-painted on the home of a biracial Lunenburg High School football player last month, the reaction was predictable.
Hundreds of neighbors attended a candlelight vigil in support of 13-year-old Isaac Phillips and his family. Politicians and civic leaders expressed solidarity. The Lunenburg police — assisted by the FBI, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Worcester County DA’s office — opened an investigation. The school superintendent forfeited the football team’s remaining games and asked the Anti-Defamation League to provide educational materials for teaching tolerance. Editorials warned that “hatred and racism corrode communities,” and emphasized the need to “take a vocal stand against intolerance.”
Then, after two weeks of eating their hearts out over the apparent bigotry festering in their midst, Lunenburg’s residents learned that the “hate crime” was most likely a hoax. The football team had nothing to do with the odious graffiti painted on the house, police said. Instead they suspect that the boy’s mother, Andrea Brazier, may have painted the racist taunt herself.
An act of hatred that turns out to be feigned? That too was predictable.
Media accounts describe Lunenburg residents as “stunned” and “floored” by the news. They shouldn’t have been. Faked-hate hoaxes happen all the time.
Some recent examples:
In a Jersey City prep school earlier this year, a black 16-year-old running for student council reported receiving racist text messages taunting him with the N-word, mocking him as a “slave” and “a waste at this school,” and warning him to “drop out right now.” In the sympathetic backlash that followed, the student was elected vice president. But police and school officials later confirmed that he had sent the venomous texts to himself.
Oberlin College in Ohio cancelled classes in March after swastikas and vile racist graffiti appeared around campus. The supposed eruption of hatred at the noted liberal-arts school drew wide media coverage, but the perpetrators — caught in the act — turned out to be two progressive Oberlin students.
See: Ohio Over-and-Out: Offended at Oberlin
When a black Tennessee waitress didn’t get a tip from a white couple in September, she posted an image of their receipt online — with the N-word prominently written instead of a dollar amount. “This is what I got as a tip last night,” she wrote, commenting on “the low class racists of Tennessee.” A firestorm ensued; supporters sent the waitress more than $10,000. But the customers insisted they hadn’t written the racial slur — and a professional handwriting analysis backed them up.
By now there is a long history of hate-crime hoaxes; Lunenburg appears to be merely the latest example.
Hatred and bigotry really do exist, of course. Every society has some lowlifes and bullies. But by and large, America’s racist past is dead and gone. This is not a nation that conspires to keep blacks and women down, let alone to terrorize or humiliate them. Anyone seeking genuinely racist or misogynistic hate crimes in America today is likely to be disappointed. It is precisely because America is no longer steeped in racism that those who believe it is must resort to fakery. And even when they do, what is the result? Great outpourings of sympathy and solidarity — neighbors by the hundreds coming together in candlelight vigils, strangers donating thousands of dollars to a waitress they’ve never met.
With racial oppression vanishing from American life, being seen as the victim of racial oppressors can be a powerful source of acclaim and attention. That’s especially true on the left, where practitioners of identity politics insist on sorting people by groups — racial, ethnic, sexual, economic. Phony accusations of racism empower those whose identity revolves around a feeling of persecution. Oprah Winfrey recently told the BBC that such persecution will persist until older generations “bred and marinated” in prejudice and racism die off.
But as Winfrey’s own remarkable career attests, the old have already outlived the racism of the America they were born into. Today such intolerance is rarer than ever. Which is why the ugliest examples of hate crimes now routinely turn out to be hoaxes.
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Of course, Jacoby won't go down the road of state-sponsored hoaxes and false flags.
Also see: Lunenburg Lemmings Should Be Applauded
