A 'concerned citizen' told a business to take down its rainbow flag 'before it is too late'

[DonViejo]

The note said that the town is "a religious and family city." An employee wrote an amazing response.

By Alex Bollinger Friday, July 5, 2019

A hair salon received a threatening note not about its rainbow flag.

Issam Bajalia owns Salon U in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. He said that he had just returned home from World Pride in New York City when he found a note taped to his business telling him to remove his rainbow flag “before it is too late.”



“We’re just very disappointed because our only crime[…] is we have a rainbow flag in front of our building,” Bajalia told AL.com.

“My thing is what is so offensive about a rainbow or a flag and how does this disrupt your religious journey?”

Bajalia said that he contacted the police because the note is a threat.

“I am not an alarmist by nature,” he said. “In fact I don’t feel threatened at all, however when you have situations like the Pulse Nightclub shooting, you can’t be too careful in today’s day in time. You don’t know.”

Police said that they added a patrol outside the salon and are looking for security footage from nearby businesses.

more
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/07/concerned-citizen-told-business-take-rainbow-flag-late/

[gratuitous]

1. Looks like the threatening letter was printed on a computer printer

It's possible to trace the letter to the printer. If someone did it at Kinko's, that might be a dead end. However, if someone printed at their home printer, they might have an opportunity to explain themselves to law enforcement. Before it is too late, naturally.

[unc70]

3. Will also have date and time it was printed

Probably coded in a series of tiny yellow dots.

In addition to make, model, and serial number of printer.

[fescuerescue]

5. True. But very unlikely to be followed up on

Tracking down the owner would take quite a bit of time and resources and multiple judges signatures. (tracking from manufacturer to reseller and then banking receipts etc). Lots of opportunities for holes in the data too.

Sadly, it's one of those things that only gets tracked down if it might solve a murder.

[unc70]

8. Actually a lot easier than that

The printer vendors know what network hosts the printer, lots of info from the hosting systems, the ink cartridges being used (and their respective serial numbers), and my ch more. Might still need a warrant, but almost no effort. A lot of that info would probably be exposed by doing a simple Google search.

[fescuerescue]

9. If it's a printer that "phones home" yes

And the owner configured it to do this. Would still need a warrant as the ISP's universally require them to release customer information. High end printers do this. Cheapos don't.

Maybe a judge would see that as a threat and sign the warrant, maybe not. I'll lean to the yes.

Depends on how much effort the cops would place on tracking it down. Few police departments would invest many resources at this level of wrong doing. Since the letter alone probably isn't enough evidence to secure a conviction, I would lean to the NO on this.

[unc70]

11. Google probably sucked up printer ID info

Doing a Google search might not meet indictment standards, but as public info might form probable cause. But who knows.

[NutmegYankee]

6. Home Printers often lack that technology.

It's used in color laser jet printers, but the typical home printer is an ink jet, and lacks the yellow toner. It's also easy to overcome with all black and white printing.

[unc70]

12. It is used in inkjet printers

Most printers print the yellow dots, if possible, even in black-white mode. Most print single pixel black/grey if truly BW printers. There are tools which retrieve and decode this info.

[yardwork]

2. "Not San Francisco or downtown Birmingham..." Both equally bad, apparently!

[trof]

7. Birmingham has black city government.

The city's population is 70+ % black.

[yardwork]

13. Should be fairly easy to profile the letter writer.

[EarnestPutz]

4. "Concerned Citizen", huh? Out of curiousity I just googled that term....

....and it's interesting to see how widely it has been used. Everyone from Klan members and white supremacists to a group trying to get a youth center built at Martin Luther King Park in Grand Rapids Michigan. Whoever posted this note is a religious bigot but they identify themselves rather sheepishly. I'd suggest "The Council of Homewood Alabama Queer Haters" as being appropriately unambiguous.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

10. Cuz Gawd told dem so