A black man in North Carolina was arrested after staging a phony pro-Trump hate crime.
Curtis Flournoy, 32, allegedly set a fire at a grocery store owned by Indian immigrants in Charlotte, North Carolina. Flournoy attempted to blame the whole phony hate crime on Trump supporters in a note that he left at the scene.
A spokesman for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department explained that, “A note was also left at the scene near the door that stated the suspect did not want any refugee business owners and that they would torture the owner if they did not leave and go back to where they came from.”
The note also praised President Trump as “our nation builder for white America, and included an angry, anti-immigrant message: “We need to get rid of Muslims, Indians and all immigrants. This is our warning. Leave the business and go back where you came from. If you don’t follow this warning then we are not responsible for the torture starting now.
The letter was signed, “White America.”
Unfortunately for Flournoy, the jig was up when police reviewed surveillance footage—which showed the decidedly non-white Flournoy breaking a window in the front of the store and throwing a flaming object inside.
Flournoy was charged with burning a building of trade, malicious damage by use of an incidentiary material, felony breaking and entering, ethnic intimidation, and anonymous or threatening letters. This is his seventh arrest since 2014.
The store owner, Khamal Dhimal, became a U.S. citizen just last year. He admitted that the incident made him scared for his life—but members of the local community have launched a GoFundMe page to help him rebuild his store.