Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Commends Law Enforcement for Arrests Made in the Arson Attacks on Three Black Churches
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robin K. Chand
April 11, 2019 202-225-3816
Press Statement
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Commends Law Enforcement for Arrests Made in the Arson Attacks on Three Black Churches
Jackson Lee: "If the circumstances behind this matter reveal that it was motivated by race and indeed a hate crime, the Department of Justice must intervene in this matter and handle it within the strictures of both the Church Arson Prevention Act and any and other applicable hate crimes laws."
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Budget, released this statement following news reports that an arrest has been made in the arson attacks on three black churches in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana:
Put brutal in first paragraph
"Yesterday evening, a suspect was arrested in the brutal and heinous fires of three historically black churches in St. Landry Parish, northwest of New Orleans, in Louisiana. While we can be fortunate that no one was injured in these attacks, they nonetheless represent a stunning breach of the social order and are evocative of a darker time in our nation's history, one where white men terrorized black communities in the dark of night by settling ablaze black churches, and one which must be permanently relegated to our collective past.
"Indeed, that was the collective national sentiment when, in 1996, Congress passed the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, of which I was an original co-sponsor, which established findings related to motivations behind church burnings and increased penalties for those found to have engaged in crimes motivated by race, i.e., hate crimes. That legislation was impelled and warranted following a siege of black church burnings in the 1990s. It is shameful that this period has been revisited and this scourge has reared its ugly face once more.
"If the circumstances behind the burnings in St. Landry Parish reveal that they were motivated by race and indeed hate crimes, the Department of Justice must intervene in this matter and handle it within the strictures of both the Church Arson Prevention Act and any and other applicable hate crimes laws."
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Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is a Democrat from Texas's 18th Congressional District. She is a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary and Homeland Security.