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    Azalea Cooney Vandalism - 1992

    A shocking racial attack in Portland, Oregon, galvanized the traditionally liberal community to action. Azalea Cooney, a 40-year-old lesbian and former corrections worker confined to a wheelchair and suffering from brain cancer, woke up in shock to find a swastika and “Burn, N*gger, Burn” spray-painted on her garage. The attacks escalated, with burning crosses parked on her lawn, threatening letters in her mailbox and a black baby doll with a bullet in its head left on her porch. Police were baffled, so they set up surveillance cameras at a neighbor’s house to catch the culprits. What they found was staggering – Cooney was filmed getting out of her wheelchair and creating the vandalism herself. She had faked everything, including the cancer!