Police responding to a reported burglary found several fires set inside the First Korean Baptist Church, 8905 Ray Road, at about 11:30 a.m., authorities said. Firefighters were called and quickly extinguished the blaze.
The Wake County fire marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting Raleigh police and fire departments in investigating the fire.
The report seems rather bland, considering. The News & Observer gave it a three-paragraph “news brief” treatment as well.
Now I’m not advocating this, but usually this combination of happenings warrants the sensationalist probable-hate-crime coverage (fires set at a non-“white church”/a minority group’s holy place set ablaze). Perhaps investigators impressed upon reporters that they believed homeless people broke in out of the snow and ice and merely started fires to stay warm.
Or perhaps Koreans doesn’t fall under the “protected-minority”/some-folks-are-more-equal-than-others template. We know that Baptists don’t; Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Clayton being burned twice in one month a year ago was ho-hum news. (And then there was the torching of Gov. Sarah Palin’s church, which involved barring the doors and locking children inside first.)
