A day after the discovery in Lubbock, Texas, of a sign in Arabic on the side of the city’s unfinished city hall, an arrest has been made related to the incident. A press release from the Lubbock Police Department announced the arrest of Kyle Alexander Holub, 22, for criminal trespass.
Just yesterday, Lubbock’s mayor called local and federal investigators to investigate a large banner in Arabic that was found hung on the side of its unfinished city hall. Though the sign translated to “love for everyone,” Mayor Glen Robertson, in a letter to City Manager James Loomis, demanded the state investigate the sinister banner:
“I am requesting that the flag be removed immediately, that we get an accurate translation of the flag, and that Chief Stevens notify the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and our Lubbock County Sheriff’s Department. I am also requesting that we take whatever steps are necessary to secure the building and ensure that this does not happen again. I fully understand that we must gather more facts before we make a knee jerk reaction but I am concerned on several levels.”
An accurate translation took all of a few seconds, most likely, given that Lubbock is home to at least one mosque. Failing that, Lubbock is home to numerous universities, like Texas Tech, whose Director of the Language Laboratory, David Villarreal, translated the message for everythinglubbock.com.
Fox News and the New York Post posted ominously worded headlines regarding the incident. America’s most-watched news channel’s headline read “Arabic Banner Mysteriously Appears On Texas Building,” while America’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper headline read “Mysterious Arabic Banner Hung From Top Of Texas High-Rise,” as if to suggest an attack on the city of Lubbock were imminent.
But with the news that a white college student committed the trespassing offense, Lubbock can rest easy. Meanwhile, the rate of suspected hate crimes against Muslims has tripled since the Paris attacks.
Photo: EverythingLubbock.com
