A large, burning cross was discovered at a Chicago park on Tuesday afternoon, and police said they are investigating how it ended up there and the motive behind it.
Video taken by a motorist shows the wooden cross engulfed in bright orange flames as it leans against a tree in Grant Park, a popular area near Lake Michigan. The Chicago Fire Department confirmed the flaming object was a cross, and said officials put out the fire.
Chicago Police said there were no reports of injuries and that they are investigating the motive and circumstances around the 鈥渙bject on fire.”
Keinika Carlton, 43, was driving home from running errands with her daughter and mother-in-law when they saw the cross on fire. She said she felt a combination of shock, sadness, disgust, as well as curiosity.
鈥淚s this a racial thing? Is this a religious thing?” she said. 鈥淎s Black women, of course, our first thought is racial, because burning crosses are known to be used as a tactic, an act of violence toward Black Americans in the South.鈥�
Carlton estimated the cross was at least 6 feet (1.83 meters) tall. The experience was new to all of them, including Carlton’s mother-in-law, who grew up in Kentucky.
Carlton said as they slowed down to shoot a video of the flames, she saw around her other cars slowing down and people walking nearby, staring at the cross burning.
While the motive behind the burning cross was not immediately clear, cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as 鈥渟ymbols of hate鈥� that are 鈥渋nextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan,鈥� according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision written by the late . The justices ruled that the First Amendment allows bans on cross burnings only when they are intended to intimidate because the action 鈥渋s a particularly virulent form of intimidation.鈥�
Alyna Carlton, 22, said she never thought she would see something like that in her lifetime.
鈥淚t kind of really opened my eyes, had me realize that I鈥檓 not that far removed from the past.鈥�
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