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First Santa Barbara, Now Los Angeles Area Mission Vandalized

First, it happened at the Santa Barbara Mission. Now, a statute of Father Juniper Serra has been vandalized at a mission in the Los Angeles area.

Someone splashed red paint on the statue, and tried to cut its head off at Mission San Gabriel early Friday morning.

The statue wasn't destroyed, but about two thousand dollars in damage was caused.

In September, vandals cut the head off a statue of Serra at the Santa Barbara Mission, and splashed red paint on it.

Serra was the founder of the California Mission chain, and was elevated to sainthood status by the Pope in 2015. But, some people are critical of Serra and his sainthood, saying that he didn’t do enough to intervene when early Native Americans were abused, and that he forced religion on them.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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