A chapter president for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), who found a “bullseye” target in his front garden, was initially told by police that it was “cool”.
Keith Caldwell, an NAACP president in Tennessee, as well as a pastor at the Key Memorial United Methodist Church, told NBC that he found the target on a folding stand on Saturday evening.
Mr Caldwell said his front yard was not accessible, and added that someone must have climbed over his fence to place the target there.
He told local television station WKRN: “I understood that it was meant to intimidate me, that literally I’m a target and particularly with the work that I do. So I called the police.”
In a post on Facebook, he said that he had “deep concerns about what this could mean for the safety of my life and the lives of my family members”.
He told NBC that when an officer from the Metro Nashville Police Department arrived at his residence, he was asked who had put the target there.
“I said, ‘That’s what I’m calling you for,’” he told the outlet. “He said, ‘It’s pretty cool’.”
The pastor added that the officer did not change his tone, even after Mr Caldwell told him that he considered the target a threat.
“’I’m a black man in this country. I’m the president of the NAACP.’ He was still dismissive.”
After his conversation with the police, Mr Caldwell posted his frustrations on Facebook.
Mr Caldwell added in the post: “I am communicating all this in order to go on record.”
The officer who visited mr Caldwell is under investigation and the police are treating the target as intimidation, according to NBC.
The pastor told the outlet that since he posted about the incident on Facebook, he has had calls from city officials and from a police captain.
“It’s been a complete 180,” he said.
