Black Lives Matter signs that were apparently burned and destroyed at historic Black churches in Washington, D.C., during a pro-Trump rally this weekend are being investigated as possible hate crimes, authorities said Sunday.
The Washington Police Department said it was seeking information about the incidents, which occurred at Asbury United Methodist Church, founded in 1836, and Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal, where Frederick Douglass’ funeral was held in 1895.
“This weekend, we saw forces of hate seeking to use destruction and intimidation to tear us apart,” Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said in a statement Sunday. “We will not let that happen, and continue to stand together strong and United to Love.”
She added that the police department and religious affairs officials from her office reached out to the churches Sunday.
In a statement, Asbury’s senior pastor, Rev. Dr. Ianther Mills, said that pro-Trump supporters removed a Black Lives Matter sign from the church and “literally burned it in the street.”
“It pained me especially to see our name, Asbury, in flames,” he said. “For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings.”
Seeing the incident on video, Mills said, “made me both indignant and determined to fight the evil that has reared its ugly head. We had been so confident that no one would ever vandalize the church, but it has happened.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what video Mills was referring to. A widely circulated clip on social media purported to show far-right protesters burning a Black Lives Matter sign at an intersection near the White House.
Another widely circulated video appeared to show the protesters tear a Black Lives Matter sign from the nearby Metropolitan African Methodist Church.
On Twitter, Metropolitan posted a brief statement Sunday saying, “Black Lives Matter yesterday, today, and always.”
Yolanda Pierce, dean of the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, D.C., called the alleged incidents “acts of both racial terror and religious violence.”
“Burning Black Lives Matter signs ripped from churches is an explicit threat to the sanctity of the Black church and to Black lives and freedom, even if the church itself is not historically Black,” she said.
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, noted that in addition to Douglass, the funeral of her cousin, the longtime Washington journalist Gwen Ifill, was also held there after her 2016 death.
The incidents come after several people were stabbed during Saturday’s event, as pro-Trump supporters fought with counterprotesters amid anti-coronavirus restriction protests and a rally held by the president’s supporters.
NBC Washington reported Sunday that their conditions were critical, though non-life threatening. A 29-year-old man identified as Phillip Johnson was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon in connection to the quadruple stabbing, the station reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear what led to the stabbing.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
