Tag: vandalism

US Hate Crimes On the Rise — Including on Houses of Worship

Brian Freeman – October 2021

Hate crimes in 2021 are on pace to surpass even the spike in 2020 in the United States — and many of them are linked to religious bigotry, Axios reported on Tuesday.

The number of hate crimes reported in 2020 was the highest since 2001, when the U.S. experienced a surge of Islamophobia after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to updated FBI statistics released yesterday.

Houses of worship of various faiths are also suffering from high amounts of vandalism, arson, and other property damage: There have been 100 acts of hate recorded against Catholic sites in the U.S. since May of 2020, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said last week.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before Congress on Monday that the Justice Department has charged at least 17 people with federal hate crimes and added that the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is also expediting its review of federal hate crimes, Axios reported.

Many incidents have apparently been influenced by news and political events worldwide.

https://www.newsmax.com

Congressman urges DOJ to investigate ‘disturbing trend’ of attacks on churches across the country

Carlos Garcia – August 6, 2020

A congressman urged the Department of Justice to investigate what he called a “disturbing trend” of attacks and vandalism on churches across the nation.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) made the request in a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday after a rash of attacks on Catholic churches in his district.

“Since June, there have been nearly a dozen reported attacks on Catholic churches around the nation. These disturbing attacks range from arson to the beheading of a statue of the Virgin Mary,” wrote Fleischmann, who is Catholic.

“I find these attacks to be a disturbing trend, happening in multiple areas across the nation, including within my own congressional district,” he added.

“In times of uncertainty we naturally turn to religion for comfort and peace, something many Americans are seeking as we combat COVID-19, but these attacks add another level of distress for many across our nation,” Fleischmann continued.

“I commend the Department of Justice’s commitment,” he concluded, “under your leadership, to combating religious discrimination and I look forward to our continued work together to uphold and protect religious freedom in the United States.”

Churches have been targeted for looting and arson across the United States in recent months. Some of the attacks have been a part of the rioting stemming from the protests over the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody in late May.

Some of the rioting focused on statues meant to honor saints of the Catholic church. In San Francisco, California, a group of around 100 rioters toppled a statue of Catholic missionary St. Junipero Serra, despite historic evidence that he defended the rights of Native Americans.

In another recent case of vandalism against a church, someone wrote racist threats on the air conditioning unit of the Murph-Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in North Highlands, California.

https://www.theblaze.com

Statues of Jesus being beheaded across the Country

ETH – July 17,2020

(ETH) – Another statue of Jesus has been beheaded by vandalizes in the courtyard of a Catholic church in Kendale Lakes, Florida, according to a report from the Miami Archdiocese who claim that it expects police to label the incident as a hate crime.

The statue of Jesus Christ that was beheaded had been resting behind the church for decades before and was allegedly decapitated by vandals overnight into Wednesday.  According to the report, authorities are yet unsure of who was behind the incident, RT News stated:

“This is not something you can trip over and say, ‘Oh, sorry,’ – Someone did this intentionally,” spokesperson Mary Ross Agosta told local media. Agosta said the church sees it as not merely an act of vandalism – which has been on the rise in the wake of the George Floyd protests, with activists toppling statues of historical figures across the country – but an “an attack on the church” that should be investigated as a “hate crime.” They also warned that the suspected hate-fueled attack on the statue is not an isolated incident and that the Catholic Church as a whole has faced an avalanche of similar attacks recently.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

‘God is Dead’: Leftist Rioters Vandalize Churches and Synagogues

Daniel Greenfield – June 4, 2020

The assault on St. John’s Episcopal Church by radicals and racists was the ugliest moment of the D.C. riots. Not only was the famous 204-year-old church, which every president since Madison has attended, sprayed with graffiti, but some of the thugs even tried to burn it down by starting a fire in its basement.

The attack and President Trump’s subsequent visit to the ‘Church of Presidents’ captured the attention of a nation. But what happened to St. John’s was not an aberration. The Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots have been associated with attacks on churches and synagogues across the United States.

The victims of New York City’s leftist riots included St. Patrick’s Cathedral as the venerable 142-year-old building was defaced with obscenities and the three letters BLM for Black Lives Matter, along with “George Floyd” and “No Justice, No Peace”.

In Richmond, Virginia, Beth Ahabah, a 225-year-old Reform Jewish congregation, had the windows in its grand 116-year-old building smashed by rioters. The building is now covered over with plywood. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, a 175-year-old building, also in Richmond, was defaced with graffiti. Finally, rioters in Richmond broke the windows of the West Broad Church of Christ, an African-American congregation. They left intact the one pane of glass reading, “Welcome”.

Some of the nationwide vandalism of churches and synagogues featured generic Black Lives Matter slogans, but some had hateful messages that were specifically targeted to the houses of worship.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, a 108-year-old building, was at the center of some of the local riots, including the hit-and-run of three Denver police officers, and suffered permanent damage. The walls were also vandalized with graffiti reading, “Pedofiles” and “God is dead”.

https://www.frontpagemag.com