A spokesperson for the Lexington Police Department confirmed for Newsweek on Thursday that the incident is currently being investigated as a hate crime; however, the department did not name any suspects.
In the footage obtained by WKYT, two people can be seen approaching the home of James Grant Wilson and Zach Skaggs. Once they’ve reached the flag, they pull out their lighters and set it on fire. Meanwhile, one also pulls out their cellphone and records the flag burning.
After about 19 seconds, the two run away.
“The flag was burned to shreds,” said WKYT.
Wilson told the station that he has since replaced the flag as a “sign of resistance,” and added that their community decorated their driveway with chalk drawings as a sign of support for the couple.
“This kind of stuff does still happen, and this time it happened right in your own backyard,” Wilson told WKYT of the incident.
Of course, Wilson is correct—hate crimes can and do still happen. According to data from the Department of Justice (DOJ), however, hate crimes aren’t too common in the state of Kentucky.
In 2020, the latest year available, Kentucky reported a total of 176 hate crimes, 18 of which fell into the bias motivation category of sexual orientation. That’s a slight decrease from 2019, which saw 19 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, and 2018, which saw 22.
Still, the FBI’s annual hate crime statistics report revealed that there were more than 7,700 hate crime incidents across the U.S. in 2020.
“A percent distribution of victims by bias type shows that 61.9 percent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias, 20.5 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias, [and] 13.4 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias,” the FBI reported. Other bias motivation categories include gender, gender identity and disability.
Nikki Singh, a spokesperson with human rights organization, the Sikh Coalition, previously said the FBI’s figures are “likely lower than the actual number of hate-motivated incidents,” explaining that many “targeted communities” may avoid reporting incidents for fear of further discrimination.
Police are asking anyone with any information about Sunday’s flag burning in Kentucky to contact Lexington Police at (859) 258-3600. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Blue Grass Crimestoppers, either online at www.bluegrasscrimestoppers.com or over the phone at (859) 253-2020.