{"id":276988,"date":"2016-11-02T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T17:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/black-church-in-mississippi-torched-defaced-with-vote-trump-graffiti\/"},"modified":"2016-11-02T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T17:18:09","slug":"black-church-in-mississippi-torched-defaced-with-vote-trump-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/black-church-in-mississippi-torched-defaced-with-vote-trump-graffiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Black church in Mississippi torched, defaced with \u2018Vote Trump\u2019 graffiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

A historic African-American church in Greenville, Mississippi, was burned down and vandalized with \u201cVote Trump\u201d graffiti. Local and federal officials are investigating the fire as a hate crime.<\/p>\n

\n

The Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church went up in flames around 9:15pm on Tuesday, according to Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown. Nobody was injured in the blaze.<\/p>\n

The words \u201cVote Trump\u201d<\/em> were spray-painted on the side of the burned-out church, which was home to a congregation of 200 members.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

This is so heartbreaking. Not so much for the message on the building, but this is a church that’s been around for so long in the community. pic.twitter.com\/h8hJqoOgpH<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Angie Quezada (@imangieq) November 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center><\/div>\n

Federal officials, including the FBI and the ATF, were on the scene helping the local authorities investigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FBI Jackson Division is aware of the situation in Greenville, and we are working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to determine if any civil rights crimes were committed,\u201d<\/em> said bureau spokesman Brett Carr.<\/p>\n

Calling the church-burning a \u201chateful and cowardly act,\u201d<\/em> Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons\u00a0said on Wednesday<\/a> the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a direct assault on people\u2019s right to freely worship,\u201d<\/em> Simmons said. \u201cWe are going to investigate the matter with all deliberate speed and will not rest until the perpetrator is arrested and prosecuted.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos of the graffiti on the burned-out church are already making the rounds on social media amid the tense pre-election atmosphere, as supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were quick to blame Republican nominee Donald Trump\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

“Vote Trump” is the new swastika for KKK, Neo-Nazi, Alt-Righters. Mississippi’s Burning once again. Black Greenville Church is the target. https:\/\/t.co\/DxH9mBeHVQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ayn S. (@AynAyahSteenkur) November 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center><\/div>\n

\u201cThe animus of this election cycle combined with the potent racial history of burning black churches as a political symbol makes this event something we must not ignore,\u201d<\/em> says a\u00a0GoFundMe page<\/a> which has been set up to help repair the church.<\/p>\n

Greenville is a city of around 35,000 inhabitants in northwestern Mississippi, on the border with Arkansas. The vast majority of its residents are African-American.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

To the person who could burn the Greenville Church: Hopefully God still wants you, because neither the Clinton nor the Trump supporters do.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Just Me (@mywritingrealm) November 2, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A historic African-American church in Greenville, Mississippi, was burned down and vandalized with \u201cVote Trump\u201d graffiti. Local and federal officials are investigating the fire as a hate crime. The Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church went up in flames around 9:15pm on Tuesday, according to Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown. Nobody was injured in the blaze. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":276989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-276988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}