Crime and Religious Institutions

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation after Holy Innocents Catholic School in Long Beach, California, was broken into and extensively vandalized, causing an estimated $100,000 in damage. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said on X that DOJ will investigate the 'awful crime', which school officials and parishioners describe as a desecration of an assembly hall, chapel and classrooms, including smashed statues, destroyed images of Mary and other religious figures, and a tabernacle thrown to the floor. Local police and the FBI have been contacted, and investigators are collecting DNA from defecation and partially eaten food left on the grounds as they search for multiple suspects. Church members say they are devastated by what a local bishop called the worst vandalism he has seen in the region, while a GoFundMe for repairs has raised nearly $60,000 as of Tuesday. The case comes amid heightened concern about attacks on religious sites nationwide and will test how aggressively federal civil-rights laws are used to protect Catholic institutions from targeted vandalism and possible hate crimes.