Family expresses horror
after cross burning
By sandi carpello
Staff Writer
MONROE — The tranquillity of a rural section of Buckelew Avenue was disrupted early last Friday morning when an African-American family awoke to discover a 6-foot cross engulfed in flames on their lawn.
Robert Love said he woke up around 3:30 a.m. to the loud barking of his dog. When he went outside to examine the disturbance, he was affronted by a wooden cross that had been set aflame in the back yard of his 5-acre property.
After notifying the police, the township’s fire department arrived and extinguished a brush fire that was in progress at the base of the cross.
"The whole area was on fire," Love said, noting that the ground around the cross had been doused with gasoline. The cross was leaning adjacent to a wire fence and trees on the property.
Love, 65, a former Amtrak crane operator, has lived for many years at the property near Spotswood- Englishtown Road with his wife Betty, 58, and sons Andre, 25, and Jerrold, 23. Family members said they have never encountered such an ardent form of racism.
Andre Love, a graduate student at Columbia University, New York, said his is the only black family in the neighborhood.
"My family has dealt with mild forms of racism, but never extreme racism," he said. "To actually get a cross burned … this isn’t Mississippi. This is the year 2002 in New Jersey."
Andre Love expressed concern as to what could happen next, and said he is worried about the welfare of his parents.
"This is scary. I am so very upset," said a visibly distraught Betty Love, who said she has lived on the Buckelew Avenue property since she was 6 months old.
Law enforcement officials from the Monroe Township Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Bias Crime and Arson units, in conjunction with the Attorney General’s Office of Bias Crime, are investigating the matter.
In a press release issued Friday afternoon, Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan, who is leading the investigation, stated that his office has a zero-tolerance policy for bias crimes.
The prosecutor said in the statement that his office "will continue to utilize all the resources available to investigate and prosecute matters of this nature."
Kaplan and a representative of his office did not return several phone calls seeking additional comment in the days following the burning.
Robert Love said he does not believe the culprit is from the community.
"I don’t believe it’s my neighbors," he said.
Instead, the family questioned whether it could be tied to Love’s recent legal disputes.
According to Betty Love, the family has been involved in litigation with Amtrak since her husband was injured on the job in 1995. Robert Love, who is now on permanent disability, had been a crane operator for Amtrak for approximately 22 years before he was injured, she said.
Family members said they believed the settlement of the case to be unfair, and have since been involved in a dispute with Robert Love’s attorney. The family said Love and his attorney have both filed charges of harassment against each other.
Monroe Township Council President Irwin Nalitt said he has never seen or heard of anything like this taking place during his 20 years as a township resident.
"It was a shocking event and a rather unfortunate situation," Nalitt said. "Hopefully, the county prosecutor will get to the bottom of it."