HATE CRIME HOAX? Trans Person Burned Down Own Home Due to LGBT Issues Not Getting Enough Attention

Michigan prosecutors charged 54-year-old Nikki Joly — a transgender person — for allegedly burning down their own home in 2017 in what investigators appear to believe was intended to be a fake hate crime. . .

While an official motive has not yet been established, The Detroit News noted that an investigative police report shed light on a possible motive:

Two people who worked with Joly at St. Johns United Church of Christ, where the Jackson Pride Center was located, said he had been frustrated the controversy over gay rights had died down with the passage of the nondiscrimination law, according to the report.

The church officials, Barbara Shelton and Bobby James, when asked by police about a possible motive for the fire, said Joly was disappointed the Jackson Pride Parade and Festival, held five days before the blaze, hadn’t received more attention or protests.

Elmer Hitt, Jackson’s director of police and fire services, said on Monday that members of the community perceived the blaze to be a hate crime, but after a year of investigating the crime, prosecutors “ended up issuing charges” for first-degree arson on Joly. (Read more from “HATE CRIME HOAX? Trans Person Burned Down Own Home Due to LGBT Issues Not Getting Enough Attention” HERE)

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