A person is in custody in a Chicago cross burning investigation, police say
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A person is in custody in an investigation of a large cross set on fire in a well-known Chicago park, police said Tuesday.
The burning cross was discovered June 9 in Grant Park, where Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech when he was elected the nation’s first Black president in 2008.
A man identifying himself as a 21-year-old college student told WMAQ-TV that he was the shirtless person in an image distributed by police when they were looking for a suspect. But police did not immediately say Tuesday if he’s the person in custody. The man said he was protesting President Donald Trump and not making a racist statement.
“I did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn’t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,” the man told the TV station. “Cause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.”
Cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as symbols of hate and intimidation against Black people and have often been connected to the Ku Klux Klan.
The Chicago Police Department’s communications office confirmed that a person was in custody in connection with the case, but no other details were released. An email seeking comment from the prosecutor’s office was sent Tuesday.
“I can’t speak to anyone’s motives. We can only speak to the impact. And the impact was devastating,” Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is Black, said when asked about the cross and the man’s remarks to WMAQ.
The man interviewed by the TV station said he was protesting the “ruling class” and Christian nationalists who support Trump. He said he put a red hat on the cross to signify a MAGA hat worn by the president’s allies.
The man said he doesn’t consider what he did a hate crime.
“I understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there,” he said.
Gina Miranda Samuels, faculty director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, said the man seemed sincere that he was not trying to send a hateful message to Black people.
Nonetheless, she added, “it says a lot about how uninformed people can be” about certain symbols “and that it would be acceptable to use a symbol of hatred and terror in this way.”
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What … the … fuck? Is it even possible that someone got into college but did not know about the historical impact of burning crosses?
athletic scholarship ...
Even progressives aren’t that ignorant
this is just another in the long, long line of racial hoaxes. He’s probably an splc operative.
You know you live in a really oppressive country when you have fake the hate crimes…
Plenty of right wingers are. Ignorant as dirt.
You think Trump is still a Democrat?
He, along with all the other white nationalists and white supremacists, joined the party that best represented their beliefs in white conservative Christian power which is what the Republican party has become. It is no longer the party of Lincoln just like the Democratic party is no longer the party of the KKK. Can anyone say with a straight face that if a member of the KKK and Southern Dixiecrat from 1950 time traveled to today, they'd rush to join the Democratic party that elected the first black President and supports affirmative action and diversity, equality and inclusion policies? Really? You don't really think people are that stupid, do you?
Anyone with more than half a brain, eyes and a standard education know what political party a white conservative Christian Southern Dixiecrat would choose today. Is it really so hard for Republicans to imagine that racist Southern Dixiecrats would almost certainly join the party that was still flying their confederate flags and supporting some fantasy superior 'white conservative Christian' identity and protecting confederate monuments and working to dismantle the voting rights act and civil rights act and gerrymandering their States based on race? Why do you even still try to feign ignorance with "Well the KKK were Democrats!" nonsense when you must know you're not fooling anyone?
I think trump comprehends the constitution and post WWII american history as well as you do ...
It's standard troll shit. That's why they keep repeating it
standard goober troll shit ...
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thanks for the correction
Then try and refute it with something other than "Nuh uh!" Tell us why you believe a white conservative Christian Southern Dixiecrat and open segregationist would join the Democratic party of TODAY instead of the current Republican party. Present your case with a reasoned logical argument, no links to other people's arguments necessary. That should be easy enough if there was "nothing factual" in my claim. I can wait.
That's like multiplying by 0.
good luck with that ...
What am i trying to refute? I don't have a translator to decipher what you said. And what DID make even the vaguest sense was wrong.
Yes it is. Especially if he came from a school that indoctrinated students to believe every word the Bible said and glossed over our radical history
Certainly, this lame duck knew that BURNING A CROSS could cause fires. Don't ya, tink?
Considering how ignorant most people are nowadays of American history, this doesnt surprise me much.
I just don’t know how I could have gotten out of middle school without being exposed to this reality, much less college. I’d like to think it’s not the public school system that is at fault, but I’d sure hope this guy’s college has rescinded his acceptance primarily on the grounds that he is too ignorant to be there.
I saw a headline this morning they are adding hate crime charges.
But it was not about racism and hate was not his intent. It was a protest. I mean...what are they going to charge him with? Unauthorized fire?
Lol. Perfect. You believe him and can't comprehend that MAGA would be protected by the same laws as those you view as people.
I didn't read the article. Maybe DA found evidence he had a MAGA Nazi X account? I don't know...
I doubted his story and thought it possible he was another dumbass MAGA hate-fuck lying to cover his ass.
You're slip is showing... Nothing in TGs post had anything to do with a double standard. Only how the law is applied would be applied to intent. Hate charges are often applied, but not always upheld at trial, because intent is difficult to pin down. You know that.
from the article:
Now...could he be prosecuted for a hate crime against the prez? I'm no lawyer or constitutional scholar but I would say no because he has the right to protest against the prez
The operative words there are:
If he was just protesting the President using a burning cross he's an idiot, but I agree hate charges shouldn't apply. I'm assuming (yes I'm just assuming) the DA has more information than I do since the charges came days later and maybe this dude lied.
absolutely agree with that. setting anything on fire on public property deserves at least a spanking and going to bed with no supper.
possible. Probably best to see if anything more comes out of this
Hmm, I am not certain I know what that means. But I am certain that MAGA-LOONS can interpret it.
Or, his mistake was "NAILING TRUMP TO THE CROSS", then setting it on F I R E!
I strongly believe that no one would care, and perhaps it would become a NATIONAL HOLIDAY, "BURN, BABY, BURN...IT'S YOUR DAY, "DIRTY DIAPER DONNIE".
I would strongly support that.
---Jonathan Livingston Pigeon-Poo, "Doctored"! CEO & FLOUNDER of the Bird Doppings Institute, a Think Tank for Morons, No Idiots, please.
Well, evilone, get off your tokas and find out. This is the type of story everyone in the World wants to know. Did T-Diddy, Child Rapist get singed?
And, I want to know...But I am too lazy to do any research.
The person that did it, an Asian American , has said he did it to protest Trump, MAGA, and Christian nationalism. Lacking any other evidence I would take him at his word.
JohnRussell, you are a DECENT man.