Now, I know the church has to be burning a ton of money. That lot is almost always empty, even on Sundays (when it is marginally more full, but none of those people Paid!) and the barricades have broken down repeatedly. They must have spent hundred of thousands to install this system, they're almost certainly paying a monthly fee of multiple thousands to operate it, they're not making that money back, and now they're paying property tax on the land (or not! I'll be eagerly watching their property tax returns and pushing for auction if they're late.)

They've burned the last bit of goodwill they had in the community.

There are Dozens of claims against the pastor and his family and other prominent members of the church ranging from domestic violence to abandoning adopted children to... The kinds of things that pastors and youth pastors are usually accused of. I am not going to spell any of these out, or name anyone specifically, because I don't have evidence. I have "everyone knows" kind of rumors, and some comments from the children of a few prominent members of the church who have since escaped.

So what I will say is that "everyone knows" these people have perpetrated acts of harm against their community prior to this latest volley that I can only assume was designed to drive out the invaders (that is to say the tourists and recently arrived permanent residents that now outnumber the biggoted old locals 3 or 4 to one.