The feds are joining in on the investigation over a Massachusetts nativity scene that was vandalized on Christmas morning and will possibly treat the incident as a hate crime. The holiday season in America is always defiled by various and sundry douchebags who have zero respect for tradition or the religious belief of others and this incident is particularly egregious and gruesome. Residents in Haverhill were shocked to discover that vandals had stolen the baby Jesus statue from the nativity scene at the Sacred Hearts Church and replaced it with a severed pig’s head.

As reported by Boston television station WCVB 5 in a story entitled “Jesus statue stolen, replaced with real pig’s head in Haverhill”:

Haverhill police said the theft of a Jesus and replacing it with a severed pig’s head may be treated as a hate crime.

Police said a Jesus statue was stolen from a Nativity scene in front of Sacred Hearts Church on South Main Street and replaced with a real pig’s head. The discovery was made early Christmas morning.

The FBI is now assisting the Haverhill Police Department with the investigation and said the statue was stolen sometime after midnight mass ended at 1:30 a.m., and before volunteers returned at 5:30 a.m. Christmas morning.

On Friday police said they were looking to the public for help in finding whomever is responsible for the vandalism.

“We’re also asking for the assistance of any local farms, any butcher shops if they have sold any whole pigs,” Detective Robert Pistone said.

Pistone said the head appeared to have been chopped off recently and was also covered in hair, which is unlike what you would see in a butcher shop.

Just after 11 a.m., a plastic bag with traces of blood in it was found at Sacred Heart Church, which may be connected to the crime.

The Jesus figurine was also stolen from the Nativity scene on Greenfield Town Common, likely before dawn on Christmas Eve.

“If our investigation leads us to think this person was motivated by prejudice towards a religion, it will be treated as a hate crime,” Pistone said.

While the act is wretched and vile on every level – especially on Christmas – it is a dangerous precedent where such a thing can be treated as a “hate crime” and the federal government brought in on a local matter. CNN reports that the FBI is now on the case and once the camel gets a nose under the tent in the determination of what is in effect another class of crime entirely then it could have unforeseen consequences that can evolve to threaten free speech itself.

Whether the vandalism in Haverhill meets that threshold has yet to be determined but when the feds begin assigning intent to such acts we are on the brink of a war on thought crime in the U.S.A.  Liberals and the politically correct Nazis love accusing religious organizations of hate speech because their belief system does not permit them to accept homosexuality and it doesn’t stop there. In today’s roiling cauldron of racial politics and heading into yet another election cycle, it will be conservatives who will be targeted with increasing frequency. Just watch.

A sick and unfortunate story but federal intervention will only make things worse.