Black Lives Matter (and so do Magic Bursts)

[Koyangi]

He didn't want to give more fuel to the fire.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47858814

The FBI is investigating 3 cases of black churches in Louisiana being burned down, within 10 days, by arson.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47858814

The FBI is investigating 3 cases of black churches in Louisiana being burned down, within 10 days, by arson.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47898572



The son of an officer has been arrested and charged with the arson.

Holden Matthews, 21, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with three counts of arson on religious buildings.

Louisiana State Fire Marshal Butch Browning told reporters on Thursday that each of the three counts against the suspect carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

St Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said Mr Matthews' father, sheriff's deputy Roy Matthews, "knew nothing about his son's activity" and "broke down" when he was informed.

The deputy then helped facilitate his son's arrest by getting him to an area where police could detain him "without incident", Sheriff Guidroz said.

Officials said Mr Matthews had complied with police during the arrest. He had no criminal record or history of violence.

The fire marshal said investigators are vetting "several motives", but had learned Mr Matthews was involved with a type of music known as black metal that, he added, had historical associations with church burnings.

His Facebook page lists him as the lead singer and songwriter of a heavy metal band called Vodka Vultures.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/holden...-church-fires/

An arrest warrant reportedly showed that officials connected Matthews to the crimes through the charred remains of a brand of gas can found at the scene of the April 4 fire. Matthews allegedly used his debit card and ID to purchase that same brand of gas can, along with a lighter and a 10 pack of automotive shop towels on March, 25, The Advocate reports.

The same color and model pickup that Matthews drives was also present at two of the churches shortly before the fires were reported to 911, according to video footage referenced in the arrest warrant.

A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Matthews showed he was active in pagan and black metal pages, and that he commented on two memes about far-right former neo-Nazi metal musician Varg Vikernes, who served 15 years in prison for killing a fellow metal musician and burning churches in Norway.

The pagan circles Matthews and Vikernes frequented can be popular with neo-Nazis. Matthews frequently posted about pagan beliefs, and recently uploaded a picture of a gun and a knife with the caption “I carry this.....maybe not legally but I only truly follow the law of Odin..... which says as you said,arm yourself...... Odins advice> modern law.” Odin is a pagan Norse god.

Matthews also appeared aware of the religion's white supremacist associations. In one post, a group member noted that a drawing of a pagan figure had a swastika-like design on his belt. “well yea the belt gives him extra strength and power.....white power lmao jk jk I had to,” Matthews wrote.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47938276

New details about the arsonist.

After he was arrested, prosecutors found pictures of the flames that appeared to have been taken before firefighters arrived to extinguish them.

They also found news reports on his phone in which he had superimposed himself on those reports in order to claim responsibility while talking to a friend online.

"He actually superimposed himself on those news reports, claiming responsibility for these fires," Mr Browning said.

Location data from his mobile phone and surveillance footage of his vehicle also tied him to each of the crime scenes.

[6souls]

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/18/73340...-era-cold-case

An NPR investigation has discovered new details behind the incident that lead to the passing of the Voting Rights Act which outlawed Jim Crow voting practices. They key witness in the case admits she lied to investigators and the FBI about what she saw. Also, a fourth man who originally said he wasn't involved admitted to being involved, but he only "kicked the guy."

The case remains officially unsolved. Three men charged in 1965 with attacking Reeb and two other ministers on a street corner in Selma, Ala., were acquitted by an all-white jury.

But a four-year NPR investigation, led by Alabama-based reporters Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace, found an eyewitness to the attack who has never spoken publicly about what she saw. She said the three men acquitted in the case — Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon O'Neal "Duck" Hoggle — were, in fact, the men who attacked Reeb.

That witness, Frances Bowden, also described the participation of another man, William Portwood. In an exclusive interview with NPR, Portwood confirmed his participation in the 1965 assault.

"All I did was kick one of them," Portwood said.

Portwood had been a cabinetmaker in 1965 but on the side worked as hired muscle for Cook. When asked about the night Reeb was attacked, he said, "I was more than there."

Portwood died less than two weeks after NPR confirmed his involvement.

Bowden, who works at a bail bond company on the same street where she watched the attack more than 50 years ago, admitted to NPR that she lied when testifying in court in 1965.

"I'm not proud of being up in the courtroom telling a lie," Bowden said. "[Because] I did tell a lie; I said I didn't know and I did know."

She also told NPR she lied to officers from the FBI.

"[The FBI] asked me if I saw what happened," she told NPR. "I told 'em I saw some people beating a man, but I didn't know who they were and I stuck to that," she said. "Of course, we knew who it was; we just didn't admit we knew."

Under federal law, the statute of limitations for perjury and making false statements to the FBI is five years. Under Alabama law it's three years. Both have long since expired.

According to FBI records obtained by NPR, investigators tried to question Portwood after the attack on Reeb, but he refused to give them a statement. Those records also say that one of the other attackers told investigators he was with Portwood that night, but Portwood's wife at the time gave her husband an alibi — she said he was going over schoolwork with his daughter.

That daughter, Audrey Sutherland, confirmed to NPR that Portwood told her he was present at the attack, and she confirmed he wasn't home helping her that night.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47898572



The son of an officer has been arrested and charged with the arson.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/holden...-church-fires/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47938276

New details about the arsonist.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51457787

He has plead guilty and said he burned the churches down to raise his "black metal" cred.

On Monday, Matthews pleaded guilty to four federal criminal charges, including three of intentional damage to religious property. He has also pleaded guilty to six charges at state level.

The three Baptist churches he targeted were St Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre (on 26 March), Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas (on 2 April) and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas (on 4 April).

Each church was razed to the ground by the fires Matthews lit, prosecutors said. No-one was injured, as it was the middle of the night.

During his plea hearing, Matthews said he specifically targeted those churches. He did so because he sought to emulate church burnings carried out by black metal music fans in Norway in the 1990s.

In the 1990s, at least 50 Christian churches in Norway were attacked by arsonists in the name of black metal, a subgenre of heavy metal music. Varg Vikernes was among the most infamous black metal musicians to be convicted of church arson in this period.

A member of a black metal band himself, Matthews told prosecutors he believed the acts would elevate his status.