Mr. Jankowski said that a case of racist graffiti was so uncommon in Stamford
that “no one can remember in the past 20 to 30 years of anything like this.”
The conflicts between the couple and the city started in October 2012.
Residents have started to complain, and officials in Stamford, a diverse coastal city
about 30 miles northeast of New York City, recently directed the couple to remove it.
“We offered to remedy the situation, to take care of removing the graffiti.”
Andre Cayo, a lawyer representing Ms. Lindsay, 59, a former respiratory therapist now on disability, said he had
advised her to keep the racial slur on the garage door as a way to keep pressure on the Police Department.
After a hearing last fall, Mr. Cayo said, Ms. Lindsay was cited for more blight
— an unstable wooden deck in the backyard and house panels in disrepair.
Ms. Lindsay said that since the couple had moved into the house in 1999, several people in the
area had repeatedly yelled racial obscenities at him and told them they hurt property values.
C.P., who joined the couple at the news conference, said he had been watching for other
signs of racism in the city after the election of Mr. Trump and the vandalism.
