County grants $900k to help bolster security for houses of worship, community spaces at risk of hate crimes

Every day when Rev. Walter Sadler is about to leave work at Southern Bethany Baptist Church in Burtonsville, he looks out the front window to make sure nobody is lurking in the parking lot before he heads out to his car. After facing vandalism, theft of a van, and threats targeted at the historically Black church over the past few years, he and his parishioners don’t always feel safe. They lock the doors immediately after services, and he won’t let parishioners put up a “Black Lives Matter” sign in the church yard because he’s concerned it could make the congregation a target.