|
xxxxxA Brotherhood jailbreak intended to free Thea after her arrest following the bombing of City Hall ended up liberating every mutant imprisoned in the special mutant wing at Sing Sing. The following month, the police were attempting to apprehend a young woman who had escaped during the jailbreak. The Mutant Mongrels Motorcycle Club, a mutant motorcycle gang, came to the young woman's aid. The ensuing confrontation with the police ended with one of the MMMC and several police dead; the fugitive woman and the MMMC members remaining took harbour in a nearby Catholic church.
xxxxxThe young woman involved in the original chase was a mutant whose imprisonment to begin with had been on rather specious grounds, largely a case of being in the wrong place while mutant; from the news reports, there was very little by way of grounds to arrest her in the first place but the heavily anti-mutant biased justice system was unlikely to treat the case impartially. The pastor of the church in question, long committed to social justice, willingly sheltered the mutants.
xxxxxWith the NYPD only recently recovering from the massive PR hit following the exposure of their mutant fighting ring, the police were loathe to just violently invade the church immediately, fearing the repercussions if NYPD officers were seen throwing little old ladies out of church. As a result, police response was slow, and in the intervening time, other unrelated mutants -- some just homeless with no other place to go but overwhelmingly fugitives themselves, often genuinely criminal though equally often with little by way of crimes past being mutant in the wrong place at the wrong time -- made their way to the church to take shelter in it as well. With a growing population of mutant fugitives holed up in the church, community reaction was divided, many very much not wanting a home for mutant criminals in their neighborhoods but many in the congregation and the immediate neighborhood stepping forward to offer help.
xxxxxThe situation did not last. Eventually HAMMER was called in to deal with the problem. The raid on the church was heavily publicized, a battle between mutants and law enforcement though despite the rather eye-catching explosiveness there were no further fatalities. The church, however, sustained heavy damage and has yet to reopen.
|
|
- St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church located in Harlem was the church in question. Its namesake, St. Marten de Porres, is the patron saint of social justice and race relations, as well as the unoffically adopted (but likely to be made official) patron saint of mutants.
- St. Martin's pastor, Msgr. Marcelino Flores, has been heavily involved in social justice causes for a long while. His congregation has always been a welcoming place for mutants and still is, even if they are currently holding Masses in a temporary location while the church is being rebuilt.
- Ion and Jackson are current parishioners of the congregation.
- Cage and Malthus were the only actual arrestees during the final raid; the actual fugitives escaped through underground tunnels.
|
|
