H olden Matthews has been arrested as a suspect for burning down three historic Black churches in Louisiana. However, he appears to already...
Holden Matthews has been arrested as a suspect for burning down three historic Black churches in Louisiana. However, he appears to already be getting sympathy. The Associated Press reports that Matthews was a “really sweet guy.”
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The AP stated, Nygyl Bryyn, friend of the alleged terrorist said he was not racist, “If he’s making a statement it’s against religion and establishment only, not against race… I don’t think he did it but if he did it would not be because the churches are Black.”
He also added, “We’ve got friends of all races.”
Josh Cook, 27, another musician Hammond, Louisiana, said,“He is actually a really sweet guy, which is why I was so surprised to hear what happened. He was not a jerk. He was very tolerant. He was very loving and very encouraging.”
The 21-year-old was reportedly a fan of black metal,” a subgenre of heavy metal, which is known for satanism and paganism, and neo-Nazi beliefs. The AP reports Black Metal has been linked to “fires at Christian churches in Norway in the 1990s.”
Nonetheless, the NAACP is not looking to music for racist violence. There has been a rise in white supremacy and hate crimes across the nation since President Donald Trump took office.t The civil rights organization said in a statement, “The arrest of Holden Matthews for the horrific burnings of Black churches in Louisiana is just another example of the hate fueled times that we live in. In African-American communities in the South, church burnings are historically linked to expressions of racism and domestic terrorism.”
The statement continued, “This is the same domestic terrorism that has been the hammer and chisel used to chip away at the humanity of Black Americans and the suppression of our political power.”
Matthews is reportedly the son of a St. Landry Parish Deputy Roy Matthews. The suspect Matthews lives in St. Landry Parish where the churches were burned just a few miles apart.
The three fires occurred in St. Laundry, a Louisiana parish north of Lafayette, between March 26 and April 4. The fires destroyed St. Mary Baptist Church in the community of Port Barre, Greater Union Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas. Each of the three churches is more than 100 years old and one of them had been remodeled just two years ago. The churches were fortunately vacant when the fires started so there were no reported injuries.
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