http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/lb-williams-black-
florida_n_1098306.html
A burning cross in a family's yard is no laughing matter. But a
Florida man may have managed to create some humor using a symbol
that has such a solemn past.
LB Williams, was charged with domestic violence stalking and
exhibits that intimidate after he burned a cross in his own yard
to scare his wife, Newsherald.com reports.
Williams, a 50-year-old black man, and his wife Donna, who is
white, found a cross burning in their driveway Nov. 4 outside
their Florida home. Donna Williams said the family was shaken by
the incident.
"When I saw that cross burning, I was scared to death," she told
the Panama City News Herald. "I was terrified...we all were."
After the couple reported the incident, police began a hate
crime investigation. But the issue was far from being resolved.
Two days later, Donna said she received a note taped to the
front door that was signed "KKK." The note said she was being
watched and that she "better not leave that [N-word]," a warning
that struck Donna as odd.
"When did the KKK start supporting black and white, interracial
marriages," she wondered.
On Monday, LB Williams admitted to setting the fire and posting
the note in an effort to keep his wife of seven years from
filing for divorce. He was arrested and later released from Bay
County Jail Nov. 15 without bond. As a condition of the domestic
violence charge, he is not allowed to go home.
The news outlet was unable to reach him for comment.
Despite this incident, other families haven't faired so well. In
2007, a New York man was arrested and charged with first-degree
aggravated harassment for burning a cross on a black family's
front lawn. A month earlier, another white man was arrested on
the same charge after his sister had been in a fight with a
black student at school.
A similar case occurred in California when four people burned a
cross outside the Arroyo Grande home of a 19-year-old woman. The
defendants argued in court that cross burning was protected
under the First Amendment as a form of "symbolic" free speech,
but the court disagreed.
Cross burning is widely associated with the Ku Klux Klan. The
group commonly used it as a symbol of intimidation in the early
20th century near the homes of black families. In 2003, the
United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of
outlawing public cross burning with intent to intimidate.
As for Donna Williams, she has no hard feelings towards her
husband.
"He truly is a good man. He doesn't drink, he doesn't do drugs
and he works like a dog," she told the News Herald. "We just
can't be together."
