A Michigan white man has been charged with hate crimes by the Justice Department for terrorizing local residents by leaving racist notes and nooses around his community to prevent them from supporting Black Lives Matter, according to NBC News.
Kenneth Pilon was charged with six counts of interfering with federally protected activities for incidents that occurred between June and July 2020. Which was during the height of the protests following the death of George Floyd.
In an affidavit from police, they allege that 61-year-old Pilon went to stores in Saginaw, Michigan and left a nooses with a note that read, “An accessory to be worn with your ‘BLM’ t-shirt. Happy protesting!” Insinuating that people should be killed for protesting the death of George Floyd, according to NBC News.
Regina Simon, a white woman, and her then-husband Donald Simon, a Black man, claim to be one of the victims of Pilon’s racist notes.
From NBC News:
Regina Simon said she thinks her family was targeted after Pilon drove by and saw her in her yard wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt her son made. They found the note and the noose the next day when her husband went to get coffee. Regina Simon is Mexican and white, and her ex-husband is Black.
“When he got into his truck, he noticed in the side of the door was this noose with a note attached to it,” she said Wednesday. “At first I’m thinking it’s a joke, somebody trying to be funny, but then I’m like this isn’t funny.”
Donald Simon said he felt “violated.”
“I can’t understand that this racism is still alive,” he said.
Regina Simon took a photograph of it that she posted on Facebook. She was then contacted by the NAACP, which got the FBI involved.
Along with leaving notes and nooses around his community, the affidavit also alleges that Pilon would call Starbucks stores and leave derogatory messages. When an employee would answer the phone, Pilon would say, “Tell the Starbucks workers wearing BLM shirts that the only good n-word is a dead n-word,” according to NBC News.
He also allegedly told a Starbucks employee that he was “gonna go out and lynch me a n-word.”
Pilon called the Starbucks stores because days before the coffee company announced that it was providing Black Lives Matter shirts to employees who wanted to wear them while working, according to NBC News