Cops: Atlanta Teens Filmed Themselves Destroying Gay Bar’s Pride Flags, Hate Crime Charges Possible [VIDEO]

Atlanta’s NPR affiliate reports:

Four teenagers were arrested early Tuesday morning and have hate crime charges pending against them after police say they stole and cut up Pride flags outside one of Atlanta’s most well-known gay bars.

Atlanta police say they responded to a vandalism call at 1:40 a.m. Tuesday at the intersection of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue. Witnesses told police that six males stole Pride flags from outside of Blake’s on the Park and were cutting them up with a knife and riding around on scooters in the middle of the intersection, the site of the rainbow crosswalks.

A preliminary police investigation reveals that the group coordinated and drove from the Dallas and Cartersville areas to Atlanta. The arrestees are one 16-year-old juvenile from Taylorsville and three others from Dallas, Georgia: 17-year-old Geami McCarroll, 18-year-old Logan Matthison and 18-year-old Ahmed Mechkouri.

The Associated Press reports:

Two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old from Dallas, Georgia, were taken into custody, in addition to a 16-year-old from Taylorsville. Police said all four were also charged with obstruction, criminal damage to property, conspiracy, and prowling.

Georgia is one of three states where 17-year-old criminal suspects are automatically charged as adults.  Police said they have also cited the 16-year-old’s father for failing to supervise his son.

A prosecutor would have to decide whether to ask a judge or jury to add additional penalties to any conviction. Georgia’s hate crime law, passed in 2020, allows a court to impose additional prison time or fines when a judge or jury finds that a crime was motivated by the victim’s race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or other characteristics.

Police have released surveillance videos.

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