Red hand prints left on St. Patrick's Church in Merced
To protest finding of Native American bodies in Canada
Jim Holman2021-07-07T08:06:21-07:00July 7th, 2021|
Frank Perez was booked and charged with hate crime. (Photo from Merced Police Department)
One man is under arrest after police in Merced identified a suspect in the vandalism of a Catholic church in the city. It comes after a man was seen on surveillance footage using red paint to make red handprints on the church building, as well as surrounding buildings and a statue.
Police say the incident was captured on security cameras on July 4, at around 7:30 a.m., at the church at 671 E. Yosemite Avenue. According to the Diocese of Fresno, it is the site of St. Patrick's Catholic Church.
Officers were provided with the name of 54-year-old Frank Perez, who was later arrested and booked on charges of hate crimes and vandalizing a church. Investigators also established that the same suspect vandalized Yosemite Church around 20 minutes after the first incident.
In the accompanying police report:
"The suspect vandalized St. Patrick's Church by painting red hands on the church in protest to the finding of Native American bodies in Catholic sites in Canada…. Officer DeJong was provided with the suspect's information and contacted him at his residence.
Frank Perez was booked in the Merced County Jail for Hate Crimes and Vandalizing a Church.
"Merced Police are asking anyone with any information regarding this crime to contact Officer DeJong at 209-769-6263."
The above comes from a July 5 report on YourCentralValley.com.
Kevin T July 7, 2021 at 10:45 am - Reply
Was he caught red-handed?
Anonymous July 7, 2021 at 11:32 am - Reply
If what's happening in Canada spreads to the U.S., look out!
The church talks about forgiveness. Will it show it?
You R Fake July 7, 2021 at 7:23 pm - Reply
What nerve, trying to virtue shame victims of a crime. How fake of you – how I wonder what your reaction would be if your house got vandalized.
Anonymous July 7, 2021 at 8:39 pm - Reply
Um… what's wrong with pointing out that Christians are supposed to forgive? Read the Gospels. "I say to you, you are not to forgive seven times but seventy times seven." "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
How interesting that you would react so sternly, even taking offense, when confronted with the the truth of what you are supposed to believe and do.
Who's fake now?
bohemond July 8, 2021 at 5:51 am - Reply
Ah liberal Anonymous, knows nothing about the Faith yet continues to preach to us. There is something called Justice which is more important than mercy or forgiveness it is time for Wrath .. Justice over Mercy
We are not released from our human judgement, and we still must sometimes oppose actions that are unjust and sinfully violent. As an example, 8:39, give us your call on this: Nazi soldiers are arresting families, including babies and young children, packing them into boxcars, and shipping them off to death in concentration camps. So, let's hear it, 8:39, do you "forgive" these Nazis, and let them continue, or do you oppose them with armed forces?
And another example: Your call 8:39, an actual event: a sniper is up on a tower, shooting and killing people. Do you let him continue, and "forgive" him his actions, or as a police officer, do you intervene and shoot the sniper?
And as a third example, 8:39, so we forgive those setting fire to Churches, and endangering others? Or do we oppose them, even if it takes force? And a reminder, two people died after the fire started in one Canadian Church. So what is your call, 8:39, do we forgive the arsonists? Or arrest them to prevent further violence and human casualties?
So we are not released from our obligation to save others, even if it takes violence on our part, in place of "forgiveness".
We can forgive these people in our hearts, after the actions.
Anonymous July 8, 2021 at 6:11 pm
Real life example: the bishop of Oakland immediately forgave the man who robbed him at gunpoint while he was walking in his neighborhood.
Anonymous July 8, 2021 at 11:34 pm
True dat 6:11
And as a fourth example, do we forgive and release the red hands guy, for his vandalism? The problem is that he may continue and increase his actions, with greater vandalism, perhaps even setting fire to Churches. He thinks after release, "So what? Now I can do what I feel like!" So NO, we must make it clear to this man, that this will not be tolerated. That means some punishment is required, so he will avoid these actions in the future. And there is now Canada as an example, where there was not much action in arresting Church arsonists. Now, dozens of Antifa (type) folk are free to roam about, setting Church fires, no one has been caught, while Justin Trudeau just shrugs nonchalantly….do we want that in the US? We need prompt Police and Court action. Stop the vandalism and arsons first, forgiveness can follow later, when the perpetrators are in prison….
Hopefully not,,, its well past time for Justice
Anne TE July 7, 2021 at 8:07 pm - Reply
First of all, the children in Canadian were buried at a regular church cemetery. They were not murdered. Some died of Tuberculosis, which was going through the white population also. Some native tribal Canadians have testified that they were happy at those schools, although perhaps some were not happy with their treatment. The children were buried, over an extended period of time (over a hundred years), with wooden crosses on their graves that had worn away over the years. It was the parents and relatives that had marked the graves, just as it is in most all cemeteries.
When did facts ever matter to woke insurrectionist anarchists? We saw this last summer as BLM rioted, looted, arsoned, and murdered as forms of fake protest.
Anne TE July 7, 2021 at 10:30 pm - Reply
Correction to first line: "Canada" not "Canadian".
It was a Catholic hating journalist who started all the fuss without getting all the facts. Just like attorneys who advertise for people to come to them if they were molested by a priest without including people who have been molested by public school teachers, rabbis, ministers, imams, etc. You can bet any attorney who only advertises for priest abuse and no others is anti Catholic and has an ax to grind against the Church.
Hypocrites!
anon July 8, 2021 at 12:26 pm - Reply
What people need to understand are the health conditions in the earliest part of the last century. There was, for example, the great epidemic of 1918, which was especially hard on young people, with a very high death rate. And continuing on, up through the 1940s and 1950s, there were very few vaccines available for diseases. As a young person back then, it was common to have friends who had measles, mumps, chicken pox, flus, pneumonia, and to hear of kids dying from disease. And in the 1950s, there was the great Polio epidemic, which caused thousands of deaths, and wards were crowded with iron lungs. It was only with the arrival of the anti-polio vaccines, that there was an effort for nationwide vaccinations, and this continued with vaccines for the other common childhood diseases. The result of widespread vaccinations in the modern era, is childhood death from contagious diseases is rare. But this was certainly not the case a century ago, when childhood disease and death was much more common. Therefore, it is not surprising that 100 years ago, cemeteries had the graves of many young people, who died of these childhood diseases.
Hymie July 9, 2021 at 11:22 am - Reply
Canada's just the latest racial hoax. Then off we go falling afresh for the next one.
Chief Runs Amok will get off with a slap on the wrist, if that.
If the government forced Catholic children into residential schools to get them away from their parents and assimilate them into secular culture, exposing them to abuse of all kinds, would you be OK with that?
Anonymous July 10, 2021 at 11:29 am - Reply
Where is that happening?
Anonymous July 10, 2021 at 12:11 pm - Reply
"Force them to Assimilate". Meaning: Teaching them to read and write. There are still parents today, who won't send their kids to school, because of drug addiction or other problems. The State still intrudes in these cases, as kids MUST go to school. It is not fair to handicap children because of their parents lack of concern. Certainly with Indigenous peoples, there was a real problem, because their cultures did not prepare their children for the modern world, where reading, writing, and literary comprehension are a necessity. So are you saying that Indigenous children should be still allowed to remain back in the past, without books, without hospitals, without schools, without cars, tvs, computers, and all the advantages of the modern world?
(And our media doesn't seem to grasp the irony of "Indigenous" speakers whining on tv news about having to "lose their culture")
Aren't these same people aware that every person in North America, regardless of origin, has left their old culture behind, because of the obvious advantages of present life? And now, we don't see these "Indigenous" peoples giving up tv or cars or supermarkets.
Please, it's obvious. Let's end this false romantic attachment to the "indigenous". Very sorry, but it is GONE! Modern life is just so much better, and everyone, including the "indigenous" knows this.
Hymie July 10, 2021 at 1:58 pm - Reply
Compulsory school attendance. Oh, the fosterity! Good thing we don't have that here, eh?
Hoax, I say. Pure hoax. #CatholicsSoGullible.
Compulsory boarding school attendance. We do not have that here.
Anonymous July 11, 2021 at 3:39 pm - Reply
No one answered the question.
Hymie July 15, 2021 at 8:53 am - Reply
They were being polite.
Anonymous July 12, 2021 at 3:27 am - Reply
About 20% of Native Americans in the US are Catholic.