Racist or Prank in Maple Shade – You Be the Judge [POLL]

The other day, some graffiti was found on the home of an African American family, which is now being investigated as a bias incident.

The letters KKK were written in chalk; and found by the family as they were returning from church services on Wednesday.

Naturally the neighbors are upset that something like this would happen in their neck of the woods.

Here’s the question I have.

Would you consider this an actual bias incident worthy of charging whoever did this with bias intimidation (a very serious crime); or with a mere prank?

Bear in mind that this isn’t the only incident of racist or anti-Semitic graffiti being found in a Jersey community of late.

A community in Manalapan was smeared with swastikas scrawled onto signs and cars.
And then there's the incident in Bergen County where 2 young men attempted to firebomb a temple, which doubled as the family home while they were all sleeping.

Since every incident is different, how would you view this one? Just a prank or something more sinister?

According to this:

Police are investigating a reported incident of racist graffiti at the home of an African American family in Burlington County.

Someone wrote "KKK" with chalk Wednesday night on the front brick wall of Eulith Rankines' house in Maple Shade, said Rankines, 41, a real estate agent.

Rankines' family had left for a church service shortly before 7 p.m., and when his wife returned home, she discovered the graffiti in the area of the front porch, he said.

The letters combined were about a foot square and were placed so they could be seen from the street, Rankines said.

He reported the incident to police and removed the graffiti early Thursday, he said.

"We really didn't want to take it lightly," said Rankines, who has three children.

Rankines said that Maple Shade is a "good town" and that he had no idea who might have committed the vandalism.

So, here’s the way I break it down.

Police have no other choice but to treat this as a bias incident.

But since it was scrawled in chalk leads me to believe this is not a case of bias, but a prank played on the family.

If so, jail isn’t the answer.

They’d probably need a little "station house adjustment" and learn what the significance of writing something like KKK on the side of the home of an African American family could be.