BUZZ
Another day, another hoax
An Asian University of Illinois Chicago student set up a burning cross in Grant Park in order to protest President Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, Merlin Lu admitted to NBC 5 that he set up the burning cross on June 9. He is now in police custody.
“Last week, Lu sent a scripted video to NBC, claiming responsibility for the cross burning but saying he had no affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, apologizing to those who were offended,” NBC reported. “In the video he also criticized President Donald Trump.”
During an interview with Chuck Goudie, Lu shared that he had little knowledge of the Klan.
“Did you make it all the way through almost four years at UIC without somebody teaching you that a burning cross is one of the most divisive symbols in America,” Goudie asked.
“No, I don’t really have any, like… I never grew up with religion, never really surrounded myself with people with it. My childhood friend’s they, I remember them going to, like, confirmation and stuff like that, but um…” he said.
Lu graduated from Neuqua Valley High School in the wealthy Naperville suburb of Chicago.
The student, who may one day stand trial for an arson charge, said he wants the president put on trial.
“I put a red hat to signify the MAGA hat, the Make America Great Again hat,” he said. “So that was, yeah, that’s what I tied on top.”
Lu denied that he was calling for a violent end for Trump, although he said he didn’t “want to wait until his term ends” in a separate video he sent NBC.
“I think no, I said, I said he deserves to stand trial to the American people, some paraphrase, I guess, but,” Lu said.
The video had received quick condemnation when it was first posted, with many rushing to claim racism was alive and well in the city.
“Yesterday, we were reminded that the sickness of spirit they symbolize exists not only in the pages of history but in our present day,” Cardinal Blase Cupich, leader of the Archdiocese of Chicago, said last week. “Seeing a burning cross in one of Chicago’s most-visited public parks was shocking but not surprising.”
Governor JB Pritzker also chimed in, suggesting “racism and fascism” were spreading across the country.
“The fact that it even occurred at all speaks to what happens when the seeds of racism and fascism grow unchecked in our country,” Pritzker said, as reported by the Chicago Sun Times.
“The threats are real. And in times like these, it’s easy to fall prey to despair, to think that the fight for justice is just too costly to engage in, that the mountain is too high to climb and the path is too narrow to navigate,” he said.
The hoax occurred just a mile away from where actor Jussie Smollett faked being attacked by Trump supporters in January 2019.
