{"id":11829,"date":"2012-04-09T13:25:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T17:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=11829"},"modified":"2012-04-09T13:25:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T17:25:42","slug":"mdot-road-sign-changed-to-trayvon-martin-racial-slur-overnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/04\/mdot-road-sign-changed-to-trayvon-martin-racial-slur-overnight\/","title":{"rendered":"MDOT road sign changed to Trayvon Martin racial slur overnight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/trayvon_martin_zimmerman1.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11830\" title=\"trayvon_martin_zimmerman\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/trayvon_martin_zimmerman1.jpg?resize=490%2C297\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"297\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>By Elisha Anderson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Detroit Free Press Staff Writer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">A racial slur appeared on a portable road sign along westbound I-94 in Detroit early today after the sign was hacked, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Motorists began calling police shortly before 1 a.m. to report the message, which was an apparent reference slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. The message, calling Trayvon a racial epithet, was on a sign near Michigan Avenue, MDOT spokesman Rob Morosi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Martin, 17, was shot to death in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who told police he acted in self-defense. A special prosecutor is now investigating the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">The racial message was up for about an hour before it was changed back to the original message warning of upcoming road construction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">\u201cSomeone either pulled over to the side of the road or walked down the slope, broke into the cabinet and changed the message,\u201d Morosi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">The cabinet houses a keyboard and hard drive for the sign, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">MDOT is working with the Michigan State Police to try to determine who is responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">It\u2019s not the first time a sign has been hacked \u2014 but in the past people put messages up warning of zombies, ghosts or goblins, Morosi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">\u201cNothing ever to the extent of the inappropriateness that we\u2019ve seen here,\u201d Morosi said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20120409\/NEWS02\/120409015\/MDOT-road-sign-Trayvon-Martin-racial-slur?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE\">Fuente<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Elisha Anderson Detroit Free Press Staff Writer A racial slur appeared on a portable road sign along westbound I-94 in Detroit early today after..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,43,84,97],"tags":[357,347],"class_list":["post-11829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discrimination","category-media-culture","category-statements","category-us-news","tag-racism","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/trayvon_martin_zimmerman_11829_c87ff.jpg?fit=549%2C333&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}