A Mississippi man accused of destroying a statue of a pagan idol at Iowa’s Capitol pleaded guilty Friday to a reduced charge in return for prosecutors dropping a felony hate crime count.
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The Satanic Temple has filed a damage estimate putting the cost to replace the statute at $3,000. The group is also requesting $3,299.55 in restitution for “travel and security expenses” for “food, lodging, van rental, communications equipment and bullet proof vests that were a necessity in completing the task of removing our holiday display at the state capitol.”
The violence is the sixth mass killing this month and comes in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The Johnson County Interfaith Coalition approached the city in June 2020 requesting the ordinance modeled after one in Iowa City.
Nebraska and Iowa have seen a rise in hate crimes in recent years, most of which have been committed on the basis of race and ethnicity, according to the FBI.
Nicole Poole Franklin has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes for intentionally driving her SUV into two children two years ago in Des Moines because she said she thought one was Mexican and the other was a member of the Islamic State group.
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