FBI and Local Police Investigate Cross Burning in Clarksville, Tennessee
A public rally will be held Thursday evening at a Clarksville, Tenn., church, northwest of Nashville, where a cross burning last week is now being investigated as a hate crime.
The FBI has joined local police in the investigation of the cross burning reported July 22 at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, which has a predominately black congregation. No arrests have been made.
“We are calling on the community to rally around this church,” State Rep. Joe Pitts, D-Nashville, who is organizing the 7 p.m. event, told Clarksville Online “Let us stand up as a community and say we will not tolerate this kind of hate,” said Pitts, himself a native of Clarksville.
A church member spotted the burned cross, propped against closed gates at the church, around 6 a.m. Pastor Vernon Hooks drove to the scene.
“It was devastating,” Hooks told the Tennessean. “I was somewhat hurt but then I took time out to ask God to forgive whoever did this.”
“Whoever did it, we forgive them," Hooks told the newspaper. “That's the message – that we are a forgiving church and we'll let the police do their job.”
Sgt. Charles Gill of the Clarksville Police Department said the case was classified as a hate crime. “It was assigned to a detective but we have no leads," the police official told the newspaper. “We've got nothing.”
Reached in Memphis, FBI spokesman Joel Siskovic told Hatewatch today that bureau agents are working closely with local police in the investigation, but there are no new developments to discuss.
Meanwhile, Pitts told Hatewatch that, contrary to some reports, he doesn't think the cross burning is an act of vandalism by juveniles. The church, he said, is located near a freeway interchange that would have allowed for a quick escape.
"This doesn't appear to me to be a random act of vandalism," Pitts said. "If you look at the construction of the cross, these people have done this before or knew exactly what they were doing in a malicious, hateful way."
The pastor said the church, with 200 active members, hasn’t received any threats or hate messages, and he has no idea who might be responsible.
“I've been here 34 years and this never has happened,” Hooks told the Nashville newspaper.
The pastor said the last time the church was the victim of a crime was four years ago when a burglary occurred.
“The individual that did it came back later on and confessed to me and brought money to cover what he had taken and we forgave him,” Hooks told the newspaper.
