Police probe attempted burning of family’s Black Lives Matter flag in Pennsauken

Police in Camden County are searching for the person responsible for trying to light a family’s Black Lives Matter flag on fire.

News 12 Staff

Sep 22, 2020, 8:26 PM

Updated 1,479 days ago

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Police in Camden County are searching for the person responsible for trying to light a family’s Black Lives Matter flag on fire.
The incident happened on Sept. 12 at a home on Union Avenue in Pennsauken.
“I don’t know if it was really windy that night or if it was the material, but it really wasn’t trying to burn at all and I’m really glad it didn’t,” says Ashauntee Williams.
Williams says that she was inside her home with her mother when the family’s Ring doorbell sent a notification that someone was outside near the flag. The person was caught on camera trying to burn the flag.
“She sees the guy in the middle of trying to light it, so she instantly calls me so that I could call 911 and so I can get outside and stop him. But by the time I got there, he has ripped the flagpole down and it snapped in half and he was gone,” says Williams.
Pennsauken police say that they are investigating the incident. Williams says that she and her mother had moved into the home in July. They put the flag up soon after they moved in. They say that they never expected someone to try to burn the flag.
“I was prepared for someone to get pissy about it, try to tear it or cut it or something, but the last thing we were expecting was someone to actually try to commit arson on someone else’s property,” Williams says.
Williams says that the message behind her flag is equality, not division.
“With everything that’s going on with police brutality and just racism in general, I was just like, ‘I wanted to use my voice,’ and I thought it was pretty ironic that the house is on a busy road and everyone’s going to see it,” says Williams.
Williams says that despite the attempted arson, the flag isn’t going anywhere.
“It’s staying. I have two more poles and three more flags just in case,” she says.
Pennsauken police say that the person responsible could be facing criminal mischief charges.