An “Anti-Trump college student” was “charged with” burning a “cross in Chicago,” reports The College Fix.
Merlin Lu of the University of Illinois was arrested after burning a cross in Grant Park. He said he was unaware that burning crosses were historically used as a threat of racial violence. Now, he has been ordered not to possess any “fire-starting materials” as a condition of his release from custody.
The College Fix reports that
Lu is facing hate crime and arson charges for his cross burning, which he said was meant to protest Trump. He put a blank red hat on top of the cross to signify the well-known “Make American Great Again” hats worn by Trump supporters.
“The greatest threat to the American people is [President] Trump, [Jeffrey] Epstein, their billionaire pedophile friends, and their MAGA Christian nationalist base,” Lu told the police.
He recently told NBC’s Chuck Goudie that he did not know anything about the history of burning crosses.
Later, Lu said:
In terms of the fear that I’ve evoked, I’ve already apologized, and I’m going to apologize sincerely again right now, and I probably will continue to apologize for who knows how long, maybe forever, and I’ve accepted that.
I’m okay with that, I understand that, but after I’ve come out and explicitly stated that this is not intended to be a hate crime, I believe that any more narratives to paint me as a racist, as a KKK member, I believe that’s a distraction.
“I didn’t go to college for history,” Lu said in explaining his lack of awareness.
Illinois leaders “rushed to blame what they saw as widespread racism in the city” under Trump’s influence, The College Fix says.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said the cross burning was due to MAGA “racism and fascism” spreading across the country.
“The fact that it even occurred at all speaks to what happens when the seeds of racism and fascism grow unchecked in our country,” Pritzker said. “The threats are real. And in times like these, it’s easy to fall prey to despair, to think that the fight for justice is just too costly to engage in, that the mountain is too high to climb and the path is too narrow to navigate,” he added.
Academics blamed Trump. For example, the director of the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture said, “we have a president that stokes this kind of thing and invites this type of stuff.”
