Drag Brunch Canceled After Illinois Bakery Vandalized and Graffitied
A Chicago-area bakery was vandalized over the weekend over a planned drag show brunch. Photographs shared on Twitter by Marissa Perlman, a reporter for WBBM, Chicago’s CBS affiliate, showed extensive damage to the establishment with broken glass and graffiti messages painted on the walls. “Groomers,” “f*gs rape kids,” and “Christ is king” were scrawled in black paint along the exterior.Defiantly addressing Saturday's anti-LGBTQ+ attack, the shop owner in the village of Lake in the Hills, a suburb of northwest Chicago, posted on social media Sunday announcing the shop’s immediate reopening.“The clouds of This storm Are clearing this morning and we will reopen today with limited services and staff,” the business said on social media. “Hate has no home here.
Love and light live here. We live here. This is our home. this is our town. this is our county. this is our fight. we’re not turning our backs or backing down now.
Zero tolerance for fuckery today and everyday.”Joseph I. Collins, 24, has been arrested and charged with two felonies: a hate crime, a class 4 felony, and criminal property damage, a class 4 felony.Lake in the Hills Police received a report of criminal damage to property in progress at around 12:04 a.m.
Saturday and that the suspect had run, Lake and McHenry County Scanner reports. Authorities said a police officer saw Collins flee the scene.Shortly after, Collins was detained.“The safety and Constitutional rights of everyone are always the Lake in the Hills Police Department’s priority,” the department said in a statement to the Scanner. “The Police Department is disheartened this happened in our Village, remain steadfast in our commitment to public safety and have zero tolerance to crimes against all.
