JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - On December 14 of last year, Michael Cassidy flew to Iowa, entered the Iowa State Capitol, and destroyed a statue of Baphomet - a man-goat hybrid which has become a symbol of The Satanic Temple.
Actually, according to court records, Cassidy allegedly took off the head of the statue, placed it in a garbage bag, broke it into pieces, and left it in a dumpster outside.
Because of this, Cassidy may spend half a decade in prison.
So why did the former U.S. Navy pilot, who was this close to becoming a U.S. Representative from the state of Mississippi, commit such a seemingly random act of vandalism?
The thing is, Cassidy has made no secret that, yes, he did in fact go into a state capitol and wreck a statue. In fact, after doing so, he went on a small media circuit talking about it.
The day after he attacked the inanimate object, Cassidy appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime, the chyron under him reading: Man Decapitates Satan At Iowa Capitol.
Cassidy explained to Waters that his action against the statue was a “spur of the moment kind of thing.” Yet the statue seemed to be weighing on his mind even before flying to Iowa.
As the Associated Press reported, the statue of Baphomet - which has the head of a goat, the arms and chest of a human, and often features a pentagram on its forehead - had been placed in the capitol by The Satanic Temple of Iowa under state rules allowing religious displays in the building during the holidays.
The Satanic Temple, NPR says, objects to exclusively Christian religious displays on public property. In 2018, The Satanic Temple hauled in a gigantic statue of Baphomet to the Arkansas State Capitol.
This as a sign of protest against the Ten Commandments being displayed on capitol grounds.
Either have no religious objects in public spaces or be open to all religious objects in public spaces, the temple argues.
Now back to the Baphomet statue in Iowa.
Before it was destroyed, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said she found the statue “absolutely objectionable,” and asked those of faith to pray over the state capitol.
Then the statue was featured in a viral tweet by the account End Wokeness. In the tweet, a side-by-side of a statue of Thomas Jefferson and the statue of Baphomet.
“We have reached the point where our Capitols are removing Jefferson while monuments to Satan are erected. Realize where we are,” the tweet states.
This was quote-tweeted by Auron MacIntyre, a host and columnist for Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, with MacIntyre writing, “Periodic reminder that the religious right were correct about everything.”
This tweet by MacIntyre would be retweeted by Cassidy two days before he destroyed the statue.
So why did he do it?
As he told Jesse Watters, “It offended me. It touched a nerve. It was righteous indignation. I call it Christian civil disobedience. I took the statue that was there... and it’s no longer there.”
“How precisely did you decapitate Satan?” Watters asked.
“Pulled his head off,” Cassidy responded.
As Cassidy explained in this interview, the statue was not made of bronze, but of “cheap fabric,” making the decapitation more simple than most.
After destroying the statue, Cassidy found security, and told them what he had done.
He was initially released without any kind of punishment. Yet, minutes after leaving the capitol, Cassidy received a call from authorities in which he was told that he would be issued a citation. He was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief - a misdemeanor.
A SaveGiveGo account was set up for Cassidy after the charge was announced.
A portion of his account reads, “Out of the millions of Christians in this nation, Cassidy was the first to act in bravery and conviction. He was not willing to see God reviled, especially in a building where lawmakers are supposed to honor Jesus Christ as King and look to his law for wisdom as they legislate with justice and righteousness.”
In less than three hours, the account had raised $20,000.
But then, a twist.
Nearly a month after his initial charge, the Polk County Attorney’s Office announced that it would be upgrading Cassidy’s charge to third-degree criminal mischief in violation of individual rights, a class D felony.
Cassidy had now been charged with a hate crime and faces the possibility of five years in prison.
Before the upgraded charges, Cassidy told Tucker Carlson on the Tucker Carlson Network that he expected there to be consequences, even mentioning the possibility of jail time, “but those were arguments that I couldn’t make to God.”
“A statue of Satan was right there,” he continued. “It was wrong, so I took it down.”
Why the hate crime charge?
“Evidence shows the defendant made statements to law enforcement and the public indicating he destroyed the property because of the victim’s religion,” the Polk County Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement. “That enhances the charge to third-degree criminal mischief in violation of individual rights, a class D felony, according to Iowa Code Section 729A.2.”
Cassidy was arraigned two weeks later.
In the months following the upgraded charges, his SaveGiveGo account has ballooned, now reaching nearly $135,000.
In April, Cassidy and his lawyers sought to have the hate crime charge dismissed, arguing that:
1). The Satanic Temple is not a “person,” as defined in Iowa Code Section 729A.2, and,
2). The Satanic Temple is not a religion
In his decision, the judge ruled that while the temple may not be a person, it is still considered an “entity,” which still counts under the state statute.
And on the question of whether The Satanic Temple is a religious organization, the judge wrote that if a trial were to take place, the State of Iowa would bring forth witnesses who would “describe the religious nature and practices of the Satanic Temple of Iowa.”
When asked for his opinion, Matt Steffey, a law professor at the Mississippi College School of Law, told WLBT News that “satanic worship is definitely religious in character.”
“The First Amendment doesn’t permit a state to decide what religions and religious beliefs are true,” Steffey said. “Thus, a state simply can’t decide that worship of God is religious and worship of the enemy is not.”
The State of Iowa also said that it would bring forth two witnesses who would testify that Cassidy admitted to damaging the statue “due to his religious perspective and/or his understanding of the religious perspective that the [statue] was representing.”
Because of this, the motion to dismiss the hate crime charge was dismissed.
After the judge’s ruling, the Cassidy team released a statement, saying they were “deeply disappointed.”
“The District Attorney was unable to provide the Court with a single example of Iowa’s Hate Crime statute being applied in the manner it is being used in this case,” they continued. “Mr. Cassidy’s actions were not motivated by hate but rather by his own sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Cassidy will be heading to trial on June 3rd - five years of his life possibly hanging in the balance.
Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.
Copyright 2024 WLBT. All rights reserved.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiXGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LndsYnQuY29tLzIwMjQvMDUvMjMvbWljaGFlbC1jYXNzaWR5LXNhdGFuaWMtc3RhdHVlLXZlcnktcmVhbC1wb3NzaWJpbGl0eS1wcmlzb24v0gFraHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2xidC5jb20vMjAyNC8wNS8yMy9taWNoYWVsLWNhc3NpZHktc2F0YW5pYy1zdGF0dWUtdmVyeS1yZWFsLXBvc3NpYmlsaXR5LXByaXNvbi8_b3V0cHV0VHlwZT1hbXA?oc=5
2024-05-23 16:19:00Z
CBMiXGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LndsYnQuY29tLzIwMjQvMDUvMjMvbWljaGFlbC1jYXNzaWR5LXNhdGFuaWMtc3RhdHVlLXZlcnktcmVhbC1wb3NzaWJpbGl0eS1wcmlzb24v0gFraHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2xidC5jb20vMjAyNC8wNS8yMy9taWNoYWVsLWNhc3NpZHktc2F0YW5pYy1zdGF0dWUtdmVyeS1yZWFsLXBvc3NpYmlsaXR5LXByaXNvbi8_b3V0cHV0VHlwZT1hbXA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Michael Cassidy, a Satanic statue, and the (very real) possibility of prison - WLBT"
Post a Comment