Marylou Hacker Rousseau: Racist threats from man and his pit bull worry grandmother
I am a 73-year-old Latina, and while walking in my neighborhood park with my two grandchildren, one who is Cambodian and one who is African-American, a white man walking his pit bull approached us. He said “you probably voted for Hillary,” then “you get out of here, you go back to where you came from, you don’t belong here. I can do whatever I want and say whatever I want because I voted for Trump and this is white America. If you don’t like it, I will sic my dog on you.”
He then proceeded to lurch his snarling pit bull in our direction. Not responding to him we continued to walk slowly away as I called 9-1-1 to report the incident. He and his children finally left us alone and walked out of the park. Because of this incident, my grandchildren are fearful for their safety in their own neighborhood and my granddaughter has a recurring fear the man will come to her house with his dog and harm her. I am conflicted by this incident, as I do believe we can all get along. But this incident has certainly put an edge to my beliefs.
Marylou Hacker Rousseau, Modesto
This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 2:06 PM with the headline "Marylou Hacker Rousseau: Racist threats from man and his pit bull worry grandmother."