A Woman Was Arrested for Burning a Pride Flag Outside a Manhattan Restaurant

A woman has been arrested after allegedly lighting a Pride flag on fire outside a Manhattan restaurant. 

Thirty-year-old Angelina Cando was arrested Tuesday on charges of arson, criminal mischief, and reckless endangerment, each of them as hate crimes, according to ABC 7. The arrest took place one day after a Pride flag printed with the phrase “Make America Gay Again” was lit on fire outside Little Prince, a French restaurant in SoHo. Surveillance footage posted to Twitter by New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher shows a woman getting out of a white SUV, setting fire to the flag, and driving off. Apartments above the restaurant were temporarily evacuated. 

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

While no one was injured in the incident, the fire did lead to cracked windows and external damage, according to ABC 7. The following morning, Bottcher hung a new flag outside Little Prince. “I wanna note that this flag is five times the size of the original flag, so the person who did this, their plan has backfired, and backfired badly,” Bottcher said. 

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

On Wednesday during court proceedings, Cando was accused of several other acts of vandalism, including writing, “Jesus,” “J&A,” and “suck dick” in a subway station, and writing “Jesus is King” on two NYPD cars, according to the New York Post. She had previously been charged in January for “obstructing the breathing of another person,” as well as for throwing multiple objects at the person. Earlier in February, she was charged for allegedly threatening employees of a pizza shop with a knife. 

This is only the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community in New York City. In December last year, Bottcher himself was subject to harassment and vandalization after posting a video of himself at a protest outside a Drag Queen Story Hour in Chelsea, intending to “show the face of hate.” Protestors later banged on the door of his office and vandalized the hallway, and even went so far as to write threatening messages in chalk outside his apartment building, including “Erik Boccher [sic] is a pedo child groomer.” 

Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s weekly newsletter here.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEpmWuq1%2BowbC%2B2Ginq6GUmnqnuMCgZJutoqO2r7OMppinoJGpwaK6jKucrKyRqr%2BiutNmo6KspKGybrzRoqWcnQ%3D%3D