Vandals strike Kingston church(Brazilian church Massachusetts-hate crime?)

[RedEarth]

Kingston police are investigating a possible hate crime at First Congregational Parish church early Sunday.

Sometime between 1 and 5 a.m. vandals stole a sign from the church that advertised services for a Brazilian Assembly of God congregation that meets in the Unitarian Universalist church on Sunday evenings.

The sign was returned, riddled with more than 100 bullet holes, and defaced with graffiti reading ''Viva deportation," said the Rev. Bonnie Devlin, minister for the Unitarian congregation. The vandals also covered the sign's Brazilian flag with an American one, she said. ''We deplore what happened," Devlin said. ''It's not acceptable. This is a hate crime."

............


Anti-Brazilian sentiment is on the rise in Massachusetts, said Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center. He said there have been several attacks on Brazilians in Framingham, which has the state's largest Brazilian immigrant population. At the center's Allston office, vandals spray-painted the door last year with the words ''illegal immigrants inside."

''These sentiments keep growing," da Rocha said. ''It is going to destroy Massachusetts. Right now, we have this huge diversity. They want to make this a state just for white people, and all the others they want to kick out."


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/24/vandals_strike_kingston_church?mode=PF

[sasha031]

1. Kingston is a couple of towns next to me

I am totally disgusted, hatred and prejudice is alive and well in Ma....
I am so angry at the total ignorance in this country, the crackers that commit this kind of vandalism wouldn't know the difference between a Latino or a middle easterner.they just need someone to hate.
:puke:

[Gormy Cuss]

2. I wish that I could say this surprises me, but

There was a slow but steady in migration of Brazilians even in the 1980s. They tended to live initially in the areas where there was an aging Portuguese community (such as Somerville and Cambridge) because it helped them with the language barrier. Then I recall a sizable population forming in the Framingham area. In recent years the population has exploded. There are informal rooming housing springing up in the older communities like Everett. A friend of mine watched the two family house across the street turn into a revolving door for young Brazilian men, so many that they must have been sleeping in every room of the house in shifts. It was completely illegal in terms of zoning but the men kept a low profile and rode mass transit so the situation wasn't causing a parking problem. In fact, she was relieved to figure out that it was a rooming house because at first she thought it had become a drug den.

[Judi Lynn]

3. What a shame. Sure hope the local gov. will keep a lid on these bigots.n/t

[Tempest]

5. Will be a hard task

Considering Romney is fostering the bigots with his anti-immigration stance.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Hope the voters, Diebold willing, will see Romney as an abberation

and send him packing as soon as possible. Massachusetts could use a decent Governor in a hurry.

[Tempest]

8. The last approval rating I saw was 43% for Romney

And the moron thinks he can make a successful presidential run.

But as you say, Diebold willing...

[Tempest]

4. Mass. needs a reasonable force law

Then watch as these incidents stop when the Brazilians start protecting themselves.


(tongue in cheek)

[crikkett]

7. so how prevalent is bigotry in Mass...?

What did Brazilians ever do to them? Other than bring over Samba drums, which can be nerve-racking (ask my husband.)

I had this idea that if a people were progressive enough to allow gay marriage, that bigotry would have been long since gone. But it was the courts, not a majority of citizens, who demanded equality for all, wasn't it?