CAPE POLICE INVESTIGATING ETHNIC INTIMIDATION CASE

Cape Girardeau police are investigating a report of ethnic intimidation, in this case a crime motivated by race.

Two black women, one age 20, the other 21, reported to police Thursday that they each found a letter containing racial slurs in their mailboxes. The women live in separate apartments in the same building.

The handwritten messages read "Go back to Africa you crackhead ----," and included the letters "KKK." The missing word is a profanity. On the other side of the letters was written "Die --- die." The missing word is a racial epithet.

The letters were placed in the mailboxes, not mailed, Lt. Carl Kinnison of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said less than half a dozen prosecutions under the law have occurred in the county since its enactment in 1988. The law was broadened in 1999 and in May narrowly withstood a challenge before the Missouri Supreme Court.

Ethnic intimidation is a felony committed due to a motive related to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or disability of the victim. Second-degree ethnic intimidation involves a third-degree assault, harassment, tampering, property damage, trespassing or rioting and carries a penalty of 2-5 years in prison.

Swingle said he charged a white man with ethnic intimidation for assaulting black children who trespassed in his yard. The man eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault.