
DATE: Monday, June 9, 1997                  TAG: 9706090045

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:  125 lines

PANEL FINDS NO PLOT IN CHURCH FIRES TASK FORCE SAYS 199 HAVE BEEN ARRESTED

A federal task force set up last year to deal with church burnings said Sunday that almost 200 suspects have been arrested, more than 75 percent of them since the task force's creation, but that the evidence thus far does not support fears of a national conspiracy.

The report by the National Church Arson Task Force said federal and state authorities have arrested 199 suspects in 150 arsons, bombings or attempted bombings of churches between Jan. 1, 1995, and May 27 of this year.

Of those, 110 suspects were convicted in 77 fires. Overall, 429 fires have been investigated, with no arrests in 279 of them. Among the fires were blazes at 11 synagogues and four mosques.

``It's difficult to draw conclusions on why this happened,'' said Assistant Treasury Secretary James E. Johnson, who co-chaired the task force. ``We have not seen hard evidence to support the theory of a nationwide conspiracy. And we're seeing that many of the fires were committed by individuals acting alone.''

Almost four out of 10 (37.8 percent) of those attacks were at predominantly black churches, and more than three-quarters of the black churches were in the South.

While ``the arsons at African-American churches raised significant fears about an increase in racially motivated crimes,'' the task force said, the attacks, ``at both African-American and other houses of worship, were motivated by a wide array of factors, including not only blatant racism or religious hatred, but also financial profit, burglary and personal revenge.''

Members and former members of hate groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, have been found guilty of church arsons in ``a handful of cases,'' the task force said, but most of the 110 defendants who have been convicted of setting fires ``were not found to be members of hate groups.''

``Arsons are extremely difficult to solve,'' Johnson said. ``Evidence burns. It's destroyed. So it's remarkable that we have achieved these results.''

Overall, federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies have racked up an arrest rate of 35 percent.

So far, among those arrested, nearly 42 percent have been juveniles, the task force said. The motives of the suspects have ranged widely, Johnson said, including racial hatred, profit, vandalism and revenge.

Some said ``they saw it on the news, and this became the thing to do,'' Johnson said.

Indeed, the national attention given the problem of church fires may well have spurred a series of copycat crimes. According to the data released Sunday, the number of church arsons almost quadrupled in the month following President Clinton's announcement of the federal task force.

In May 1996, incidents of arson were reported at 12 churches nationwide, five of which served mostly black congregations. A month later, after the president's announcement highlighted the problem, 47 churches suffered fires or bombings nationwide. Of these, 19 were black churches.

From its peak last June, the number of church fires gradually declined. By last month, the number of incidents had subsided to the same level - 12 in all - seen the month before the task force was created.

While some churches were burned to the ground, many of the incidents involved lesser damage, such as torched curtains, a burned pew or a firebomb tossed through a window.

Twenty-five defendants were found guilty in federal court of arson attacks, including 14 convicted of criminal civil-rights charges. The cases included the first brought under the 1996 Church Arson Prevention Act, which gave federal prosecutors greater power to pursue burnings and desecration at houses of worship.

Of the 199 arrested, 160 were white, 34 were African American and five Hispanic. Eighty-three of them were juveniles, ranging in age from 6 to 17, and 60 were 18 to 24. Of the 110 convicted, 94 were white and 13 were black; the races of three were not available.

The task force said 267 of the targeted houses of worship were predominantly white, including 11 synagogues and four mosques, and 162 were black. Of those in the South, there were 126 black churches and 126 white churches subjected to attack.

Johnson said the investigations would continue in the cases in which no arrests have been made. The work can take years, the report said, since ``forensic evidence is often destroyed in the fire, and there are often no eyewitnesses, because some of the churches are in isolated, rural areas. Moreover, as with many criminal acts, it is difficult to discern the motive for setting fire to a house of worship.''

Officials of the National Council of Churches, which brought national attention to the issue, commended the task force ``for the thoroughness and scope of their investigation, and for the speed of their response when we called for assistance.''

The task force includes officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help the council and other groups with rebuilding efforts, and from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to promote local and state prevention programs.

``The report says that there are mixed motivations, from people being mad at God to being mad at their neighbors, and I think that is unfortunately true,'' said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary.

She said the council has helped rebuild 90 churches, mostly black churches in the South ``where we feel there is racial motivation,'' and is assessing the needs of 60 others. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Washington Post, The

Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times. ILLUSTRATION: JUNE 1996

After the appointment of a federal task force in May highlighted the

problem, 47 churches suffered fires or bombings; 19 were black

churches.

Fire destroyed the Matthews-Murkland Presbyterian church in

Charlotte on June 6 of last year.

TODAY

From its peak last June, the number of church fires has declined.

Last month, the number was 12 - the same as in the month before the

task force was created.

Construction continues at the Pleasant Ridge United Church of Christ

near Greensboro, N.C., which burned last year.