[Vision2020] Confederate flags left near Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church

[Moscow Cares]

Tell me again how displaying the Confederate flag is all a "heritage" thing and how race has absolutely nothin' to do with it.

Courtesy of today's (July 31, 2015) Spokesman-Review.

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Confederate flags left near Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church
ATLANTA – Police worked Thursday to identify two white males who were caught on surveillance camera laying Confederate battle flags neatly on the ground near the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church. 

It was the latest provocative act involving the Civil War-era symbol since nine black church members were gunned down during Bible study in South Carolina, and it happened in the heart of an area devoted to the slain civil rights leader, near his birthplace, his crypt and a center devoted to preserving his legacy. 

Atlanta police Chief George Turner said his agency was working with federal authorities and they have not determined what charges might be levied. Turner said they have not ruled out a hate crime, though Georgia has no state hate crimes law. 

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, called placing the flags on church grounds a “terroristic threat.” 

“This act by a cowardly and misguided individual or individuals is provocative, to say the least. It ought to get the attention not only of black people but of freedom-loving people,” he said. “To place Confederate flags on the campus of Ebenezer Baptist Church after this horrific act in Charleston, in the wake of all this happening in our country, whatever the message was, it was clearly not about heritage, it was about hate.” 

King preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, once a bustling center of commerce for Atlanta’s African-American businesses and residents. The area is home to the historic church and a new church building where the congregation now meets and where the flags were placed. 

Two former Georgia prosecutors said it might be tough to prosecute the people responsible. 

“It was certainly divisive and not acceptable behavior the way it was done, but I cannot find a criminal act to it,” said Bob Keller, the Clayton County district attorney for nearly three decades until 2004.

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
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