The assault on St. Johnās Episcopal Church by radicals and racists was the ugliest moment of the D.C. riots. Not only was the famous 204-year-old church, which every president since Madison has attended, sprayed with graffiti, but some of the thugs even tried to burn it down by starting a fire in its basement.
The attack and President Trumpās subsequent visit to the āChurch of Presidentsā captured the attention of a nation. But what happened to St. Johnās was not an aberration. The Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots have been associated with attacks on churches and synagogues across the United States.
The victims of New York Cityās leftist riots included St. Patrickās Cathedral as the venerable 142-year-old building
was defaced with obscenities and the three letters BLM for Black Lives Matter, along with āGeorge Floydā and āNo Justice, No Peaceā.
In Richmond, Virginia, Beth Ahabah, a 225-year-old Reform Jewish congregation, had the windows in its grand 116-year-old building smashed by rioters. The building is now covered over with plywood. St. Paulās Episcopal Church, a 175-year-old building, also in Richmond, was defaced with graffiti. Finally, rioters in Richmond broke the windows of the West Broad Church of Christ, an African-American congregation. They left intact the one pane of glass reading, āWelcomeā.
Some of the nationwide vandalism of churches and synagogues featured generic Black Lives Matter slogans, but some had hateful messages that were specifically targeted to the houses of worship.
The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, a 108-year-old building, was at the center of some of the local riots, including the hit-and-run of three Denver police officers, and suffered permanent damage. The walls
were also vandalized with graffiti reading, āPedofilesā and āGod is deadā.
Some of the windows of the facility were broken and the gates were badly damaged.
In Los Angeles, Congregation Beth Israelās walls
were defaced with graffiti reading, āF___ Israelā and āFree Palestineā.
Elan Carr, the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, visited the synagogue, and stated, āThis graffiti is yet more evidence that anti-Zionism is Antisemitism.ā
The hateful messages that defaced the Denver cathedral and the Los Angeles synagogue were leftist in ideology. They also had nothing to do with racism or any of the imaginary causes of the riots. Instead they are evidence that the radicals are settling their pre-existing grudges with churches and synagogues.
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