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Suspects twice smashed window at Harper's Café in West Orange on Wednesday, July 12 and Thursday, July 13, because they were flying a pride flag, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II said. Black paint was smeared across the window and two pride flags were defiled, Stephens said.
On Thursday, July 13, a woman who owns a photo studio in West Orange was asked by a caller if her business was Black owned because she wears braids, Stephens said. When the woman said she was Hispanic, the caller told her to move to another neighborhood and threatened to harm her business, Stephens said.
"I want to make it abundantly clear how saddened we are by these incidents," Stephens said at a press conference in Newark on Wednesday, July 19. There’s no place in this county for bias of any kind, and my office will not stand for it."
No arrests have been made but Stephens stressed that West Orange is safe and detectives and prosecutors are working to find the perpetrators.
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