San Jose residents are reacting after a Pride flag was ripped down from a home last week.
The incident happened Friday night in San Jose's Almaden Valley neighborhood.
A home surveillance video obtained by NBC Bay Area on Monday showed a man jumping out of a black car, running to a home and tearing down a Pride flag. He was then seeing running off and jumping back into the car, and leaving the area.
“It felt violating. Kind of felt dehumanizing,” Huy Le told NBC Bay Area on Sunday.
Le showed NBC Bay Area the damaged flag holder and shredded flag. He is a Pride center counselor at De Anza College and said he hung the flag to celebrate Pride month.
“The whole purpose was to show to it's safe place for them, so they know they can come here and be whatever they identify as,” he said.
Gabrielle Antolovich with the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center said she has seen an increase in Pride flags being vandalized and firmly believes this was a hate crime.
“It’s an expression of hate and it's to intimidate people in our community not to be who we are,” she said.
Antolovich added its important the community is aware of these incidents.
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“To have this kind of backlash is really, very distressing,” she said.
Le said he doesn't know who the person is but said as a pride center counselor, he knows students often face intolerance.
“I have students who tell me about the microaggressions that they face and similar things happen to them,” he said.
