An Asian American woman in St Louis has found a noose hanging in her yard.
Julia Ho had hired her usual contractor last week to visit her property on Lemp Avenue in Benton Park when she was out of town.
The contractor, who had been working with Ho for a year, alerted her that a noose was hanging from a tree in her yard.
“My first reaction, my first emotion was really just rage that somebody would do this,” Ho said. “This was no sort of amateur thing. This was clearly done by somebody who knew how to do it, and who knew exactly what message they were sending.”
She and the contractor filed a report with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department who are are currently investigating.
On Saturday, Ho gathered community members together to notify neighbours about the incident.
“I want to know what people in my neighborhood think about this, and the best way to do that is to talk to them,” Ho said.
“That being said, I don’t feel safe going alone, it is very high likelihood that whoever did this is in my immediate vicinity. So it’s not something that I can just go and do on my own, and I really need the community to be out there and to support me with it.”
Alderman Dan Guenther, D-9th Ward, said he is backing law enforcement and the community.
“The Neighborhood Stabilization Officer and I have been working closely with our 3rd District Captain, Detectives and the FBI to investigate this event as a hate crime,” he said in a statement.
“We will continue to seek out area surveillance cameras, talk with neighbors, and find witnesses that may lead us to identifying those responsible for this hideous act.”
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been over 9000 anti-Asian incidents in America.
In related news, a man has been charged with a hate crime for assaulting a gay Asian man and his parents.
