Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/06/someone-is-setting-fire-to-bla.html
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I need an 
option for the like button.
ETA
YES YES IT IS New York Times, it fucking well is racism.
Well okay not so much the NYT but the local officials.
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There was also this one in Tennessee…
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This person will be caught. With the amount of video cameras around these days, it would be difficult to be at that many places without being seen on a camera. That parish is a lot of small towns / villages basically, and people are observant of unusual activities too. Someone will have seen something. And the ATF and FBI don’t give up on these things. I just hope that when they catch this person, he is charged federally and gets a decade for each fire.
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Same as it ever was, sadly.
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Calm down, everyone. I’m sure there are good people on both sides.
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“There is clearly something happening in this community,” said Captain Obvious.
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Ok, I’ll say it. This overt racism is trump’s fault.
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it’s such an odd phrasing. “in” almost makes it sound like they’re blaming the parishioners. “to” would seem to make a lot more sense.
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Thanks, Drumpf.
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I think his assumption was that the perpetrators also live near Opelousas, which seems probable, and that state investigators needed help from the white terrorist adjacent members of the community to find the arsonists
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I doubt that outsiders to the community would even be aware of these churches.
Who did it could be anyone. Someone could have flown in from another state, or even country, did that attack, and flown out. Anything is possible.
But… the police know that most of the time, for most crimes, perpetrators choose targets they are familiar with and which are nearby. They will probably start by interviewing the church leaders and regulars and finding out if they were aware of threats, disputes, or suspicious situations. They will also look for any kind of forensics, especially video evidence.
Usually the kind of person who does something like this isn’t very sophisticated and will be found.
Of course it could be a sophisticated individual from outside the area. Anything is possible, but not everything is likely.
Hmm, the South… Hmm, Black churches… Hmm, a frequency that pretty definitively rules out say “accidental fire by devotional candle mistake”…
Gosh! I wonder if racism is an element?
Why do we even need to ponder this? As Melz points out this is a classic racist thing/nothing new, and we’re seeing it again most likely due to the fact that a certain orange shitstain is normalizing racism (o.k., at least overt racism).
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hey now don’t be prejudicial. even white men in louisiana know how to use the internet.
for instance, in these nine church burnings the men set fires in multiple counties to try to throw off investigators.
which is why the phrasing sounded odd.
with one notable exception in recent history arson at black churches are committed by whites who are not parishioners.
interesting side note: there was a specific federal law passed in the 90s and a federal task force ( since disbanded ) to address church burnings.
from wikipedia:
President Clinton created the National Church Arson Task Force (NCATF) to look for any connections among church arsons. [In its first year] opening 429 cases involving arson, bombings, or attempted bombings of churches.
The number of church arsons decreased drastically from 1,320 in 1980 to 240 in 2002… A 2013 report found that 16% of fires at religious buildings were intentionally lit.
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What puzzles me in that in one case a few years ago it was a black guy doing this for ‘whatever reason’. Not even for insurance money.
I can see this recent string being trumpers and kids ‘emboldened’ to act out. But wouldn’t rule out other motives and I include kids being bored and dumb ass as ‘other motives’ here.
Sure, but they are most likely locals, and probably someone there knows who they are, and FBI-level police work will find them. It’s good the ATF is involved in this, so hopefully they will get real federal years, instead of non-serious state charges.
I remember that case. People do incredible stupid things for no visible reason at all sometimes. The police know that.
Read a fucking history book about violence aimed at the black community in America and how that’s continued into the present. Given that history and the rise in white supremacist activity and violence in recent years, it seems pretty likely that that is what happened here.
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What could possibly lead you to that conclusion? /s
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Are people in this thread confused by the fact that Louisiana uses the word, ‘parish’, to mean what other states call a ‘county’?
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The deadly racist spree in Charlottesville in 2017 and the killing of 11 congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg in 2018 were fire bells in the night. Another rang out in New Market, Tennessee on March 29 as the main building at the Highlander Research and Education Center burned to the ground, along with archives.
In the nearby parking lot, someone spray-painted a symbol associated with Romania’s fascist Iron Guard movement of the 1930s. That symbol appeared on a gun used by the shooter in the recent Christchurch, New Zealand massacre. The Highlander Center issued a statement April 2 declaring its awareness that the white power movement has been increasing and consolidating power across the South, across this nation, and globally.
Source: The Burning of Highlander Center: a Fascist-like Attack - CounterPunch.org
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