(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) California‘s Marin County District Attorney Lori E. Frugoli announced that the charges against Black Lives Matter rioters who vandalized a statue of a Catholic saint were reduced following “an innovative restorative justice solution.”
According to the release by the Marin County District Attorney’s office, the vandals who spray-painted and tore down the statue of St. Junipero Serra at a Catholic parish in San Rafael, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2020, during a protest marking California’s “Indigenous People’s Day” had their charges reduced from felonies to misdemeanors. Catholic News Agency reported that the felony charges were originally filed in November 2020.
“It is the District Attorney’s Office’s goal to achieve a fair result on all cases, and I strongly believe justice was served on this one,” Frugoli stated in the release.
“While this issue has raised emotions because of the sensitivities around religion, community boundaries and historic inequities, the fact is that a resolution through accountability has been reached through restorative justice and that is a victory for this community.”
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone responded to Frugoli and Marin County Deputy District Attorney Aicha Mievis.
“I am disturbed but not surprised. I have seen this happen too many times before. We are promised justice and equal treatment, only to have our legitimate concerns dismissed, and we ourselves treated as unworthy of consideration,” he wrote.
Cordileone then added that the reason why the charges were reduced was only because Catholics are not one of the “oppressed” groups in the United States.
“It is clear to me that this course of action would not have been taken with anyone else. In fact, this crime likely would have been charged as a hate crime, at least if it were perpetrated against certain other minority and vulnerable groups of people,” he wrote.
Cordileone then wrote that, unlike some of those “vulnerable” groups, Catholics are actually oppressed in the United States.
“There have been more than 100 attacks on Catholic Church property across the nation, including in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, one of which was someone firing a bullet into our Cathedral,” he wrote.
“Anti-Catholicism has a long and ugly history in this country. Now, with this decision, you have given the signal that attacks on Catholic houses of worship may continue without serious legal consequence.”
