Racist symbol painted on Veteran’s mailbox in South Tyler

TYLER — A bigoted vandal attacked the home of a South Tyler couple over the weekend. With Veteran’s Day on Wednesday, it was difficult for the couple to awake finding Swastikas painted on their mailbox and on a Biden-Harris sign in the lawn. Bill Brown is a combat Veteran, serving in Vietnam. Brown told our news partner KETK, he had not felt that kind of hate since returning home from active duty. The incident left him asking questions. “Why would you do that to another human being? Because you live in this neighborhood, you’re black? They don’t like you? Or they don’t like you because you have a Biden sign? And that’s cheap. Anyone can display the sign. This is my own personal yard. If I want to display the sign, what’s wrong with displaying the sign?” Brown’s neighbors saw the damage and immediately jumped in to help with clean-up.

One neighbor sent over a painter to restore the damages on his own dime. “The guys coming, he’s working on my yard, helping me, there’s a guy helping me and he didn’t charge me a penny,” said Bill. Amy Ames, felt compelled to write a message of love on their street. She encouraged would be traveler’s to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” “I wanted them to wake up and see something that was nice and compassionate,” said Ames. Another neighbor, 90-year-old veteran, chose to share a letter with the Browns, delivered by Ames. “He pointed out, we may have different political affiliations, but he appreciated his service and condemned that kind of act toward anyone.”

Bill Brown summed up the ordeal, “I got good people, and good neighbors and they outweigh the haters.”