A person is in custody in an investigation of a in a well-known Chicago park, police said Tuesday.
The burning cross was discovered June 9 in Grant Park, where Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech when he was elected the nation鈥檚 first Black president in 2008.
A man identifying himself as a 21-year-old college student that he was the shirtless person in an image distributed by police when they were looking for a suspect. But police did not immediately say Tuesday if he’s the person in custody. The man said he was protesting President Donald Trump and not making a racist statement.
鈥淚 did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn鈥檛 know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,鈥� the man told the TV station. 鈥淐ause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.鈥�
Cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as symbols of hate and intimidation against Black people and have often been connected to the Ku Klux Klan.
The Chicago Police Department’s communications office confirmed that a person was in custody in connection with the case, but no other details were released. An email seeking comment from the prosecutor’s office was sent Tuesday.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 speak to anyone鈥檚 motives. We can only speak to the impact. And the impact was devastating,” Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is Black, said when asked about the cross and the man鈥檚 remarks to WMAQ.
The man interviewed by the TV station said he was protesting the 鈥渞uling class鈥� and Christian nationalists who support Trump. He said he put a red hat on the cross to signify a MAGA hat worn by the president’s allies.
The man said he doesn’t consider what he did a hate crime.
鈥淚 understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there,鈥� he said.
Gina Miranda Samuels, faculty director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, said the man seemed sincere that he was not trying to send a hateful message to Black people.
Nonetheless, she added, 鈥渋t says a lot about how uninformed people can be鈥� about certain symbols, 鈥渁nd that it would be acceptable to use a symbol of hatred and terror in this way.鈥�
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, senior pastor with the local Catholic church The Faith Community of Saint Sabina, said he doesn’t buy that the man went to the trouble of making the cross but didn’t know it was a symbol of hate.
鈥淵our Lawyer Schooled you well,鈥� he said in a post on Facebook.
Officials from the church had posted on social media a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the cross burning. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the man interviewed by WMAQ-TV said the hat on the cross was red, signifying a MAGA hat. It was not an actual MAGA hat.
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