Racial tensions emerge in Maine

BANGOR, Maine, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A restraining order filed against a man in Maine for allegedly threatening NAACP members highlights the emergence of racial issues in the majority white state.

A state judge in Maine issued a restraining order against Kendrick Sawyer, 75, for saying he would shoot "any and all black persons" attending an NAACP meeting.

"This man's threat was shocking in its specificity and the anger it contained," said the assistant attorney general for civil rights education and enforcement, Thomas Harnett, in Friday's New York Times. "It's not often you see something articulated so clearly and so filled with acknowledged prejudice."

Harnett said most of the 300 reports of bias in Maine are racially motivated.

A white male allegedly rolled a severed pig's head at a group of Somali immigrants praying in a mosque in July 2006 and a white Bangor resident reportedly kicked a pregnant black woman in the stomach this year.

Harnett said state resources encouraged people to report racial bias and the events don't indicate Maine is "more hateful" than other states, the Times said.

"Because we have these systems in place," Harnett said, "we are more aware of what's happening and more responsive to what's happening."