Woman Arrested for Posting Xenophobic Letters
Written by SOURCE on May 24, 2020
UPDATED at 10:37 p.m. ET: The San Leandro Police Department has publicly identified the suspect as Nancy Arechiga.
According to the department’s press release, the 52-year-old woman was arrested Friday night after she allegedly left handwritten notes, “which contained various insensitive messages towards minorities,” on five different houses in the Heron Bay neighborhood. Officers said when Arechiga was located, she was carrying a bag containing other letters of the same nature.
“San Leandro is a community of beautifully diverse people, who share a common desire to live in harmony, and free from intimidation,” San Leandro Police Lieutenant Isaac Benabou said in a statement. “We welcome people’s rights to express themselves, but not in a manner that infringes upon a community’s sense of security and wellbeing.”
Arechiga was booked into Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail, but was released shortly after “due to the current state bail schedule.”
Read the original story below.
A white woman in the Bay Area was reportedly arrested this weekend for allegedly leaving xenophobic letters on minorities’ front doors.
As pointed out by TMZ, the incident received widespread attention Saturday, after San Leandro resident Trinny Wynn posted photos of the suspect on Facebook. The images show a woman approaching a front door while holding a white piece of paper. Wynn shared close-ups of the letter that was allegedly left at her home, and claimed other community members were also targeted.
The note, dated May 22, read in part:
If you are a woman or man and was [sic] born in other [sic] country, return, go back to your land, immediatly [sic], fast, with urgency.
If you are a woman was born [sic] in other country takes [sic] your children with you, under 21 years old.
… We the people do ordain to you to leave this house. One American, white, brave, that serves the nation of USA is going to live here.
“This happened today, a white woman wearing a USA beanie targeted People of color homes with this letter at their front doors,” Wynn wrote on Facebook. “This occurred in a quiet and well diverse middle-class community in San Leandro. My family’s house was also targeted.. We were able to capture all this on camera. There is no room for this hateful and despicable behavior in this society.”
The post, which has since garnered more than 32,000 shares, was brought to the attention of San Leandro’s former mayor, Stephen Cassidy. He told a concerned citizen he had forwarded the Facebook post to the chief of police as well as the current mayor, Paulene Russo Cutter.
Several hours after his initial tweet, Cassidy said he was told that the suspect had been identified and arrested. He also tweeted that the police department intended to release a statement on the incident; however, the department had yet to do so as of press time.
