Two Pride flags deliberately set on fire outside gay bar in New York
Police are investigating the arson as a homophobic hate crime
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
Two Pride flags outside a gay bar in New York have been burnt by vandals in a homophobic hate crime.
Surveillance cameras caught an image of a person who walked up to the flags outside the Alibi Lounge – New York’s only black-owned gay bar.
The footage then shows the person kneeling down and set fire to the flags and then walk off. A woman then told the bar their flags were on fire and two employees managed to extinguish the blaze.
Police are now investigating the arson as a hate crime.
Luckily nobody was injured but the bar own, Alexi Minko, told ABC 7: “It became obvious it was a crime, a deliberate criminal act.
“You know you feel violated. No one was hurt but emotionally you really start to wonder. You start questioning yourself, you start wondering is it us?
“What’s the reason behind it? What is happening? And you start to worry a little bit about what it means.
“Is there a message that somebody’s trying to send to us? So, it’s a mix of emotions.”