According to a report from The Daily Wire, Michael Cassidy, a 35-year-old Navy veteran who beheaded a Satanic statue in the Iowa State House last month, has been charged with a hate crime.
Apparently, Satanic statues have more protections than statues of the Founding Fathers.
The statue will cost between $750 and $1,500 to repair and Cassidy has been charged with third-degree criminal mischief, a class D felony.
“Evidence shows the defendant made statements to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion,” said Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Polk County Attorney’s Office, according to the Des Moines Register.
Last month, Cassidy described the reasons for his actions in an interview.
“I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged,” Cassidy told The Republic Sentinel in December. “My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.”
“The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment,” Cassidy added. “Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water.”
Cassidy has a GoFundMe to help with his legal bills; it has cleared $90,000.
More over at The Daily Wire:
Veteran Who Smashed Satanic Statue In Iowa State Capitol Charged With Hate Crime https://t.co/lAse8dKaG1 pic.twitter.com/BaT79SYR0X
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) January 31, 2024