Burning cross found at home of Black Lives Matter activist

Physicist Isaac Newton said that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

After weeks of protests across America spearheaded by Black Lives Matter, we may be now seeing more of that opposite reaction. And it ain’t pretty.

Days after a man in Wisconsin was spotted brazenly walking his dog in Ku Klux Klan robes, there is a new sign of trouble.

Authorities are now investigating after a teen in Virginia who organized a local Black Lives Matter protest found a burning cross in his yard.

An “intense fire” emanating from a barrel was spotted early Sunday in front of a home in Marion, where officers responded, put out the blaze and found wood that “appeared to be in the shape of a cross,” Marion police said Monday.

The barrel was found outside the home of 17-year-old Travon Brown, who helped organize a rally Saturday against racial injustice and police brutality in his town.

Brown’s mother, Bridgette Thomas, told the Bristol Herald Courier she thought her house was on fire when she spotted the blaze.

“It was so scary, my daughter was in there,” Thomas said of her 16-year-old.

The cross was made from two large sticks, Thomas said.

“It was scary, though, and then to find out it was a cross,” she told the newspaper. “It made me feel some type of way because it was so close to my house. My house could have caught on fire.”

Marion police are now coordinating with federal authorities and the Smyth County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a “full and thorough” investigation, Police Chief John Clair said.

“The town of Marion Police Department is absolutely committed to ensuring that people of color in our community are safe,” Clair said in a statement.

Virginia law bars cross-burning in public spaces or on another person’s property. Anyone found guilty of doing so can be sentenced to five years in prison or receive up to a $2,500 fine.

However, Brown remains unbowed by the apparent efforts to intimidate him.  

“The scaring tactic didn’t work,” he told local network WJHL. “It only made me stronger.”

Brown had also recently attended a rally in Johnson City, Tennessee, to protest racial injustice prior to Sunday’s early morning discovery outside his home. He has vowed to keep “planning more things” despite the harrowing incident.

“Thank you to everyone who continues to support this powerful movement,” Brown told WJHL statement Monday. “We are safe. The FBI and Marion PD are working together to find out who did this … Black lives matter and justice shall prevail. Stay safe!”