A man in Harrisonburg, Virginia was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly writing “In Satan We Trust” on multiple police cars.

After an investigation and review of surveillance footage, police said 45-year-old Christopher Parlette was identified as the suspect and he was taken into custody. Parlette is charged with one count of felony property damage and is being held without bond at Rockingham County Regional Jail.

It’s not clear what his motivation was, or if Parlette has any affiliation with Satanism, or if he’s just trolling in the dumbest possible way. But The Satanic Temple’s Lucien Greaves condemned the move all the same in an email to me.

He also pointed out that all the people complaining about this graffiti should have similar reactions when seeing “In God We Trust” on police cars.

It’s regrettable any time anybody decides to force their religious message on others, regardless of the religion. Similar vandals have actually been pursuing legislation all across the United States aiming to graffiti police cars and public buildings with ‘In God We Trust.’ It’s bad enough when somebody scrawls their unwanted, anti-pluralistic message on the sides of police cars in marker, but it’s a whole new level of offensive when they attempt to change the laws to allow for it, and expend public resources to execute it. If only they all met with similar public condemnation.

Well put. You don’t have to tolerate vandalism to wonder what the public reaction would be if the graffiti said “In God We Trust.” Would people be okay with it? Would they want it wiped off? Whatever the response, plenty of police department are putting that slogan on vehicles without a second of debate. They shouldn’t be doing that either.

