By By Adam Prestridge
An Atmore senior citizen was disturbed last weekend when racial graffiti was discovered outside her 4th Avenue home.
Rosetta Sims, a 69-year-old African-American woman and longtime resident of Atmore, who has lived in her 4th Avenue home for 13 years, said she didn't want the incident to go unnoticed because she doesn't want the people responsible for writing the racial slurs to get away with it.
"Some of my neighbors saw it in passing and one called me and told me that she had just passed my house and saw it," Sims said. "When I got dressed and I saw both of the remarks, the one on the stop sign and the other on the phone box, I went back in the house and that's when I called the police. I think of that as a threat because it's in my yard. It made me angry because the last time I read my Bible it said that we all came from Adam and Eve and it also says that what a man thinks so is he. I don't bother anybody."
Sims believes the graffiti, which was painted with red spray paint on the stop sign in front of her home and telephone box in her front yard, was painted on Friday, Feb. 17.
"I don't know if somebody is trying to make a statement because this is Black History Month," Sims said. "I just don't know."
A report was filed with the Atmore Police Department and stated that Sims' son showed officers the graffiti upon their arrival.
"They don't really know who it could have been," Sims said. "I don't know who it could have been either. I'm mostly inside the house when I'm there."
The incident isn't the first time damage has been done on Sims' property. A few years back, somebody spray painted her mailbox. During that incident, no racial slurs were used.
As for what Sims believes the penalty should be for the person responsible for the graffiti, she said she's not the judge.
"I couldn't say that because God is the judge, not me," she said. "I don't think they should go around doing things like that."
The APD report states that the incident is considered criminal mischief.
"I'm not going to say I'm afraid, it just upset me," Sims said. "I don't think people should go around threatening people's lives like that."