My black-owned business was attacked by racists — the police wouldn’t help me

“The first time we saw him was the day we brought the buses to the ground and we had a bad exchange. He asked us what we were doing there and if we were trying to get some shade. “

Salisbury, which sits between Charlotte and Greensboro, has made headlines for racial incidents in the past year.

According to US Census data from 2022, nearly 54% of the city’s population is white – while 37% is black. Salisbury is the seat of Rowan County, which is almost 80% white.

The Guardian reported that the county was a “sunset” area, a term originating in the Jim Crow era used to refer to segregated white communities.

Katherine Mellen Charron, a history professor at North Carolina State University, told the outlet that “sunset cities” limited home ownership for black Americans, “economically and politically” benefits “white supremacists.”

“It’s a matter of economic uncertainty and rising economic inequality, and the feeling that white property values ​​will decrease when black people move into the neighborhood and real estate agents are blockbusting. and taking advantage of that,” he explained.

Pittman remembers saving up since he was 17 to get his bus plans moving, saying things went south when he moved inland.

He told The Guardian that his neighbor was sitting in his yard with his “gun the whole time.”

He continued: “He was like, ‘Get the f–k off my yard. and [that] we need to get the f–king buses out of his yard. So basically, my land is his.”

In late September, he reported to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office that someone had broken glass and defaced his buses with racial slurs, according to a police report obtained by The Post.

The videos he posted on TikTok showed damaged yellow buses, with broken windows and vulgar words painted on the hoods and sides.

Pittman told The Post that the grill on one bus was also destroyed, two catalytic converters were stolen, several wires were cut, and the “transmission was intentionally tampered with on one of the buses.”

He added that someone “peeed and defecated all over one of the buses.”

“So, out of the three working buses, only one is running properly now,” he added.

Pittman told The Post that law enforcement “took too long to come,” and sheriff’s deputies “did nothing” when they showed up.

Pittman alleged that the police said the neighbor was “affiliated with the KKK and some local Nazi group” and advised him to get a “no trespassing sign/order.”

The Post has reached out to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office for comment.

The Guardian quoted one of the sheriff’s captains, Mark McDaniel, as saying that officers who arrived at Pittman’s property recognized the neighbor and “observed the damage … [and] the spray-painted thing.”

McDaniel told the outlet that with no witnesses or video of the vandalism occurring, the sheriff’s office closed the case.

Pittman, meanwhile, said he cut his losses and returned to Charlotte, turning to GoFundMe to raise money to restart his business endeavors after spending the “bulk” of his savings.

“I am not at all comfortable allowing my buses to remain on the ground for fear of further damage or even my life being at risk,” he wrote on the fundraising page, which he created in November.

He raised more than $88,000 as of Tuesday, surpassing his goal of $80,000.

“The goal of the money collected is for me to repair the damage done to the buses and find vacant land in Charlotte so I can continue working toward my dreams,” he said.

He told The Post: “I was planning to turn around on a bus [into] a mobile hair salon and the other two buses to small houses. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. “