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Is Church Arson back?
In the mid to late 1990's the Clinton Adminstration discovered a wave of arson allegedly being directed at the black church in the Deep South. This issue quickly become an important issue for the Clintons, who made it a point to ensure such crimes were investigated and prosecuted http://www.cnn.com/US/9701/18/clinton.radio/index.html
President Clinton reported Saturday on the progress made by a task force he established last June to investigate a series of arsons against churches, saying the probes have been "remarkably successful."
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/church_arson/arson98.php
Indeed, in 1996 a new federal statute was enacted making church arson a federal offense
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=summary&bill=h104-3525
It appears, that far from the Deep South, we may have a new politically motivated church arson http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9516339
ANCHORAGE, Alaska-- Gov. Sarah Palin's home church has been badly damaged in a suspicious fire.
Larry Kroon, the pastor of the Wasilla Bible Church, estimates damages at more than $1 million to the church.
Kroon says the fire broke out Friday night while a small group of women were working on crafts, and were alerted to the blaze by a fire alarm.
By the time he got to the church, Kroon said he could see smoke pouring out of the building.
Kroon declined to say if the blaze was politically based or directed at Palin.
Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said the governor stopped by the church Saturday morning and apologized if the incident was related to her.
In a written statement McAllister said Palin, "told an assistant pastor that she apologizes if the incident is in any way connected to the undeserved negative attention the church has received since she became a vice presidential candidate on Aug. 29. Whatever the motives of the arsonist, the governor has faith in the scriptural passage that what was intended for evil will in some way be used for good."
Let's see if the Obama Justice Department makes this act of political terrorism directed at Christians a federal case. After all, we are all entitled to equal protection under the law.
Aren't we?


Comments
Why the snark? Church arson - black and white - is real.
Why so snarky about the 1996 law? The briefest of Googles will show you that at that time BOTH predominantly white and black churches were being attacked - according to the Washington Post, in 1995-1996 ATF logged suspicious fires at 37 black churches and 23 white churches.
The undertone of your post is the reason why Republicans are considered rascists.
No, the snark is that the other party exploited it
for political advantage. I really don;t have a problem with the federal act, although it implies that certain states were unwilling or unable to deal with what is a crime under state statutes effectively, and the feds needed to intervene. Since Henry Hyde co-sponsored the bill the idea the GOP was obstructionist ought to be dismissed.
I suppose I could suggest the undertone of the Clinton endeavor was that the local authorities in the Deep South were racist, but I think it was just crass political grandstanding. I recall reading where Dick Morris suggested federalizing the various National Guards to protect black churches, and the White House had to have cooler heads prevail.
Now answer my question; Will the Obama Justice Department intervene here or leave this matter to Alaska authorities?
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't
By your reasoning, he's damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't.
Being President does have its thankless moments
The bottom line is if burning one kind of church is a federal offense, then they are all going to be federal issues. If someone who hates the Pope runs aroung upstate NY torching Catholic churches, that's just as much of a problem; although the investigation might find it was a bunch of unrelated events that just looked like a statistical cluster of hate crimes.
Presuming bad motives for people--beyond my bipartisan ,cynical suspicion of grandstanding--often leads to dead ends.
Given usual Republican thought
I'm sure people will be calling for waterboarding the suspect any day now.