Santa Barbara Mission Vandalized with Red Paint

Genecide is not a word you dumb cluck taggers.

Powerful people taking land from less powerful people has been the history of the entire human race since paleolithic times. Right or wrong, it's what we humans do.

All cultures were savages back then. Not just European’s/Spaniard’s. They just were the most successful in the worldly land grabs of that era. White people today have nothing today have nothing to do with what happened back then. Get over it. There’s no excuse for vandalism. The molestastion stuff is a whole different thing. If the guy who did this was a victim of molestation. I feel bad for him.

The pope says hell don't exist the catholic church is evil maybe that is the real hell I bet some people who were once children would not argue that point.

All land (property) is theft. This is what many seem to be saying here. There has been almost no unoccupied land for thousands of years (Antarctica excepted). Still the aboriginal peoples of this area were in possession of the area before the Europeans came in and took it over. And the Catholic Church was the instrumentality by which the Europeans imposed their ways on the these people. God told them to do it, the king and queens told them they would be allowed to do it with the might of armies behind them. No one should pretend that the occupation of these lands by the Spanish was even negotiated (like the alleged deal between the Dutch and east coast native people). While it is also true that mere being here first is not really a better claim to the land it is at least enough to claim a place on that land that is not dependent on the malicious religious demands of the Spanish army. Moving on to the temporary control by Mexico is not much of an issue. Mexico did try and tamper down the religious abuses but could not really reach out to California from so far away as Mexico City and so Mexico was taken by other Europeans for their exploitations. No one really thought twice about the first peoples here. And this is pretty much where we are today. So yeah, exalting the missions is like exalting something pretty evil from the perspective of those subjected to the demands made on them by the occupants of these missions.

I posted a "Thank-you" to several well-informed responders, but it never showed-up... So, THANK-YOU to those few who genuinely understand.

“BTW the Catholics did not steal California from the Chumash. Spain claimed it from the Chumash (1542) and then Mexico took it from Spain (1821) and then the US took it from Mexico (1848).” The Catholic church cannot be so easily extricated from history by pointing to political authorities. The Spanish Franciscans, Catholics, raised the cross in 1782 and founded the mission in 1786. Mexico took California from Spain, but the Franciscan in 1822, and in Franciscans, Catholics, continued to operate the mission for another dozen years before it was secularized. Because secularized resulting in general deterioration of the SB mission and others, the Mission was returned to the Franciscans, Catholics. Shortly thereafter, the Mexican Governor confiscated the lands and sold the mission. The Franciscans, Catholics, at Santa Barbara continued to conduct services in the church for twenty years, when it was then returned to the Catholic church once again. The Franciscans and Catholic church are the only common thread from 1782 to present.

the Church didn't steal the lands, supposedly they planned to keep the land for the Chumash when they learned to farm or whatever. The point is, the Mexican government not only took the Missions from the priests but gave land grants to friends, that's where ownership of the property went.

If you sit around and justify vandalism with some rationale of street justice or vigilantism then you can justify any crime. All you will get is more crime. Talk to any criminal. They all have a compelling rationale for why stealing, raping, and murder were justified. Crime is crime. Crime is crime and perpetrators should be arrested and tried. BTW the Catholics did not steal California from the Chumash. Spain claimed it from the Chumash (1542) and then Mexico took it from Spain (1821) and then the US took it from Mexico (1848).

Thank-you Roger, Thank-you sbobserver for your words.

It IS time for everyone to get over what happened hundreds of years ago. Yeah, the land was stolen from the Native Americans. But this is true in EVERY SINGLE CITY in our country (as well as most other countries). Land "ownership" is fluid. Someone always "owned" it before the people living there now. In the case of indigenous peoples, all land around the world was somehow taken, cheated, stolen, or even purchased, from the original "owners." Does that mean we should raze and destroy all modern cities and give them back to the living descendants of those peoples who were wronged, in some cases thousands of years ago? What the Spanish did to the Native people of this area was terrible and wrong, that is not in dispute, but, the past is done. No amount of red paint and illiterate scrawling will change that.

Maybe the Catholics ought to give the Mission and all properties to the Chumash after all their Labor built it...Don't tell me that two wrongs don't make a right bull manure I cannot find out who made that saying up by GOOGLE but it did say it's a proverb so maybe it came from the very people who make excuses to violate others..One wrong isn't supposed to make a right but this so called proverb says two wrongs pretty soon it's going to be a Thousand wrongs don't make a right...Where did crime began in the history of this world? Who was the first person to break the law? Was it because someone wanted something they could not afford? Or was it a Payback? The Bible tells us Cain and Abel brother killing brother, or Eve taking the apple from a tree but it's hard to believe a book that justifies crime toward others. I heard not so long ago that Pope Francis said There was no Hell it did not exist, but I saw something the other day he blamed the Devil for which is it? Don't tell me I can see for myself.

you know who built the big hotel down at the end of state street? modern slave labor.

Do you know who built that mission? Chumash slave labor.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Yes, the Spaniards took the land; yes, children were molested by priests. But that still doesn't justify vandalizing any building. If you're unhappy about something in our society, find a pro-social way to combat it. Some suggestions, just for starters: volunteer for or donate to non-profits; exercise your right to vote.

This is sad. Such a lovely old building which has brought much joy over the years to visitors, church-goers, wedding parties, photographers, festival goers, etc. Yes, the Catholic Church brought untold misery and death to many native peoples. There is no excusing the criminal acts committed in the name of "progress." What's done cannot be undone. For someone to come along centuries after the fact and deface this magnificent edifice is ignorant and wrong. Shame on the idiots who did this. I hope someone witnessed this desecration and comes forward to help identify the perpetrators.

It's Columbus Day. That's probably what motivated the wording.

Drove by on the way home, the cleanup has already begun.

Sounds like something a criminal would say.."Get over it" Like many who excuse the molestation of children within the catholic church people who have never suffered say those words in the sense of being under the power of those who torture others through molestation and rape it is not fun and people just don't get over it without taking other lives.

Stolen land? This land belonged to the Chumash. We took it.

The spelling is incorrect on purpose. Activists are rarely uneducated...often they are failures at something important to them.