Massachusetts Man Gets 4.5 Years for Obama Election Arson Reaction
Seriously AP?!
Original headline:
“Mass. man gets 4 1/2 years for Obama-inspired fire”
Burning black churches in concert with two other bigots after a black person is elected president is inspired by hate, not by the person elected. It’s really an act of terror designed to send a message to black people everywhere.
I do not think there are nefarious motives at work here, I suspect the reporter just wanted to get Obama’s name in the headline because Obama’s name in a headline always gets more views due to his popularity.
How about “Mass. Man Gets 4.5 years for Arson reaction to Obama’s election” “Arson attack after Obama Election” “hate attack reaction to Obama election” there are fifty different ways to write that headline and get Obama in it without implying that Obama inspires arson.
The last of three Massachusetts men charged in the burning of a predominantly black church to protest President Barack Obama’s election has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in federal prison.
Federal prosecutors say a federal judge on Wednesday also ordered Thomas Gleason to pay $1.7 million in restitution. The 24-year-old pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy against civil rights and other charges for what prosecutors called a racially motivated arson.
Prosecutors said Gleason and two friends burned down the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield on Nov. 5, 2008, hours after Obama was elected as the nation’s first black president.