One might think Alabama has gone back in time to the 1960's recently, what with all the churches being set afire. 

Fires damaged or destroyed four more Baptist churches across the Alabama countryside Tuesday, less than a week after a string of five blazes that were ruled arson.

"I'm not prepared to talk about the evidence yet ... but common sense tells you there is a clear indication these fires are going to be linked," FBI acting assistant director Chip Burrus said in an interview with The Associated Press in Washington, D.C.

This story was actually sent out on the wires yesterday afternoon, I saw the AP report but didn't post about it at the time.  The reason I didn't post it, was that I was watching some of the speakers at Coretta Scott Kings' funeral.  How disturbing that churces were set a fire, in a state that was the hot-bed for the civil rights movement, on the same day a civil rights legend was laid to rest. 

Fortunately for me I missed Bush the Lesser, and only caught part of Bush the First.   I did catch most of Rev. Lowery, both Clintons, Jimmy Carter and Maya Angelou, among others.  Of the people I did get to hear speak, these folks stood out for me. 

Back to the fires.  From the WaPo article, we come up with a total number of church fires in Alabama during the past 5 years.  A total of 59, and of those, 19 are considered arson.  Deliberately set fires. 

In light of this, I'm reviving two old posts, originally found here and here, on the rise of hate crimes in the US.