Church Fires in Massachusetts and Elsewhere were Hate Crimes

Prosecutor: Obama election church fire was racism
By Associated Press | Monday, April 11, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com |

AP/The Republican, Mark M. Murray
SPRINGFIELD — A prosecutor says racism that had been brewing for years “reached its boiling point” when a white man and two friends burned a predominantly black Massachusetts church after President Barack Obama’s election.

Michael Jacques and two friends were charged with setting fire to the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield hours after the November 2008 election.

Federal prosecutor Nicole Lee Ndumele said in closing arguments Monday that Jacques told friends that Obama’s election meant blacks and Puerto Ricans were taking over the country. She says he confessed several times to his involvement in the fire.

Defense attorney Lori Levinson countered that Jacques had a Puerto Rican girlfriend and adores his biracial nephew. She says Jacques didn’t set the fire and confessed only because he was an “addict who was separated from his drug.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1329887

Related Articles:
Closing arguments set in Springfield church arson trial
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1329493
Prosecution rests case in Mass. church arson trial
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1329096

Trial starts in alleged Obama-inspired church fire
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1324957