Six black churches have been destroyed by fires in Southern states this past week

[hedda_foil]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/29/1397665/-Six-black-churches-have-been-destroyed-by-fires-in-Southern-states-this-past-week?detail=email

Six black churches have been destroyed by fires in Southern states this past week

byFaithGardnerFollow
40 Comments / 40 New

In the week after nine African Americans were shot and killed by a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina, six predominantly black churches have now been burnt to the ground. Arson was determined to be the cause of at least three of these fires. David A. Love at Atlanta Blackstar writes:

As the nation grapples with the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., one of the oldest Black churches in the South, other Black churches have become recent targets of arson. From slavery and the days of Jim Crow through the civil rights movement and beyond, white supremacists have targeted the Black church because of its importance as a pillar of the Black community, the center for leadership and institution building, education, social and political development and organizing to fight oppression. Strike at the Black church, and you strike at the heart of Black American life.
A list of the fires:

June 21, College Hill Seventh Day Adventist church in Knoxville, Tennessee:
Knoxville Fire Department spokesperson D.J. Corcoran says bags of dirt and bales of hay were left on fire outside the church’s doors. The church’s van was also seriously damaged.
“When I look at this I see, I think of an intention to try to destroy this entire church. It makes it sad. It’s sad either way that someone would put their mind to try to damage a church that’s trying to help people,” said Hobdy.

Knoxville PD say "the incident is not being investigated as a hate crime and the incident appears to be vandalism."
June 23, God's Power Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia:
When firefighters arrived, the front doors were wired shut and they had to enter through a side door, the local newspaper the Telegraph reported. [...]
The fire was ruled an arson, though police are not calling it a hate crime. “We are not seeing anything at this time that’s pointing us in that direction,” Sgt. Ben Glea­ton told the Telegraph

More...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/29/1397665/-Six-black-churches-have-been-destroyed-by-fires-in-Southern-states-this-past-week?detail=email

[Electric Monk]

1. Racism sucks. I hope they catch the arsonist(s). However, this is also a dupe thread

It's been posted in LBN http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141131174
and GD http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6915330 (102 recs) http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026922441

[hedda_foil]

4. Sorry, but it's not a dupe thread. it's a different and more fleshed out piece.

And focusing on the fact that six different churches across the South have been torched since Charleston is extremely important imo.

[liberal N proud]

2. When does the DOJ call this a hate crime?

[AuntPatsy]

3. They must know by now, they might be waiting to catch more of them by watching

the ones they know, I hope they catch them like yesterday

[GaYellowDawg]

5. Domestic terrorism, plain and simple.

President Obama said that "the church is and always has been the center of African-American life" to much approbation. These people have intentionally struck at the centers of African-American life.

The FBI has three requirements for domestic terrorism:
1. Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; Check.
2. Appear intended
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; Check.
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
3. Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. Check.

This is domestic terrorism. It should be treated as, investigated as, indicted as, and punished as domestic terrorism. They are terrorists. The failure to call them and treat them as terrorists is a demonstration of institutional racism.