HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Residents in parts of Henrico County have also received those racist mass texts sent to Black people across the country in the wake of the presidential election, according to authorities.
Henrico Police Chief Eric English said Saturday that people in the county had received the messages and that “some specifically targeted” residents in Highland Springs.
Nationwide the text messages invoking slavery were sent to Black men, women and children, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other law enforcement departments.
While the texts varied somewhat, they all instructed recipients to “board a bus” that would transport them to a “plantation” to work as slaves, officials said. They said the messages were sent to school-aged children and college students, causing significant distress.
It is unclear if those were the same types of messages sent to people in Henrico.
“There is no place in Henrico for this type of hateful and racist rhetoric,” English said. “These messages aim to divide and scare our neighbors and community members and create confusion. We want to assure our community that there will be no tolerance for these types of hateful messages.”