On the night the non-indictment against Darren Wilson was announced there were demonstrations, looting and cars and buildings were set on fire in Ferguson, Missouri. No one disputes this. But except for one building, all of the fires occurred in or near the area of the protests on West Florissant Avenue.
The one building that burned to the ground far from where the police were firing tear gas into the crowds of protestors, and those taking advantage of the demonstrations to loot and burn, just happened to be the church that Michael Brown’s family were members and attended.
As chaos engulfed several Ferguson streets Monday, [Pastor] Lee tried unsuccessfully to chase away looters and put out fires along West Florissant Avenue. Then his phone rang.
The officer on the other end of the line told him that he needed to get to his church right away. By the time Lee arrived, the cinder-block structure had been gutted by flames. […]
Although other buildings were burned during the violence that consumed much of Ferguson on Monday, the flames at Flood Christian Church were different. The church building, purchased in March by the 31-year-old Lee, sits well outside the area where things were violent, far from the riots. The glass storefronts on each side remain unscathed.
Pastor Lee began speaking out in September demanding that Officer Wilson stand trial for the death of Michael Brown. Shortly thereafter he received a series of death threats.
“Seventy-one death threats. But I’ll never forget what one man said to me: ‘I’m going to come pick you up with all you other hateful n—– preachers and put you all in your church and burn you straight to hell.”
An arson unit of the ATF is investigating the fire because burning a church is a federal offense. Pastor Lee and other community members believe his church was targeted, possibly by white supremacists, because of his support for the Brown family. I have yet to see any reports of arson investigations by the Ferguson police or any other law enforcement or local fire department officials in St. Louis into what looks like a deliberate case of arson.
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearm investigators said somebody purposely set fire to Flood Christian Church on Monday night at 11:44 p.m.
Burning a church is a federal offense.
ATF agents said somebody forced open the front door and started the fire in the children’s area.
This Sunday the church will hold its services in a parking lot. Naturally, his insurance company is refusing to pay for damages. They informed Pastor Lee that his policy did not cover damages because it was located in “an area where riots and civil disobedience occurred.” The fact that the church is no where near the area where the other buildings were burned and that there were no demonstrations or protests in its vicinity apparently does not matter to the whoever denied the Flood Church’s claim.
Anyone wishing to donate funds to rebuild the Flood Christian Church can go to their Go Fund Me site here: Mike Brown Church The Flood
Well I know of a group that is notorious for burning black churches. But don’t mind me. That would be unsavory and bringing “race” into the discussion.
In the second week of the Ferguson Protests, Dan Page a cop with 35 years on the force of the StL County Police department, was suspended for “comments beyond the scope of acceptable police conduct” No public announcement of the results of the internal investigation on him. Watch his lecture: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/st-louis-area-cops-suspended-for-racist-rants.htm
Will anyone doubt he is part of the KKK or the Ghoul Squad, the name given members in highly visible vocations who do not want their identities known. These are the truly dangerous institutionalized white supremacists.
Also in that week Matthew Pappert, Glendale Police Department officer, became the subject of an internal investigation after his commander finally became aware of his plentiful social media comments like: Protestors should be “put down like rabid dogs.” Still no public announcement of his discipline or firing.
The most important contribution of Anonymous individuals during these protests has been “#opKKK” the outing of Missouri KKK members and the hacking of their websites.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/opkkk
Among their discoveries, they found Wilson’s new wife, also a Ferguson police officer, has family ties to Frank Ancona, the public face “leader” of the Traditionalist American Knights. KKK members have been sighted at I am Darren Wilson rallies. Several KKK members have been outed by #opKKK but the Ghoul Squad remains, embedded in the institutionalized Jim Crow of Missouri.
some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
I’ve read elsewhere this morning the Klan, the Klu Klux Klan, is responsible. I used to think the best way to deal with the Klan is to mock, as we did here on the High Desert when they came to “parade”. We had our own parade, dressed as clowns blowing whistles, tooting horns and banging on bongos like chimpanzies we joined their parade. They left. Didn’t come back. But it didn’t solve the rot within our community That brought the dog-shit here.
These days I see it different: line the up and gun them down. Let their dog sort them out.
You can send the boy to War, but the man will always be in Viet Nam.
I failed War.
I had not seen that. Do you have a link to that report?
Cops. Definitely the cops.
ATF? They need the FBI. This is definitely connected to the conspiracy to deny Michael Brown his civil rights.
ATF has jurisdiction in arson cases.
Yes, I realize this, but it is also part of a larger case. ATF & FBI have worked on cases together before. I believe the Boston bombing brought out a whole alphabet soup of agencies.
A lesson on justice on behalf of this congregation and their church must happen. I’d argue that the grand jury was tricked into its decision by the prosecutor’s team which gave permission to the sick minds that burned this church.
I don’t believe in heaven or hell but I’d sure like to see hell on earth rained down on this crowd.
For many people of a certain age, an attack on a Black church immediately calls up remembrances of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing and a variety of other KKK assaults on African-Americans including their reprehensible cross burnings.
That said, the reporting on the burning of The Flood Christian Church has been misleadingly inaccurate. While “Michael Brown Family’s Church Burned” is technically correct, it implies that the church was a fixture in the life of Michael Brown, Jr. It wasn’t. No member of Michael Brown Jr.’s family had any relationship with Rev. Carlton R. Lee and The Flood Christian Church prior to his death.
Michael Brown Jr.’s funeral was held at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church. Speakers included Rev Al Sharpton and Browns’s great-uncle Rev. Charles Ewing.
Rev. Lee was a vocal supporter for the arrest and indictment of Darren Wilson and over the months did form a pastoral relationship with Michael Brown, Sr. Rev. Lee later officiated at the marriage Mr. Brown and baptized him. However, not even Rev. Lee has suggested that his relationship with Mr. Brown is likely to have been a reason for the targeting of his church:
The Flood Christian Church is so new and/or small that it doesn’t appear in the listings of Black Churches in St. Louis. A St. Louis publication identified The Rev. Carlton Lee, chapter president of the National Action Network’s Ferguson, MO chapter,, but the NAN website has no listing for a Ferguson, MO chapter. (Possibly a delay on the part of NAN to keep its website up to date.)
Rev. Carlton Lee and his family appear to be kind and good people. Rev. Lee’s church did not deserve to be burned down nor his dog poisoned. It’s also likely that the fire was set by some rightwing scumbags. Yet, as white guys bent on torching a storefront church in the City of Country Club Hills would have looked even more out of place than they would in Ferguson, we should be cautious in jumping to conclusions.
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/11/for_michael_brown_sr_weekend_brought_a_baptism_ins
tead_of_grand_jury_announcement.php
Wow, what a combination of unspeakably nasty and incredibly cowardly.
And as far as the insurance company goes, maybe the ATF and the FBI should keep their eyes open for any connections to the arsonists. Probably denying a payout for damages is just part of the system of greed, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was more to the decision.
Particularly important is the fact that Protestors are not the arsonists and looters. Telltale signs for this: there has only been 1 arson arrest.
[Monday night] “The show of force, assisted by soldiers from the US national guard, protected a chocolate box-style area to the west of the city, where mostly white shoppers frequent the farmer’s market and coffee shop and the family of Mayor James Knowles III owns offices and rental homes.
There was no such military-style defence of the other side of town. Gangs in bandanas rampaged through the dollar stores, barbers, and takeaways of West Florissant Avenue.
Dozens of young people went from shop to shop, smashing windows, grabbing whatever they could and setting fires on their way out. Despite 1,000 officers being directed from a command centre just a few blocks south, the police did nothing.”
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/28/ferguson-jury-michael-brown-verdict?CMP=share_btn_tw
The church Michael Brown’s father attends is a small cement block building 2 miles from any demonstration site but it was burned down and the pastor has had more than 70 death threats.
If I may be crass: Police don’t arrest their friends.
I don’t have the bandwidth to download these videos — do they seem legit? Strange and comforting that even a pop culture TV show fan site has people talking about this evil:
http://spoilthedead.com/forum/showthread.php/16156-Military-Police-caught-setting-fires-in-Ferguson
As a minor point, I wonder what insurance company it was. Might they handle it differently if they were challenged, or facing some publicity? Probably a long shot…