KKK flag displayed in window of Grosse Pointe Park home, facing Black neighbor

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Detroit native Je Donna Dinges, 57, was shocked when she saw a Ku Klux Klan flag clinging to  the interior of her neighbor's window, which directly faced her house. 

The flag is the latest volley in an ongoing dispute with her next-door neighbor, but Dinges said it isn't the first time her family experienced intimidation since moving to Grosse Pointe Park 11 years ago. 

"I'm a human being. I deserve to be treated with dignity and respect like everybody else in this community," said Dinges, who is Black.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, the NAACP's local chapter and a community-based organization, WE GP, will hold a rally in support of Dinges "to make it clear hate has no home in Grosse Pointe," according to a Facebook event page.

When Dinges' family first moved in, she said her neighborhood was welcoming and nice, often having neighborhood block parties. However, the house next door seemed to be the source of problems for the Dinges family from day one. 

The latest incident happened on Feb. 15, when Dinges' ex-husband took out the trash and noticed a KKK flag placed in the neighbor's window. When Dinges saw the flag, she became angry. 

"I was furious. How dare he feel comfortable putting a symbol of hatred, violence and domestic terrorism at his window facing my house?" said Dinges, who owns a clothing boutique in Ferndale. 

On another occasion, her ex-husband found a filled gas can in their recycling bin.

That prompted Dinges to call the police who recommended that she install a camera on the side of her house, which she did.

The day she found the flag, Dinges called a friend, who does anti-racism and social justice work in the community. When her friend recommended that she call the police, Dinges said she decided to call the FBI instead because police had offered little help in the past.

The FBI took a report, but couldn't do much because her neighbor never directly harmed, intimidated or "called her a slur," she said. Dinges then called the Michigan Attorney General's Office in Detroit to try and get some help. But the call was also unsuccessful and frustrating, she said. 

That's when Dinges decided to get the media involved. A friend called WDIV-TV (Channel 4) reporter Mara MacDonald, who spoke with the city manager and chief of police about the situation. This subsequently prompted two detectives to visit Dinges' neighbor. 

"It happened fast, less than an hour, these two detectives came out, and they went over there (neighbor's house)," she said. "The girlfriend (of the male tenant) answered the door. She told them that she was upset that we had put a camera on the window sill. She didn't know what we wanted to capture."

When police asked the neighbor why they never talked to Dinges' family about moving or taking down the camera, Dinges said, the neighbor responded by saying, "We're non-confrontational people."

The neighbor eventually took down the flag. Since the police visit, her neighbor hasn't  bothered or done anything to Dinges, she said. 

While Dinges was on  a conference call Tuesday with city officials and police to discuss the situation, she told them it's the police department's culture that prompted her to seek help from the media rather than the department itself. 

"The culture in this community is broken, the culture in this community says that Black and Brown people are not safe. It's in this country, and this community is in this country," Dinges recalled saying  during the conference call.  "If Black and Brown people felt safe with the police, being spoken to by the police, being dealt with by the police and calling the police, we would call you. I didn't call you because I didn't think you cared."

Grosse Pointe Park released a statement Wednesday, condemning any racist actions and said they ensure the security and safety of all residents. "Intolerance, hate, and ignorance have no home in the Park," the city said. 

On Thursday, Grosse Pointe Park city officials forwarded evidence, reports, and relevant information to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office to determine whether legal action is warranted.

The NAACP of Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods released a statement this week, saying  the act of a KKK flag being displayed in a window signals a deeper challenge within the community. 

"This incident occurred after the victim reported to police she had discovered a gas can, full of gasoline, inserted in her covered trash bin placed next to her house," the statement said. "When officers arrived, the Black neighbor says she was told there really wasn't anything they could do. Now weeks later, she didn't even want to call the Grosse Pointe Park Public Safety Department for help with what is clearly an attempt at ethnic intimidation by displaying the KKK flag directly at her and her family."

When a resident can't turn to law enforcement for help, the group said, it's a failure for the community. 

"The Grosse Pointe Park patrol force is 100% white and male. No person of color has ever patrolled the city streets and only one woman appears to have done so in the city's 71-year history," the statement said. "That fact must change. A modern, diverse police force would have a very different response to investigating acts of ethnic intimidation and potential domestic terrorism."

Dinges said she feels grateful for the amount of support she's received.

"Everybody here, every man, woman and child regardless of their race, creed, color, sexual orientation, sexual identity, religion deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, deserves to be treated well, deserves to be safe in your home and when they walk down the street," she said.

"(Everybody) deserves to be protected by police. No one deserves to sit in their dining room and look at a symbol of hatred and fear, violence and domestic terrorism. Nobody deserves that." 

Contact Slone Terranella at STerranella@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @SloneTerranella. 

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