Posted on 12/14/2020 10:11:38 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Protesters tore down and burned a Black Lives Matter sign and banner at two historic black churches during Saturday evening's rallies as supporters of President Donald Trump and counterprotesters clashed in Washington, D.C.
Police said Sunday they were investigating what appeared to be potential hate crimes at Asbury United Methodist Church and Metropolitan A.M.E. Church where a BLM banner and sign were torn down, The Associated Press reported.
“We take these offenses seriously and we are currently investigating them as possible hate crimes,” a D.C. spokesperson told WTOP News.
Videos posted on social media showed a crowd of men taking down a BLM sign at Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, founded in 1838, and another group of men burning a BLM banner in the street.
The Rev. Dr. Ianther M. Mills, the senior pastor at Asbury church, compared the incident with “cross burnings.”
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SUBMIT FREE CP NEWSLETTERS Join over 250,000 others to get the top stories curated daily, plus special offers! SUBMIT “It pained me especially to see our name, Asbury, in flames,” she said in a statement. “For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings. Seeing this act on video made me both indignant and determined to fight the evil that has reared its ugly head… We will move forward, undaunted in our assurance that Black Lives Matter and we are obligated to continue to shout that truth without ceasing.”
Pastor William H. Lamar IV, who leads Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, said he was “speechless” when he was first informed about the vandalism.
He was told by Thomas Bowen, director of the D.C. mayor’s office of religious affairs, that members of the controversial far-right Proud Boys had torn down their BLM sign and stomped on it.
“Their doing violence to that sign is more than doing violence to that sign. They seek to continue the violence their ancestors visited upon our ancestors. They don’t want to just ruin signs, they want to destroy lives, they want to destroy hope, they want to erase history,” Lamar said Sunday during a worship service livestream. “And they’re not going to be able to do that. We won’t let them do that.”
“This assault is but a foretaste of what is possible from these people. These people who are as far from God as the east is from the west, … who want their dehumanization to cause us to be less human but we will refuse as we have always done. We also will protect what our ancestors gave to us. … We will not be silent, we will not be intimidated, we will not be afraid.”
Thousands of Trump’s supporters, who argue that the presidential election was stolen from Trump, protested in downtown D.C. Saturday. Four people were stabbed and at least 33 people were arrested during clashes with counterprotesters. D.C. police said that it amounted to the most protest-related arrests in a single day since Aug. 13, during the George Floyd protests.
During the Floyd protests, the historic St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., was vandalized with the basement torched by protesters.
I heard some people tore down and destroyed or burned BLM posters, but that is about it. I didn’t hear that they were “Doing it in the name of Trump”, though.
“they want to erase history,”
that’s the Communist agitators’ job
Smells like False Flag.
Antifa or BLM did it.
Prove me wrong.
This will be called a hate crime until they discover it wasn’t a Trump supporter.
Who did it? Trump supporters? Seriously doubt that.
These communist tools didn’t care when BLM and antifa tried to burn down St. Johns Church in DC. And I am glad their communist BLM banners were vandalized...and Jesus is too.
Moneychangers = temple.
I guess burning down the buildings was the socially acceptable act.
Lefties are very sensitive about their own stuff. They can burn down business, and it's a peaceful demonstration. Tear done a banner, and it "vandalism".
Most “hate crimes” of this nature are put-up jobs to falsely indict others so statistically speaking you are probably right.
Sounds like Lamar is really reaching... and projecting his own ‘cancel culture’ ideology onto others, since BLM is a Maoist front organization which makes no secret about their being part of the war on art.
While tearing down a sign is indeed vandalism, and doing it on someone elses property is trespassing, neither act is vandalism of a church. These were not Christian signs and banners nor even religious ones of any kind; they were purely political signs, and had as much business being there as the merchants whose tables were overturned at the Temple by Jesus Christ.
No altar was defiled, no cross burned or defaced.
[[ “We take these offenses seriously and we are currently investigating them as possible hate crimes,” a D.C. spokesperson told WTOP News]]
But not so much when blm and antifa burns down businesses, assaults Trump supporters, beats up old ladies, smashes trump supporters cars and property though,, right Mr dc spokesman?
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
It’s all doublespeak.
[[ they want to destroy hope, they want to erase history]]
The left projecting again
Trump supporters are pro conservative, pro America and Pro God people.
ANTIFA
ANTIFA.....did this - guaranteed. They are the Godless, atheistic anarchical communists.
Raphael Warnock’s comment was, “It was those evil Jews that did this! First they created AIDS to kill blacks, then COVID-19 to kill more of us and now the Trump vaccine to make us all sterile.”
IDIOTS!
Why would Christians vandalize a church?
I watched most of the DC Rally, it was like a Baptist Revival Meeting.
If the churches were supporting BLM, then who cares what happens to them?
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