Stickers prompt intimidation charges against Cary man

A Cary man is charged with North Carolina's version of a hate crime after putting racial stickers on cars and in a bathroom at Mexican restaurants around town last week, police said.

The "I (heart) being white" stickers were found on cars parked outside the On the Border restaurant at 1102 Walnut St. and inside a bathroom at Totopos Street Food and Tequila, at 1388 Kildaire Farm Road, on Saturday.

John Michael Kantz, 60, was charged with two counts of ethnic intimidation. His bond was set at $500, but police said he remains in custody.

"I thought I was overreacting when I first saw the stickers and I got upset," Totopos manager Maria Bravo said. "It took me a while to actually decide to call the police, but I also feel like these are the moments where I need – we need – to speak up."

North Carolina doesn't have a law against hate crimes, but the ethnic intimidation charge makes it a misdemeanor to "assault another person, or damage or deface the property of another person, or threaten to do any such act" because of someone's race, color, religion, nationality or country of origin.

Democratic state lawmakers have repeatedly tried to get hate crime legislation passed in the General Assembly to expand protections and increase punishments for such actions. The efforts have never even gotten a hearing in the Republican-controlled legislature.