CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The FBI and Charlotte police are investigating whether a cross burned into the backyard lawn of an interracial couple is a hate crime.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, in Charlotte for a Bank of America shareholder meeting, visited the family's home Wednesday. He prayed with them over the scorch marks and accused authorities of not taking the investigation seriously.
Jackson criticized police for failing to position a patrol car in the neighborhood.
''This is not a one-time incident,'' Jackson said. ''It's been an unending campaign to drive them away from their home.''
A phone call from Jackson prompted a visit to the house by the head of the FBI office in North Carolina.
''It certainly appears that this is a fairly serious incident,'' Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kendrick said after talking with Robert and Kim Mackey.
''It has all the earmarks of something that's geared toward intimidation,'' he said.
Some neighbors aren't so sure. They said their neighborhood includes other interracial couples.
''If this were a hate crime, it would have started long ago, and you could pick a house,'' said Steve Abbott, a neighborhood association leader, who is white. He called the idea that the Mackeys were targeted for their racial backgrounds ''totally bogus. It's no hate crime.''
The Mackeys and their three children moved from Union County to a cul-de-sac in the New Stonehaven neighborhood in late February.
On March 29, they reported that someone had slashed their tires, according to police records. It happened again Monday night, the Mackeys said.
Then, just after 4 a.m. Tuesday, they reported that grass in their backyard had been set on fire in the shape of a small cross.
Officers and search dogs canvassed the neighborhood but found no suspects or tracks leaving the area, said Officer Mandy Giannini, a police spokeswoman. Police had sent the arson task force to the home Tuesday and assigned the case to the department's criminal intelligence unit to be investigated as a hate crime.
The Mackeys said their children, ages 10 through 14, were terrorized and couldn't sleep Tuesday. Robert Mackey, 39, said he had written off the first tire-slashing to mischief by neighborhood kids. But after the second slashing and the grass-burning, he believes his family was being targeted.
Robert Mackey is black. His wife Kim, 32, is part white and part Lumbee Indian.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police investigated about 50 possible hate crimes in 2004, but found that only eight incidents met the criteria, according to police records. In 2003, they reported 12 hate crimes, plus 31 investigations that were not substantiated.
The FBI defines a hate crime as motivated by ''the victim's perceived race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.''
Information from: The Charlotte Observer
