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The three Louisiana churches went up in flames in a span of 10 days, each doused in gasoline and torched with oily shop rags in the middle of the night. Each Baptist congregation was predominantly black, causing church leaders to fear that white supremacists may target their parish next. But as the fears swirled, the arsonist, 22-year-old Holden Matthews, was busy planning his next album cover, according to text messages obtained by prosecutors He burned down the three churches in St. Landry Parish, federal prosecutors said Monday, because he wanted “to raise his profile as a ‘Black Metal’ musician.” Matthews,...

State troopers have already been called in and Mayor Jacob Frey asked for the National Guard's help after one suspected looter was fatally shot and stores were left ransacked and torched. Shocking images Thursday morning show the widespread destruction left in the wake of the protests over the death of Floyd in police custody on Monday. Chaos first erupted Tuesday after footage showed a white police officer knelt on the father-of-two's neck for eight minutes. By Wednesday stores including Wendy's, Target, Walmart and AutoZone had been looted, ransacked and some set alight before rioters tried to bust open an ATM.

A Mississippi church that is suing to stay open during the coronavirus shutdowns was destroyed by arson Wednesday, according to local officials. Fox News reports someone also spray-painted graffiti on the First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs, including a message that read, “I Bet you stay home now you hypokrits [sic].” Local authorities said there was an explosion in the front of the church, and the building caught fire sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Wednesday. Marshall County Sheriff’s Department Major Kelly McMillian told the local news that the fire is being investigated as a criminal act of arson....

A man accused of setting a fire that destroyed an Islamic center in southeast Missouri has been charged with a federal hate crime, the U.S. Attorney’s office in St. Louis said Tuesday. A federal grand jury indicted 42-year-old Nicholas J. Proffitt in the April fire that destroyed the Cape Girardeau Islamic Center, the office said in a statement. Proffitt is charged with damaging religious property because of the property’s religious character, using fire to commit a federal felony, and damaging a building used in interstate commerce through use of fire. […] A Muslim advocacy group, which had called for a...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, February 10, 2020 Holden Matthews, 22, pleaded guilty today in the Western District of Louisiana to intentionally setting fire to three Baptist churches because of the religious character of those buildings.  Specifically, Matthews pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the Church Arson Prevention Act, 18 U.S.C. § 247(a)(1) — one count for each church — as well as one count of using fire to commit a federal felony, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(h).  The fires, which Matthews set over a 10-day period in March and...

This summer's bushfires were not just devastating events in themselves. More broadly, they highlighted the immense vulnerability of the systems which make our contemporary lives possible. The fires cut road access, which meant towns ran out of fuel and fell low on food. Power to towns was cut and mobile phone services stopped working. So too did the ATMs and EFTPOS services the economy needs to keep running. In a modern, wealthy nation such as Australia, how could this happen? In a human sense, social systems range from the small, such as a family, to large organizations or the national...

A Portland activist died after being hit by an SUV early Saturday near a Northeast Portland cidery and left-wing hangout, according to multiple people who knew him. Police identified Sean D. Kealiher, a 23-year-old Portland resident, as the man who was hit after leaving Cider Riot, a Couch Street gathering place for antifascists, anarchists and other leftists. Shots were fired at the car after it hit Kealiher, and the vehicle crashed into a building.

Last October, a well-known Portland antifa militant was killed under mysterious circumstances after leaving a pub popular with far-left extremists. Sean Daniel Kealiher, 23, was killed near the Cider Riot pub after being hit by a car that had been fired upon with live rounds. His friends dragged his body away and did not call the police. Kealiher’s death immediately rippled throughout Portland and beyond, leading both the far-left and even establishment Democrat leaders to mourn publicly. A GoFundMe for his funeral raised thousands. And while he was lionized in the press as a murdered “anti-fascist activist” and even called...

Al Gore blames the climate crisis; Barack Obama says Australia’s bushfires are the very real, very urgent consequences of climate change. Hillary Clinton declares we are in a climate emergency. More than three months ago there were warnings of an unusually strong Indian Ocean Dipole, with warm water off Africa contributing to rain there and cold water off Western Australia leading to severe drought there. Strong winds and updrafts created conditions for hundreds of lightning strikes. Together with the build-up of fuel – five years ago, bushfire expert David Packham warned that forest fuel levels had climbed to their most...

The Truth About to the Australian Bush Fires

Only about 1 per cent of the land burnt in NSW this bushfire season can be officially attributed to arson, and it is even less in Victoria, the ABC can reveal. The world has been shocked by the scenes of devastation as the unprecedented destruction of Australia's horror bushfire season rages on. The disaster has sparked significant media speculation that many of the blazes were deliberately lit. While it is true firebugs remain a legitimate and serious threat, we crunched the numbers provided by police and fire authorities around the country. The results might surprise you. NSW Rural Fire Service...

A wooden statue mocking U.S. President Donald Trump was burned to the ground Thursday in Slovenia, the birthplace of his wife Melania, authorities said. The nearly eight-meter (26-foot) high construction, erected last year in a village in northeast of Slovenia, showed Trump with his trademark hair style, blue suit, white shirt and a long red tie. His right arm — fist clenched — was raised high like that of New York’s Statue of Liberty. Slovenian police are looking for the arsonist. When triggered, a mechanism inside the statue opened a red-painted mouth and shark-like teeth used to appear.

James Polite, who was charged with hate crimes and arson after he allegedly set fire to seven Jewish sites and vandalized a synagogue, was released from jail without bail Tuesday, according to court records. Polite allegedly wrote “Die Jew Rats” and “Hitler” at the Union Temple of Brooklyn in November 2018. Security footage allegedly showed him setting setting fires at “seven shuls and yeshivas in Williamsburg.” The incidents led to the cancellation of a Democratic event at the synagogue, with a candidate saying it highlighted the need to vote out “hate.” Polite is a self-identified queer black man who was...

Victoria police say there is no evidence any of the devastating bushfires in the state were caused by arson, contrary to the spread of global disinformation exaggerating arsonist arrests during the current crisis.A misleading figure suggesting 183 arsonists have been arrested “since the start of the bushfire season” spread across the globe on Wednesday, after initial reports in News Corp were picked up by Donald Trump Jr, US far-right websites and popular alt-right personalities. Jason Wilson (@jason_a_w)Some outlets are reporting this responsibly but the distorted version is all over garbage-tier rightwing media. pic.twitter.com/U9XxmzuKHl January 7, 2020 The figure included...

The NSW Police Force has taken legal action against more than 180 people for bushfire-related offences since late last year. Numerous bush and grass fires have impacted the state, claiming the lives of 18 people and destroying hundreds of millions of animals and livestock, thousands of homes, and more than 4.9 million hectares of land, so far this bushfire season. Since Friday 8 November 2019, legal action – which ranges from cautions through to criminal charges – has been taken against 183 people – including 40 juveniles – for 205 bushfire-related offences. Of note: 24 people have been charged over...

Police have charged at least 24 people for intentionally starting bushfires in the state of New South Wales, according to a statement the New South Wales Police released Monday. NSW Police have taken legal action against 183 people, 40 of whom are juveniles, for fire-related offenses since November 8, the statement said. The legal actions range from cautions to criminal charges. Out of those 183 people, 53 have received cautions or criminal charges for failing to comply with a total fire ban and 47 are accused of discarding a lit cigarette or match on land, according to the police statement......

Many sites are reporting that the Aussie investigators now suspect that up to 85% of the fires were caused by human beings. They have arrested a number of people and many of them were found with accelerants in their possession. Arrested yes but many of them are now free. Muslim teen Fadi Zraika was seen laughing as he left court on Tuesday in Sydney. Fadi and his brother Abraham are accused of starting a fire at a Guildford park in December.

A 45-year-old Iraqi migrant .. setting several fires in the center of Graz – Austria’s second largest city after Vienna – including ones at city hall and a district court has been arrested. ... arson attacks started .. at the district court of Graz-West.. the man was seen spraying .. flammable fluid throughout the court’s lobby before setting it on fire ... set another one in front of Graz’s city hall.. The staff saw it on video surveillance and sounded the alarm. ... three separate fires were set and that the smoke became so thick that he wasn’t able to...

Australia’s rampant and destructive wildfires were started by arson, and fueled by dry conditions and high temperatures, but you’d never know it from the Golden Globes or mainstream media outlets. In November, a teenage volunteer firefighter from New South Wales was charged with setting 7 bushfires in the region, and then returning with his brigade to fight them. Apparently, he has set 17 fires, and the pyromaniac has now been barred from access to any firefighting equipment. ... Police arrested 183 people for lighting bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania in the past few months. NSW police...

Three thousand Australian Defence Force reservists will be deployed to help with the bushfire recovery, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced. Mr Morrison said the Federal Government would also invest a further $20 million to lease four additional firefighting aircraft. The Prime Minister also announced Chinook helicopters from Townsville and other military aircraft would assist, as well as the opening of defence force bases from Adelaide to Brisbane for emergency short-term accommodation. The Navy's largest amphibious ship, HMAS Adelaide, will sail from Sydney this afternoon to sit off the coast should it be required to help with evacuations. "They will...