{"id":741,"date":"2026-06-20T11:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=741"},"modified":"2026-06-20T11:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:21:09","slug":"man-who-admitted-setting-cross-on-fire-in-chicago-park-is-charged-with-a-hate-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/?p=741","title":{"rendered":"Man who admitted setting cross on fire in Chicago park is charged with a hate crime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">A 21-year-old man has been charged with a hate crime, arson and other offenses for a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cross-burning-chicago-fire-department-e61c932c3633516f55e32da3fd294dec\">cross that was set on fire<\/a> in a Chicago park, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Merlin Lu <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/news\/local\/person-of-interest-in-grant-park-cross-burning-incident-in-custody-police-say\/3949302\/\">admitted to a TV station<\/a> this week that he was responsible for the cross burning in Grant Park on June 9. But he insisted that he was protesting President Donald Trump and was not using the cross as a historical symbol of hate and intimidation against Black people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Lu has been charged with four felonies and four misdemeanors, including a hate crime and burning a cross to intimidate, police said in a statement released Wednesday night. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI understand why it was interpreted that way, and I apologize for that, but no, the intent was not there,\u201d Lu told WMAQ-TV before his arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">It was not immediately known Thursday if Lu has an attorney who could speak on his behalf. He was scheduled to appear in court for a detention hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI did know about this historical relevance beforehand. But I didn\u2019t know the severity, how racially motivated it may seem from what I did,\u201d Lu told the TV station. \u201cCause my protest has nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Lu said he was protesting the \u201cruling class\u201d and Christian nationalists who support Trump. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Someone put a large, multicolored, glass fiber heart with the word, \u201cresilient,\u201d in the place where the burning cross stood in the park. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Lu&#8217;s LinkedIn page says he has attended college in Indiana and Chicago and was studying chemistry. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/man-admitted-setting-cross-fire-chicago-park-charged-133998911\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 21-year-old man has been charged with a hate crime, arson and other offenses for a cross that was set on fire in a Chicago park, police said. Merlin Lu admitted to a TV station this week that he was responsible for the cross burning in Grant Park on June 9. But he insisted that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}