Several Northern California churches have been vandalized and painted with satanic symbols and pro-ANTIFA slogans.
The vandalism, which law enforcement and church officials believe to have occurred between Sept. 24 and 26, appears to be targeted at conservatives.
On the Bayside church, the message “Kill MAGA/Pigs,” is spray painted on the side of a building, along with symbols representing Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and the devil.
The Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside, the Eureka Seventh Day Adventist Church, St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Arcata, and the First Covenant Church in Eureka, all located in Humboldt County — about 270 miles north of San Francisco — were all spray-painted with similar slogans, according to the local press.
At least one member of the Humboldt Unitarian Church says he does not believe it was “ANTIFA” but rather a “false flag” trying to make it look like the attack was done by “left-wing extremists” because he claims that his congregation is supportive of BLM and their cause.
“I immediately thought that someone had chosen to deface the building and attempt to make it appear that it was leftist radicals that had done it by writing BLM and Antifa,” member Chip Sharpe said. “It looked to me like they were trying to say, ‘OK, this was put here by us Antifa BLM nuts,’ I don’t think I would have believed that Antifa or BLM, whatever that organization is, would have anything to do with it anyway.”
Sharpe added that on Saturdays, church members wave BLM signs and a church banner on the corner of a local intersection.
An administrator with the Unitarian Church, Bridgette Garuti, said she thought the message was “confusing.” Bridgit told the local press, “It doesn’t even make sense what they wrote; quite honestly, it’s quite confusing. But it’s been identified that it was the same kind of confusing message on each one of the four [churches] in that same timeframe,” she said, noting that antisemitic flyers were found in local people’s driveways the week prior as well.
According to the sheriff’s office, the cases are being investigated as misdemeanors, but vandalism can be considered a felony if the damage amounts to over $400. Misdemeanor offenders can be fined up to $10,000 or spend up to 364 days in a county jail, whereas a felony conviction could increase prison time to three years and a fine of up to $10,000.
Despite what churchgoer Chip Sharpe thinks, journalist Andy Ngo says church vandalizations in the Northwestern region of the US by left-wing militants are not uncommon.
“Antifa routinely target churches in hate crime attacks that are not investigated as bias crimes,” he said, sharing evidence of other recent examples in the neighboring state of Oregon.
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