A Black Lives Matter protest in New York has garnered national attention after churchgoers were blocked from entering their own building, and cursed, hit and beaten on a recent Sunday morning.
The chaotic scene outside Grace Baptist Church, located in Troy, went viral on social media about videos showed BLM members yelling at and pushing church members and, in a separate video, disrupting the church service itself and cursing at parishoners.
John Koetas, the church pastor, tells OneNewsNow the far-left group was protesting a gun giveaway to members who attended the service.
“They stayed outside the entire time on that Sunday morning into the afternoon, demonstrating, chanting, protesting, blocking the entrance,” Koetas recalls. “One of the church members went out to get someone to come in and they took him, put him in a headlock, kicked him, punched him.”
The viral videos posted to social media helped spread news of the confrontation, and news outlets such as The Daily Wire uploaded the videos and described the dangerous, profanity-filled confrontations outside the church. A BLM protester tells a church member, “[Expletive] you!” after being told Jesus loves her, and a black woman is screamed at by a black female protester who says, “You should be ashamed, sister.”
The Daily Wire story backs up the pastor’s allegation of violence: In one video, a church member is physically assaulted by the group while attempting to enter the church but is rescued by church members.
Daily Wire also reports it appears Koletas was attacked by the group at some point since one protester is heard taunting him, “How’s your head feel, Pastor?”
Koletas says Troy police officers eventually showed up but he insists they did nothing to stop the violence.
“When our church members were coming to church,” he says, “they were turned away by the Troy PD, saying that it might not be a good day because of the protests.”
One video posted to Twitter by Grace Baptist, which can be seen here, shows three police officers watching a crowd of about 50 protesters angrily yelling outside the church.
“This is what democracy looks like!” a protester chants into a bullhorn.
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