This video was reposted by Minutemen terrorist "thecockroachshooter" on August 03, 2007 after he decided to take the video down to remove/edit out certain lines that were said during the video.
Luckily Edzul was fortunate enough to have intercepted the original unedited version of the Minutemen shooting at Mexicans video. A major kudos goes out to Edzul!
For a look at what Edzul managed to intercept click here.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
San Diego Minutemen Linked to White Supremacists
by David Holthouse on August 7, 2007
Source: SPLCenter
San Diego’s KPBS-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate, aired a story Aug. 2 detailing the links between the white supremacist activities of two high-profile supporters of the San Diego Minutemen, a nativist extremist group whose bellicose tactics and internal feuding are detailed in the current issue of the Intelligence Report.
The KPBS story revealed that San Diego Minutemen activist Ray Carney worked for 11 years as a computer expert for White Aryan Resistance, a neo-Nazi hate group lead by Tom Metzger. The story also quotes Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok describing the white supremacist tattoos and symbols featured on a MySpace page belonging to Steven Shine, another frequent participant in San Diego Minutemen protests.
Our favorite moment in the KPBS story has Shine being interviewed by the station’s reporter “while restraining a pit-bull at a north county canyon where local Minutemen rallied to evict migrants from outdoor camps.”
Shine took down his MySpace page shortly after the Intelligence Report story came out. But we captured it for our archives before it vanished.
Source: SPLCenter
San Diego’s KPBS-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate, aired a story Aug. 2 detailing the links between the white supremacist activities of two high-profile supporters of the San Diego Minutemen, a nativist extremist group whose bellicose tactics and internal feuding are detailed in the current issue of the Intelligence Report.
The KPBS story revealed that San Diego Minutemen activist Ray Carney worked for 11 years as a computer expert for White Aryan Resistance, a neo-Nazi hate group lead by Tom Metzger. The story also quotes Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok describing the white supremacist tattoos and symbols featured on a MySpace page belonging to Steven Shine, another frequent participant in San Diego Minutemen protests.
Our favorite moment in the KPBS story has Shine being interviewed by the station’s reporter “while restraining a pit-bull at a north county canyon where local Minutemen rallied to evict migrants from outdoor camps.”
Shine took down his MySpace page shortly after the Intelligence Report story came out. But we captured it for our archives before it vanished.
Let’s stop racism
Our Opinion
Courier Editorial Board
How ashamed many of us were this week to discover that actions from someone in our city caused a family to not move here.
We don’t know the family from Chicago — a mom and dad and three kids — but when they first came to visit, they liked what they saw and put a bid on a house on Chester Avenue.
They were dismayed the next day to find the letters “KKK” smeared on the side of a garage wall on their property. They decided not to move here. And decided not to move to Iowa.
While agreeing that there probably are many nice people in Ottumwa, the mother said she didn’t want to risk moving into a neighborhood where her children may be exposed to that type of racism.
Most of us want to think that it is a prank, a random act of vandalism.
And many of us are encouraged by city groups that are working hard to rid the city of graffiti, weedy and junky areas.
A messy lot, though, is different than deliberate vandalism — the kind of hatred exposed by this week’s graffiti.
The Chicago family was black. The letters spray-painted on the building walls had a definite racial tone that would upset anyone, especially blacks. The “KKK” is typically an acronym for the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan.
We are very ashamed that this happened.
It is not a small thing to overlook. It doesn’t matter if kids did it, vandals did it or neighbors did it.
The fact is that it was done, and we lost new citizens because of it.
All of us need to work to stop this kind of action and this kind of attitude.
Our community is thriving because of the mix of cultures we’ve been adding to the town for decades now, from the Southeast Asians of 30 years ago to the recent influx of citizens from Mexico, Central America and other nations.
As one blogger wrote, “It isn’t OK to have even ‘a little racism’ in town.” As a white male, he said that he would think twice before moving to a property that had “Kill Whitey” spray-painted on a garage.
Was this one incident? Maybe. If so, it is one too many.
Our community cannot afford more black eyes. Not now, not when we have so many good things going for us.
If you see such actions taking place, please report them immediately to law enforcement. We all need to work together to protect our homes, our neighborhoods and our city.
There are few things worse than racism. We should not tolerate even once instance.
Source: OttumwaCourier
Courier Editorial Board
How ashamed many of us were this week to discover that actions from someone in our city caused a family to not move here.
We don’t know the family from Chicago — a mom and dad and three kids — but when they first came to visit, they liked what they saw and put a bid on a house on Chester Avenue.
They were dismayed the next day to find the letters “KKK” smeared on the side of a garage wall on their property. They decided not to move here. And decided not to move to Iowa.
While agreeing that there probably are many nice people in Ottumwa, the mother said she didn’t want to risk moving into a neighborhood where her children may be exposed to that type of racism.
Most of us want to think that it is a prank, a random act of vandalism.
And many of us are encouraged by city groups that are working hard to rid the city of graffiti, weedy and junky areas.
A messy lot, though, is different than deliberate vandalism — the kind of hatred exposed by this week’s graffiti.
The Chicago family was black. The letters spray-painted on the building walls had a definite racial tone that would upset anyone, especially blacks. The “KKK” is typically an acronym for the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan.
We are very ashamed that this happened.
It is not a small thing to overlook. It doesn’t matter if kids did it, vandals did it or neighbors did it.
The fact is that it was done, and we lost new citizens because of it.
All of us need to work to stop this kind of action and this kind of attitude.
Our community is thriving because of the mix of cultures we’ve been adding to the town for decades now, from the Southeast Asians of 30 years ago to the recent influx of citizens from Mexico, Central America and other nations.
As one blogger wrote, “It isn’t OK to have even ‘a little racism’ in town.” As a white male, he said that he would think twice before moving to a property that had “Kill Whitey” spray-painted on a garage.
Was this one incident? Maybe. If so, it is one too many.
Our community cannot afford more black eyes. Not now, not when we have so many good things going for us.
If you see such actions taking place, please report them immediately to law enforcement. We all need to work together to protect our homes, our neighborhoods and our city.
There are few things worse than racism. We should not tolerate even once instance.
Source: OttumwaCourier
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
LEAKED: VIDEO OF MINUTEMEN CAUGHT SHOOTING AT MEXICANS
by Casey Sanchez on August 10, 2007
Source: SPLCenter
The Mountain Minutemen is one of several armed Minutemen spinoffs now active on the U.S.-Mexico border in the rugged desert between Campo, Calif. and Jacumba, Calif. Crooks has a reputation as a particularly hard-line nativist, and his group is believed to be tiny.
When the camera pans back to the hilltop, the men are gone. “And that’s how you get rid of Mexicans,” the narrator says with a laugh, before concluding with an apology for the shaky camera work. “Sorry folks, it’s kind of hard to shoot a shotgun and a video at the same time.”
In an E-mail to Hatewatch, Crooks (below) said he did not film the video and is not the narrator.
Source: SPLCenter
The Intelligence Report has obtained a chilling video that Robert Crooks, the leader of the nativist extremist group Mountain Minutemen, recently E-mailed to several other prominent nativist leaders, including Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the original Minuteman Project. In the E-mail, Crooks suggests that Gilchrist is a weakling who can “Talk the Talk” but not “Walk the Walk.”
Filmed through a night-vision scope, the four-minute video shows two or three men standing on a hill that appears to be on the Mexican side of the border, beyond a barbed-wire fence. “All right, come on across, motherfuckers,” a man says off camera in a quiet voice. “Yeah, go that way. I dare you to go that way. That’s my fucking trail, bitch!”
Then, after muttering about the distant figures being “cockroaches,” the man shouts out loud, “Hey putos [“faggots”], one, two, three!” Next comes the distinct sound of a shotgun shell being chambered, followed by a sudden flash of light and the sound of a shotgun blast. The direction of the gunfire is unclear.
The Mountain Minutemen is one of several armed Minutemen spinoffs now active on the U.S.-Mexico border in the rugged desert between Campo, Calif. and Jacumba, Calif. Crooks has a reputation as a particularly hard-line nativist, and his group is believed to be tiny.
When the camera pans back to the hilltop, the men are gone. “And that’s how you get rid of Mexicans,” the narrator says with a laugh, before concluding with an apology for the shaky camera work. “Sorry folks, it’s kind of hard to shoot a shotgun and a video at the same time.”
In an E-mail to Hatewatch, Crooks (below) said he did not film the video and is not the narrator.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
State police speak out against hate crimes
BOWERS BEACH, Del. (AP) -
Six state police officials, including Colonel Thomas MacLeish, attended a press conference today at a bridge where racist graffiti was found.
MacLeish says the perpetrators are subject to arrest if they're caught.
The graffiti was discovered by residents of Dover's House of P.R.I.D.E., who were on their way to a fishing trip in Bowers Beach.
State officials called today's news conference to confront hate crimes, which they say are still a problem in Delaware.
House of P.R.I.D.E. Director Marian Harris says black men from the rehabilitation program used to go fishing three or four times a week. But she says only white men have been going fishing since the racist words and illustrations were spotted on the bridge.
Delaware Department of Transportation employees painted over the images and words today after the press conference.
Source: WMDT
Six state police officials, including Colonel Thomas MacLeish, attended a press conference today at a bridge where racist graffiti was found.
MacLeish says the perpetrators are subject to arrest if they're caught.
The graffiti was discovered by residents of Dover's House of P.R.I.D.E., who were on their way to a fishing trip in Bowers Beach.
State officials called today's news conference to confront hate crimes, which they say are still a problem in Delaware.
House of P.R.I.D.E. Director Marian Harris says black men from the rehabilitation program used to go fishing three or four times a week. But she says only white men have been going fishing since the racist words and illustrations were spotted on the bridge.
Delaware Department of Transportation employees painted over the images and words today after the press conference.
Source: WMDT
Man faces battery charge
LEESBURG - A 21-year-old man attacked a man at a traffic light Friday night and used a racial slur when yelling at him, police said.
Justin Gaskins, of Lady Lake, got out of his truck and punched the driver in the car next to him through an open window at U.S. Highway 27 and U.S. Highway 441, Leesburg police Lt. Rob Hicks said.
Gaskins called the victim, 67-year-old Ernest Strozier, who is black, a racial slur and continued to make racist remarks while in police custody, according to an arrest affidavit.
Gaskins was charged with burglary, battery on a person 65 years old or older and resisting arrest.
He was held Tuesday at Lake County Jail with bail set at $35,500.
Martin E. Comas and Katie Fretland contributed to this report.
Source: OrlandoSentinel
Justin Gaskins, of Lady Lake, got out of his truck and punched the driver in the car next to him through an open window at U.S. Highway 27 and U.S. Highway 441, Leesburg police Lt. Rob Hicks said.
Gaskins called the victim, 67-year-old Ernest Strozier, who is black, a racial slur and continued to make racist remarks while in police custody, according to an arrest affidavit.
Gaskins was charged with burglary, battery on a person 65 years old or older and resisting arrest.
He was held Tuesday at Lake County Jail with bail set at $35,500.
Martin E. Comas and Katie Fretland contributed to this report.
Source: OrlandoSentinel
Monday, August 06, 2007
10- and 13-Year-Old Girls Suspected in Vandalism Spree
By: Markham Evans
North Stafford, VA - Stafford County investigators say two girls, aged 10 and thirteen, are suspects after a vandalism spree last week in Spring Lake Farms, a North Stafford subdivision.
Residents awoke the morning of Tuesday, July 31, to find racist and insulting graffiti spray-painted on vehicles. Victims say some of the graffiti was misspelled.
"Yeah, using the 'n-word' was bad enough," said Anthony Brisueno, whose vehicle was targeted. "Then I had a problem with it because it was spelled a different way... it was really a prank."
Neither suspect was identified because of their age. The 13-year-old has been charged with eight offenses and taken to the Rappahannock Regional Juvenile Detention Facility. Investigators say charges are pending against the ten year old.
Source: News8
North Stafford, VA - Stafford County investigators say two girls, aged 10 and thirteen, are suspects after a vandalism spree last week in Spring Lake Farms, a North Stafford subdivision.
Residents awoke the morning of Tuesday, July 31, to find racist and insulting graffiti spray-painted on vehicles. Victims say some of the graffiti was misspelled.
"Yeah, using the 'n-word' was bad enough," said Anthony Brisueno, whose vehicle was targeted. "Then I had a problem with it because it was spelled a different way... it was really a prank."
Neither suspect was identified because of their age. The 13-year-old has been charged with eight offenses and taken to the Rappahannock Regional Juvenile Detention Facility. Investigators say charges are pending against the ten year old.
Source: News8
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Deputy arrested, accused of extorting Mexican motorists
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A La Salle County sheriff's deputy has been accused of extorting Mexican motorists, threatening them with detention if they didn't pay him immediately.
Henry James Jr., 45, was arrested Tuesday on a complaint of extortion under the color of official right. He pleaded not guilty in federal court in Laredo on Wednesday. The case must be presented to a grand jury in the next 30 days.
A motorist stopped on Interstate 35 complained to the sheriff's office that James required him to pay a fine immediately or be detained.
Sheriff Victor Villarreal said in a statement that the department used its GPS technology to document several cases in which James stopped vehicles but didn't call dispatchers. Four motorists complained of being stopped and asked for fines of $120 to $300 from June 30 to July 22. They told authorities they paid James.
Two undercover FBI agents posing as Mexican motorists on July 25 and 28 were stopped by James for disregarding a stop sign on the access road of Interstate 35, according to the criminal complaint.
The agents recorded James telling them that because they were Mexican, they had to pay him $150 or be detained until a judge could see them.
James' arrest follows several other high-profile accusations against South Texas law enforcement officials.
Former La Salle County Sheriff Robbie Thomas and former deputy Joseph Canales were indicted in November on charges of aggravated perjury and tampering with evidence, respectively, for the handling of drugs in an evidence room.
And two veteran Laredo police officers were charged last month with accepting bribes from illegal gambling operations.
Source: The Monitor
Henry James Jr., 45, was arrested Tuesday on a complaint of extortion under the color of official right. He pleaded not guilty in federal court in Laredo on Wednesday. The case must be presented to a grand jury in the next 30 days.
A motorist stopped on Interstate 35 complained to the sheriff's office that James required him to pay a fine immediately or be detained.
Sheriff Victor Villarreal said in a statement that the department used its GPS technology to document several cases in which James stopped vehicles but didn't call dispatchers. Four motorists complained of being stopped and asked for fines of $120 to $300 from June 30 to July 22. They told authorities they paid James.
Two undercover FBI agents posing as Mexican motorists on July 25 and 28 were stopped by James for disregarding a stop sign on the access road of Interstate 35, according to the criminal complaint.
The agents recorded James telling them that because they were Mexican, they had to pay him $150 or be detained until a judge could see them.
James' arrest follows several other high-profile accusations against South Texas law enforcement officials.
Former La Salle County Sheriff Robbie Thomas and former deputy Joseph Canales were indicted in November on charges of aggravated perjury and tampering with evidence, respectively, for the handling of drugs in an evidence room.
And two veteran Laredo police officers were charged last month with accepting bribes from illegal gambling operations.
Source: The Monitor
Romney's Immigration Hypocrisy Highlights GOP Problem with Hispanics: Mitt Flips While the Rest Just Stay Away
Mitt Romney this weekend dusted off his immigration hypocrisy in a blatant effort to smooth talk Hispanic voters into ignoring his anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic rhetoric. After spending months railing against immigrants, demanding English-only education, and complaining that our immigration policies allow too many unskilled laborers into the country, Romney reversed course, praising Hispanics in remarks to the Republican National Hispanic Assembly’s annual convention. As the Associated Press reported, "Despite his harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric on the trail, Romney praised Hispanics as 'quintessentially American,' the former Massachusetts governor said the nation's immigration policy should help open doors for people with such strong beliefs." (Associated Press, 7/22/07)
While Romney used his Republican National Hispanic Assembly remarks to try to trick Hispanics into voting for him despite his anti-immigrant record, none of the other Republican candidates even bothered to show up. This follows the failure of 9 out of the 10 GOP candidates to address the National Association of Latino Elected Officials last month.
As the Republican bash and ignore Hispanics, Hispanic voters are rejecting them. A recent USA Today/Gallup Poll showed that "Hispanics, by nearly 3 to 1, say they're Democrats or lean that way." According to the poll, while only "11% of Hispanics now identify themselves as Republicans, down from 19% in 2005...the proportion who call themselves Democrats has jumped to 42% from 33%." As the poll noted, when including independents who 'lean' toward a specific party, "Democrats lead Republicans among Hispanics 58% to 20%." [USA Today, 6/27/07]
"Smooth talking Mitt Romney may think Hispanics are gullible enough to be tricked into ignoring his anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail, but he and his party are not going to win over Hispanic voters based on their records," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "Republicans like Mitt Romney have made clear the Republican Party just doesn't seem to want Hispanics in their Party or even in the country. Unlike the Republican Party's divisive and meanspirited agenda, Democrats are working on an agenda to fix the GOP's failed and flawed policies on everything from immigration to Iraq to the economy."
Mitt Romney’s Anti-Immigrant Record
Romney Panders to Conservative Base by Opposing Immigration Bill. “The record shows Romney repeatedly has demanded stronger border security. A campaign ad calls for tamper-proof identification cards. And in a debate last week, he said illegal immigrants need to go back to their home country and ''get in line'' before they can become citizens. ‘That's exactly what's on the table. All of those things are part of the immigration package,’ said Marshall Fitz, spokesman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a nonpartisan organization of lawyers and professors. ‘Romney and the other candidates who continue to beat their chests against this legislation are just playing to the conservative base.’” [Miami Herald, 5/25/07]
Romney Called for English Only Education. Just days before he began airing Spanish language ads in Florida promoting his appearance at the Miami Dade Republican Lincoln Day Dinner, Romney went before a right wing audience at CPAC and told them: "You strengthen the American people by...insisting that the children who come legally to this land are taught in English." Romney also said, "There is a wide open walk across the border for those who have neither skills nor education." [Mitt Romney, Remarks to CPAC Conference, 3/2/07]
Bashes Hispanics. In an op-ed in the Miami Herald, a Republican activist pointed out that, in his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, “Romney said, ‘There is a wide open walk across the border for those who have neither skills nor education.’ This is a blatant attack on Hispanics. It is stereotypical, denigrating and wrong.” [Miami Herald, 3/9/07]
Source: Democrats.org
While Romney used his Republican National Hispanic Assembly remarks to try to trick Hispanics into voting for him despite his anti-immigrant record, none of the other Republican candidates even bothered to show up. This follows the failure of 9 out of the 10 GOP candidates to address the National Association of Latino Elected Officials last month.
As the Republican bash and ignore Hispanics, Hispanic voters are rejecting them. A recent USA Today/Gallup Poll showed that "Hispanics, by nearly 3 to 1, say they're Democrats or lean that way." According to the poll, while only "11% of Hispanics now identify themselves as Republicans, down from 19% in 2005...the proportion who call themselves Democrats has jumped to 42% from 33%." As the poll noted, when including independents who 'lean' toward a specific party, "Democrats lead Republicans among Hispanics 58% to 20%." [USA Today, 6/27/07]
"Smooth talking Mitt Romney may think Hispanics are gullible enough to be tricked into ignoring his anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail, but he and his party are not going to win over Hispanic voters based on their records," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "Republicans like Mitt Romney have made clear the Republican Party just doesn't seem to want Hispanics in their Party or even in the country. Unlike the Republican Party's divisive and meanspirited agenda, Democrats are working on an agenda to fix the GOP's failed and flawed policies on everything from immigration to Iraq to the economy."
Mitt Romney’s Anti-Immigrant Record
Romney Panders to Conservative Base by Opposing Immigration Bill. “The record shows Romney repeatedly has demanded stronger border security. A campaign ad calls for tamper-proof identification cards. And in a debate last week, he said illegal immigrants need to go back to their home country and ''get in line'' before they can become citizens. ‘That's exactly what's on the table. All of those things are part of the immigration package,’ said Marshall Fitz, spokesman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a nonpartisan organization of lawyers and professors. ‘Romney and the other candidates who continue to beat their chests against this legislation are just playing to the conservative base.’” [Miami Herald, 5/25/07]
Romney Called for English Only Education. Just days before he began airing Spanish language ads in Florida promoting his appearance at the Miami Dade Republican Lincoln Day Dinner, Romney went before a right wing audience at CPAC and told them: "You strengthen the American people by...insisting that the children who come legally to this land are taught in English." Romney also said, "There is a wide open walk across the border for those who have neither skills nor education." [Mitt Romney, Remarks to CPAC Conference, 3/2/07]
Bashes Hispanics. In an op-ed in the Miami Herald, a Republican activist pointed out that, in his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, “Romney said, ‘There is a wide open walk across the border for those who have neither skills nor education.’ This is a blatant attack on Hispanics. It is stereotypical, denigrating and wrong.” [Miami Herald, 3/9/07]
Source: Democrats.org
Orchard blaze may have been a ‘hate crime'
By Denise Bonura The Record Herald
Flames consume a shed at Knouse Orchards early Saturday morning.
QUINCY - The Saturday blaze at Knouse Orchards on Mentzer Gap Road has been ruled an arson, and officials think it could be a hate crime.
“This is just a theory, but I think they could be targeting the migrant workers,” said Trooper Jeff Sarver, fire marshal with Pennsylvania State Police in Chambersburg. “In another incident around the same time last year, arsonists targeted a building (at Knouse Orchards) where the migrants would sleep.”
Trooper Pat McKenna, the fire marshal in York County, ruled Saturday morning's blaze at Knouse was intentionally set, but Sarver said there are no suspects at this time.
The blaze that began at 2:22 a.m. destroyed a barn that contained wooden crates and orchard equipment. The damage was estimated at $130,000.
“It was (likely) a person passing by (who set the fire), and it was probably lit with matches or a lighter. There was no indication of any gasoline used,” McKenna added.
Sarver said the people who set the fire at the same time last year have not been caught, and he believes they may be responsible for the latest blaze.
“A newer model red truck and three people - a heavy-set white woman and two men - were seen fleeing from the area (Saturday),” he added. “It's just coincidental that the fire occurred in the same place and around the same time two years in a row.”
Sarver said the shed that was destroyed was close to a housing unit the migrant workers use. He said the workers are currently in Florida preparing to come back for the apple-picking season, which runs from the middle of August to October.
Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call Sarver at 264-5161. He said the report will likely be filed with Franklin County Crime Stoppers, and a reward leading to the conviction and arrest of the suspects will be offered.
Recent incidents
Sarver said there have been four fires at Knouse Orchards in the last year. The two were considered arson-related. In July 2006, Sarver said a garage or storage facility for apples was set on fire with some flares. Sometime in 2007, the sleeping quarters for the migrants was set on fire. Sarver did not have the date or details on the 2007 fire.
Milton Knouse, production manager for the Franklin County division of Knouse Fruitlands Inc., could not be reached for comment this morning.
Hate crimes
Nancy Runyan with Fruitbelt Farmworker Christian Ministry based in Gardners said many similar incidents go unreported, and many may think racial and ethnic hate crimes don't occur in this country these days.
“You don't necessarily notice it unless you experience it,” she added. “If you're white, you don't have to deal with it.”
She said the Hispanic population in Adams County has received ill-treatment from many residents. She said she does not know how they have been treated in Franklin County.
“We left Adams County about five years ago because it was so bad,” she said. “I used to work in the schools there, and people there were very prejudiced toward Mexicans.”
“Our house was egged because we worked with the migrants,” she added. “We also adopted two little black boys, and our house was egged every weekend. It was horrible.”
Runyan and her husband, Pastor Roddy Runyan, visit the migrant camps in Franklin, Adams and Cumberland counties and “help them (the workers) with whatever they need.”
She said they provide the workers with sweatshirts, toiletries, blankets, Bible studies and translation at doctor appointments, among other needs.
There are currently 100 migrant farm labor camps in Adams County and only 12 remaining in Franklin County. Four of them are in the Waynesboro area - two on Buttermilk Road, one on Hess Benedict Road and the Knouse Orchard on Mentzer Gap Road in Quincy Township. Pastor Roddy Runyan said the Knouse Orchard is the largest migrant camp in the Waynesboro area. It employs 45 migrants.
The other farm labor camps in Franklin County are located on Letterkenny Road and Scotland Road in Chambersburg, Mountainbrook Road in St. Thomas, Mount Rock Road in Shippensburg and Tanyard Hill Road in Orrstown.
Statistics
In 2004, the FBI reported that 53.8 percent of hate crimes in the U.S. were race-related. According to the report, 51.5 percent of then were committed by people with anti-Hispanic views.
Pennsylvania reported 105 hate crimes in 2004, according to the FBI's report.
Trooper Ed Asbury of Pennsylvania State Police did not return phone calls about Franklin County hate crime statistics.
A 2003 census showed that 1.8 percent of Franklin County's population is Hispanic. Adams County listed a 3.6 percent Hispanic population in 2003. Nancy Runyan said during the height of apple picking, between 7,000 and 10,000 migrant workers flock to Adams, Franklin and Cumberland counties for work. She said most come from Mexico, while others hail from Texas, Haiti and Jamaica.
Source: TheRecordHerald
Flames consume a shed at Knouse Orchards early Saturday morning.
QUINCY - The Saturday blaze at Knouse Orchards on Mentzer Gap Road has been ruled an arson, and officials think it could be a hate crime.
“This is just a theory, but I think they could be targeting the migrant workers,” said Trooper Jeff Sarver, fire marshal with Pennsylvania State Police in Chambersburg. “In another incident around the same time last year, arsonists targeted a building (at Knouse Orchards) where the migrants would sleep.”
Trooper Pat McKenna, the fire marshal in York County, ruled Saturday morning's blaze at Knouse was intentionally set, but Sarver said there are no suspects at this time.
The blaze that began at 2:22 a.m. destroyed a barn that contained wooden crates and orchard equipment. The damage was estimated at $130,000.
“It was (likely) a person passing by (who set the fire), and it was probably lit with matches or a lighter. There was no indication of any gasoline used,” McKenna added.
Sarver said the people who set the fire at the same time last year have not been caught, and he believes they may be responsible for the latest blaze.
“A newer model red truck and three people - a heavy-set white woman and two men - were seen fleeing from the area (Saturday),” he added. “It's just coincidental that the fire occurred in the same place and around the same time two years in a row.”
Sarver said the shed that was destroyed was close to a housing unit the migrant workers use. He said the workers are currently in Florida preparing to come back for the apple-picking season, which runs from the middle of August to October.
Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call Sarver at 264-5161. He said the report will likely be filed with Franklin County Crime Stoppers, and a reward leading to the conviction and arrest of the suspects will be offered.
Recent incidents
Sarver said there have been four fires at Knouse Orchards in the last year. The two were considered arson-related. In July 2006, Sarver said a garage or storage facility for apples was set on fire with some flares. Sometime in 2007, the sleeping quarters for the migrants was set on fire. Sarver did not have the date or details on the 2007 fire.
Milton Knouse, production manager for the Franklin County division of Knouse Fruitlands Inc., could not be reached for comment this morning.
Hate crimes
Nancy Runyan with Fruitbelt Farmworker Christian Ministry based in Gardners said many similar incidents go unreported, and many may think racial and ethnic hate crimes don't occur in this country these days.
“You don't necessarily notice it unless you experience it,” she added. “If you're white, you don't have to deal with it.”
She said the Hispanic population in Adams County has received ill-treatment from many residents. She said she does not know how they have been treated in Franklin County.
“We left Adams County about five years ago because it was so bad,” she said. “I used to work in the schools there, and people there were very prejudiced toward Mexicans.”
“Our house was egged because we worked with the migrants,” she added. “We also adopted two little black boys, and our house was egged every weekend. It was horrible.”
Runyan and her husband, Pastor Roddy Runyan, visit the migrant camps in Franklin, Adams and Cumberland counties and “help them (the workers) with whatever they need.”
She said they provide the workers with sweatshirts, toiletries, blankets, Bible studies and translation at doctor appointments, among other needs.
There are currently 100 migrant farm labor camps in Adams County and only 12 remaining in Franklin County. Four of them are in the Waynesboro area - two on Buttermilk Road, one on Hess Benedict Road and the Knouse Orchard on Mentzer Gap Road in Quincy Township. Pastor Roddy Runyan said the Knouse Orchard is the largest migrant camp in the Waynesboro area. It employs 45 migrants.
The other farm labor camps in Franklin County are located on Letterkenny Road and Scotland Road in Chambersburg, Mountainbrook Road in St. Thomas, Mount Rock Road in Shippensburg and Tanyard Hill Road in Orrstown.
Statistics
In 2004, the FBI reported that 53.8 percent of hate crimes in the U.S. were race-related. According to the report, 51.5 percent of then were committed by people with anti-Hispanic views.
Pennsylvania reported 105 hate crimes in 2004, according to the FBI's report.
Trooper Ed Asbury of Pennsylvania State Police did not return phone calls about Franklin County hate crime statistics.
A 2003 census showed that 1.8 percent of Franklin County's population is Hispanic. Adams County listed a 3.6 percent Hispanic population in 2003. Nancy Runyan said during the height of apple picking, between 7,000 and 10,000 migrant workers flock to Adams, Franklin and Cumberland counties for work. She said most come from Mexico, while others hail from Texas, Haiti and Jamaica.
Source: TheRecordHerald
Hate crimes in Longview?
By Thacher Schmid
Jul 31, 2007 - 11:49:24 pm PDT
Photo by Roger Werth
Armando Vazquez and Linda Miller Vazquez stand by the front gate of their Highlands home, displaying a bandana which contains both U.S. and Mexican flags. Before July 22's vandalism, the front of their home displayed both U.S. and Mexican flags.
Sometime early on the morning of July 22, someone crept up to the Highlands-area home of Armando Vazquez and tore down and stole his Mexican flag, along with the pole.
An American flag posted on the house was untouched.
The theft and vandalism is one of two crimes against Latinos that took place within an hour of each other that weekend. The other was an assault involving three white men who allegedly beat two Latino men in the 700 block of Tennant Way at 11:30 p.m. July 21.
Although Longview police do not believe the two incidents are related, they are treating the assault as an anti-Hispanic hate crime and are considering the flag theft a possible hate crime.
At the very least, the flag theft robbed Vazquez of some of his peace of mind.
"It's scary because you are sleeping and you never know who going to be coming in your house," he said.
Longview police caution that the flag incident shouldn't be blown out of proportion.
"The only racially motivated factor was that it was a Mexican flag," Longview police Detective Sgt. Mike Hallowell said. "That's the only indication; there was no other vandalism to indicate it was racially motivated."
"There is no way to know if this is really a hate crime," said Detective Doug Kazensky. "I would caution people against making that leap."
Still, Victoria Horman, 44, said she witnessed the crime and insists the person picked on Vazquez because he is Latino.
"I think it was a racial thing, I really do," said Horman, who lives next to Vazquez in the 200 block of 27th Avenue.
Horman, a Caucasian, said she heard a noise around 12:30 a.m. that Sunday and looked out her window to see a young "white boy" carrying a stick or pole, walking quickly toward the Vazquez home. Horman said he was probably about 21 years of age, tall and thin and dressed in baseball clothing, including cap, cleats and jacket.
He opened the gate, she said, and walked up to the front of the Vazquez home, where she couldn't see him from her window. She heard a "big old bang," then the perpetrator ran away. She didn't notice him carrying the flag.
"He knew what he was going there for, and why," Horman said. "It wasn't random."
The original police report, by officer Deborah Johnson, listed the crime as a "possible anti-Hispanic hate crime."
Horman was not initially interviewed by Longview police even though Vazquez said he told police Horman witnessed the crime. Tuesday, Horman said an officer was at her home interviewing her, after a reporter told police details of Horman's statement.
Humble roots, north and south
Vazquez, 43, and wife of three years, Linda Vazquez, 53, met at Community House on Broadway, the Longview homeless shelter, about five years ago. They've come a long way since then, but they're no strangers to adversity -- including previous burglaries.
Armando Vazquez is a Mexican citizen with a work permit or green card. He says he plans to apply for U.S. citizenship. Linda Vazquez is a Canadian-born U.S. citizen. They're paying a mortgage on a humble home -- with five decorous sombreros hanging on the wall -- mostly on what Armando Vazquez makes painting and as a handyman.
During one past break-in, Vazquez said, the perpetrator dumped all his fish food into the tank, killing 15 fish. A musician who has drums and other instruments, he was once visited by police responding to a noise complaint, but sees 27th Avenue as a friendly community, and tries to be the proverbial good neighbor.
"They need some help, I don't say no," he said, smiling.
Vazquez said he has been targeted for his heritage before, about three months ago by the Safeway on Ocean Beach.
"I hear some people before say 'wetback, go back to Mexico,' " Vazquez said. "I stopped and I say, 'Did you see me cross the river?' He said, 'No.'
"I say, 'If you weren't on the other side of the river with a towel to dry my back, then I don't got a wet back,' " Vazquez said. "I live here. I work here. I stay here."
The flagpole taken from Vazquez's home was made of PVC tubing and, like the wooden U.S. flagpole on the other side of the front door, attached to the house with nails and duct tape. Vazquez said he now wants to buy a 15-foot metal pole for his yard and fly both U.S. and Mexican flags.
"He going to have to bring a ladder in the middle of the night," he said of potential future vandals. Linda Vazquez said she's probably going to add a Canadian flag, as well.
Vazquez said he would never fly Mexico's tricolor above the Stars and Stripes.
"I don't like to put only Mexican flag there on the top -- I put always, both," Vazquez said.
While there are different interpretations of international flag protocol, it's generally accepted that the flags of two or more nations during peacetime should be flown on separate flagpoles, with the home nation at least as high as the other nations, according to the National Flag Foundation and other Web sites. Vazquez's display appeared to meet the criteria.
Police believe assault was a hate crime
In the July 21 assault, the two victims were Latino and the suspects used language that would indicate this was a hate crime, Longview police said. One of the victims was punched in the face and was struck with a baseball bat.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. July 21, Longview police responded to a fight in progress near Speedy Mart, 704 Tennant Way. A witness told dispatchers three white men were fighting with a Hispanic man, dragging him toward Seventh Avenue while another Hispanic man tried to intervene. The witness said there was a bat or some kind of stick involved in the fight. The three white men left the scene on foot in the direction of the Quality Inn before officers arrived.
Officer Mike Berndt said when he drove up, he saw three men who ran through a field when they saw his car. He said two of them wore blue jeans and boots and had shaved heads. One wore a white sleeveless T-shirt and the other wore a black jacket over a white shirt.
Police arrested the man in the black jacket, Chance Lynn Smith, 22, of Longview. Victims identified him as being one of the suspects in the assault. He was booked into jail but has been released pending further investigation. The other two suspects have not been apprehended.
Anyone with information that can help detectives with the investigation is encouraged to call 442-5800 and ask for Detective Sgt. Mike Hallowell or Detective Terry Reece.
A wider trend?
Racially motivated assaults and thefts are less common in the local area than vandalism. A mixed-race Kelso couple was targeted with racist vandalism on Sept. 27, 2005, when someone spray-painted racist slurs on their back door, cut the phone line and threw three large rocks through their window.
Police said recent crimes that included an ethnic or racial component tended to be minor vandalism, such as spray-painted swastikas, or brochures with white power slogans. Gang graffiti is not uncommon.
The federal Department of Justice's Web site defines a hate crime as "intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability. The purveyors of hate use explosives, arson, weapons, vandalism, physical violence, and verbal threats of violence to instill fear in their victims."
Courtney Langner, director of the Ethnic Support Council, said she's heard reports of "a lot of tagging, graffiti, broken windows, more vandalism" with anti-Hispanic implications during her two years at the council.
"I think it's significant and I think it's telling," Langner said of the flag incident. "No person was harmed, but I think it's an expression of general sentiment, and if it is an expression of general sentiment, then it's still disappointing."
"We do have a population that believes it's okay to do these things," said Woodland mayor and Longview police officer Doug Monge, who is Latino. "This one, to me, didn't rise to the level it's being elevated to."
Reporter Leslie Slape contributed to this story.
Source: The Daily News Online
Jul 31, 2007 - 11:49:24 pm PDT
Photo by Roger Werth
Armando Vazquez and Linda Miller Vazquez stand by the front gate of their Highlands home, displaying a bandana which contains both U.S. and Mexican flags. Before July 22's vandalism, the front of their home displayed both U.S. and Mexican flags.
Sometime early on the morning of July 22, someone crept up to the Highlands-area home of Armando Vazquez and tore down and stole his Mexican flag, along with the pole.
An American flag posted on the house was untouched.
The theft and vandalism is one of two crimes against Latinos that took place within an hour of each other that weekend. The other was an assault involving three white men who allegedly beat two Latino men in the 700 block of Tennant Way at 11:30 p.m. July 21.
Although Longview police do not believe the two incidents are related, they are treating the assault as an anti-Hispanic hate crime and are considering the flag theft a possible hate crime.
At the very least, the flag theft robbed Vazquez of some of his peace of mind.
"It's scary because you are sleeping and you never know who going to be coming in your house," he said.
Longview police caution that the flag incident shouldn't be blown out of proportion.
"The only racially motivated factor was that it was a Mexican flag," Longview police Detective Sgt. Mike Hallowell said. "That's the only indication; there was no other vandalism to indicate it was racially motivated."
"There is no way to know if this is really a hate crime," said Detective Doug Kazensky. "I would caution people against making that leap."
Still, Victoria Horman, 44, said she witnessed the crime and insists the person picked on Vazquez because he is Latino.
"I think it was a racial thing, I really do," said Horman, who lives next to Vazquez in the 200 block of 27th Avenue.
Horman, a Caucasian, said she heard a noise around 12:30 a.m. that Sunday and looked out her window to see a young "white boy" carrying a stick or pole, walking quickly toward the Vazquez home. Horman said he was probably about 21 years of age, tall and thin and dressed in baseball clothing, including cap, cleats and jacket.
He opened the gate, she said, and walked up to the front of the Vazquez home, where she couldn't see him from her window. She heard a "big old bang," then the perpetrator ran away. She didn't notice him carrying the flag.
"He knew what he was going there for, and why," Horman said. "It wasn't random."
The original police report, by officer Deborah Johnson, listed the crime as a "possible anti-Hispanic hate crime."
Horman was not initially interviewed by Longview police even though Vazquez said he told police Horman witnessed the crime. Tuesday, Horman said an officer was at her home interviewing her, after a reporter told police details of Horman's statement.
Humble roots, north and south
Vazquez, 43, and wife of three years, Linda Vazquez, 53, met at Community House on Broadway, the Longview homeless shelter, about five years ago. They've come a long way since then, but they're no strangers to adversity -- including previous burglaries.
Armando Vazquez is a Mexican citizen with a work permit or green card. He says he plans to apply for U.S. citizenship. Linda Vazquez is a Canadian-born U.S. citizen. They're paying a mortgage on a humble home -- with five decorous sombreros hanging on the wall -- mostly on what Armando Vazquez makes painting and as a handyman.
During one past break-in, Vazquez said, the perpetrator dumped all his fish food into the tank, killing 15 fish. A musician who has drums and other instruments, he was once visited by police responding to a noise complaint, but sees 27th Avenue as a friendly community, and tries to be the proverbial good neighbor.
"They need some help, I don't say no," he said, smiling.
Vazquez said he has been targeted for his heritage before, about three months ago by the Safeway on Ocean Beach.
"I hear some people before say 'wetback, go back to Mexico,' " Vazquez said. "I stopped and I say, 'Did you see me cross the river?' He said, 'No.'
"I say, 'If you weren't on the other side of the river with a towel to dry my back, then I don't got a wet back,' " Vazquez said. "I live here. I work here. I stay here."
The flagpole taken from Vazquez's home was made of PVC tubing and, like the wooden U.S. flagpole on the other side of the front door, attached to the house with nails and duct tape. Vazquez said he now wants to buy a 15-foot metal pole for his yard and fly both U.S. and Mexican flags.
"He going to have to bring a ladder in the middle of the night," he said of potential future vandals. Linda Vazquez said she's probably going to add a Canadian flag, as well.
Vazquez said he would never fly Mexico's tricolor above the Stars and Stripes.
"I don't like to put only Mexican flag there on the top -- I put always, both," Vazquez said.
While there are different interpretations of international flag protocol, it's generally accepted that the flags of two or more nations during peacetime should be flown on separate flagpoles, with the home nation at least as high as the other nations, according to the National Flag Foundation and other Web sites. Vazquez's display appeared to meet the criteria.
Police believe assault was a hate crime
In the July 21 assault, the two victims were Latino and the suspects used language that would indicate this was a hate crime, Longview police said. One of the victims was punched in the face and was struck with a baseball bat.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. July 21, Longview police responded to a fight in progress near Speedy Mart, 704 Tennant Way. A witness told dispatchers three white men were fighting with a Hispanic man, dragging him toward Seventh Avenue while another Hispanic man tried to intervene. The witness said there was a bat or some kind of stick involved in the fight. The three white men left the scene on foot in the direction of the Quality Inn before officers arrived.
Officer Mike Berndt said when he drove up, he saw three men who ran through a field when they saw his car. He said two of them wore blue jeans and boots and had shaved heads. One wore a white sleeveless T-shirt and the other wore a black jacket over a white shirt.
Police arrested the man in the black jacket, Chance Lynn Smith, 22, of Longview. Victims identified him as being one of the suspects in the assault. He was booked into jail but has been released pending further investigation. The other two suspects have not been apprehended.
Anyone with information that can help detectives with the investigation is encouraged to call 442-5800 and ask for Detective Sgt. Mike Hallowell or Detective Terry Reece.
A wider trend?
Racially motivated assaults and thefts are less common in the local area than vandalism. A mixed-race Kelso couple was targeted with racist vandalism on Sept. 27, 2005, when someone spray-painted racist slurs on their back door, cut the phone line and threw three large rocks through their window.
Police said recent crimes that included an ethnic or racial component tended to be minor vandalism, such as spray-painted swastikas, or brochures with white power slogans. Gang graffiti is not uncommon.
The federal Department of Justice's Web site defines a hate crime as "intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious, sexual orientation, or disability. The purveyors of hate use explosives, arson, weapons, vandalism, physical violence, and verbal threats of violence to instill fear in their victims."
Courtney Langner, director of the Ethnic Support Council, said she's heard reports of "a lot of tagging, graffiti, broken windows, more vandalism" with anti-Hispanic implications during her two years at the council.
"I think it's significant and I think it's telling," Langner said of the flag incident. "No person was harmed, but I think it's an expression of general sentiment, and if it is an expression of general sentiment, then it's still disappointing."
"We do have a population that believes it's okay to do these things," said Woodland mayor and Longview police officer Doug Monge, who is Latino. "This one, to me, didn't rise to the level it's being elevated to."
Reporter Leslie Slape contributed to this story.
Source: The Daily News Online
Hate in the immigration debate
The winners write the history. And now that border restrictionists have won the battle to scuttle immigration reform, the history that many are desperate to write is that the debate was colorblind.
Really. The restrictionists and those pundits who have taken up their cause claim that race and ethnicity aren't even part of the discussion and that those who oppose giving illegal immigrants a shot at legal status would feel the same way if the immigrants were coming from Canada instead of Mexico. They say their concerns are limited to border security and the rule of law, and have nothing to do with nativism or xenophobia. And they reject any suggestion that the debate was hostile to Hispanics.
This is the fable being spun by CNN's Lou Dobbs, a commentator labeled by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt as "the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans." In recent days, Dobbs has argued that the Senate compromise died because Americans of all colors dispassionately concluded that it was bad for the country. Racism played no role, he insists.
Most Hispanics feel differently. I've seen three different surveys, including one by the Pew Hispanic Center, where majorities of Hispanics say that the immigration debate has led to an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment. And, as I travel the country speaking to Hispanic groups, one thing I hear is that "anti-immigrant" rapidly morphed into "anti-Hispanic" and specifically "anti-Mexican."
I get evidence of that every day in my e-mail. Just last week, after I defended the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents, a reader called me a "dirty Latino" who needs to get "back to Mexico." Another writer called me an "anchor baby" - the term used by nativists to describe the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States. Never mind that I was born in the United States and my parents were born in the United States. What I see here is racism.
That's also the view of the National Council of La Raza, which recently wrapped up its annual conference in Miami Beach. Speakers included Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton said the immigration debate has become "venomous." Obama, quoting from a 1968 telegram that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sent to farm worker leader Cesar Chavez, said that Hispanics and African-Americans were "brothers in the fight for equality" and decried the "racism" that crept into the immigration debate.
For some reason, Dobbs took those remarks personally. He responded by poking at Clinton and Obama on his show, insisting that they were insulting the American people.
And he really went ballistic when NCLR Vice President Cecilia Munoz said that much of the immigration debate was driven by a "discomfort with Latinos" and the Senate had caved into "what was largely a wave of hate."
That prompted Dobbs to blast the NCLR as a "socio-ethnic centric group."
I'd quibble with Munoz. I don't think it was just hate that drove the immigration debate, although according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate crimes against Latinos and immigrants are on the rise while hate groups use the immigration issue as a recruitment tool. Just last week, the SPLC filed a lawsuit against the Imperial Klans of America - an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan - and five Klansmen, claiming that two members were recruiting for the group at a county fair in Kentucky when they beat up and kicked a 16-year-old Hispanic boy and called him a racial epithet. The boy, who suffered cracked ribs and other injuries, is a U.S. citizen of Panamanian descent.
But this isn't really about hate as much as it is fear and ignorance. And ironically, one of the things fueling it is people like Dobbs.
"America has a long history of men like Lou Dobbs," Morris Dees, co-founder of the SPLC, said during a recent conference call with journalists. "Men like Sen. Joseph McCarthy who prey on the public fears. Often, they're xenophobic demagogues."
The people who buy into this demagoguery say the country is being colonized. That harkens back to what Benjamin Franklin said in the 1700s about German immigrants making up "a colony of aliens."
A lot of what Franklin said about the Germans was rank bigotry. The same goes for what other generations of Americans would later say about Italians, Irish, Jews and other immigrants - even if they came legally.
What poison. Thank goodness we got that out of our system.
Source: CoshoctonTribune
Really. The restrictionists and those pundits who have taken up their cause claim that race and ethnicity aren't even part of the discussion and that those who oppose giving illegal immigrants a shot at legal status would feel the same way if the immigrants were coming from Canada instead of Mexico. They say their concerns are limited to border security and the rule of law, and have nothing to do with nativism or xenophobia. And they reject any suggestion that the debate was hostile to Hispanics.
This is the fable being spun by CNN's Lou Dobbs, a commentator labeled by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt as "the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans." In recent days, Dobbs has argued that the Senate compromise died because Americans of all colors dispassionately concluded that it was bad for the country. Racism played no role, he insists.
Most Hispanics feel differently. I've seen three different surveys, including one by the Pew Hispanic Center, where majorities of Hispanics say that the immigration debate has led to an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment. And, as I travel the country speaking to Hispanic groups, one thing I hear is that "anti-immigrant" rapidly morphed into "anti-Hispanic" and specifically "anti-Mexican."
I get evidence of that every day in my e-mail. Just last week, after I defended the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents, a reader called me a "dirty Latino" who needs to get "back to Mexico." Another writer called me an "anchor baby" - the term used by nativists to describe the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States. Never mind that I was born in the United States and my parents were born in the United States. What I see here is racism.
That's also the view of the National Council of La Raza, which recently wrapped up its annual conference in Miami Beach. Speakers included Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton said the immigration debate has become "venomous." Obama, quoting from a 1968 telegram that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sent to farm worker leader Cesar Chavez, said that Hispanics and African-Americans were "brothers in the fight for equality" and decried the "racism" that crept into the immigration debate.
For some reason, Dobbs took those remarks personally. He responded by poking at Clinton and Obama on his show, insisting that they were insulting the American people.
And he really went ballistic when NCLR Vice President Cecilia Munoz said that much of the immigration debate was driven by a "discomfort with Latinos" and the Senate had caved into "what was largely a wave of hate."
That prompted Dobbs to blast the NCLR as a "socio-ethnic centric group."
I'd quibble with Munoz. I don't think it was just hate that drove the immigration debate, although according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate crimes against Latinos and immigrants are on the rise while hate groups use the immigration issue as a recruitment tool. Just last week, the SPLC filed a lawsuit against the Imperial Klans of America - an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan - and five Klansmen, claiming that two members were recruiting for the group at a county fair in Kentucky when they beat up and kicked a 16-year-old Hispanic boy and called him a racial epithet. The boy, who suffered cracked ribs and other injuries, is a U.S. citizen of Panamanian descent.
But this isn't really about hate as much as it is fear and ignorance. And ironically, one of the things fueling it is people like Dobbs.
"America has a long history of men like Lou Dobbs," Morris Dees, co-founder of the SPLC, said during a recent conference call with journalists. "Men like Sen. Joseph McCarthy who prey on the public fears. Often, they're xenophobic demagogues."
The people who buy into this demagoguery say the country is being colonized. That harkens back to what Benjamin Franklin said in the 1700s about German immigrants making up "a colony of aliens."
A lot of what Franklin said about the Germans was rank bigotry. The same goes for what other generations of Americans would later say about Italians, Irish, Jews and other immigrants - even if they came legally.
What poison. Thank goodness we got that out of our system.
Source: CoshoctonTribune
Low turnout at white supremacist rally
Updated: Aug 4, 2007 05:29 PM
KALAMAZOO -- Police say Saturday's rally was quiet compared to past rallies.
Around 200 people came out, mostly protesters. That number not comparing to over 400 officers on duty.
It helped, they say, to let the rally take place in the parking lot of Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety where they could easily take control of any situation.
The tapes and gates were in place early Saturday morning.
Police officers filed in to man their stations. Many more located at street corners all over Kalamazoo.
A white supremacist group was set to rally at 1:00 p.m. Saturday.
Bashun Bransn told 24 Hour News 8 he came out to see what it was all about.
"I just look at the stupidity and go back and get on the track. This is just disgusting to me," Bransn said.
He says he'll use what he hears to try and teach a message about peace through music as Bransn is a rapper.
While others looked on, the words of radio talk show host Hal Turner, the man leading the rally, rang through a vacant parking lot.
"Behavior is the reason this rally has to occur," Turner said. "The city of Kalamazoo has a problem with black gangs."
It's a message Turner has sent e-mails about trying to get publicity.
Saturday his words were only heard for an hour.
Some people, however, ignored those words completely. Across town a peace rally where families came together.
"The ones for unity in the community are out here," Yolanda Neals told 24 Hour News 8.
The numbers cut down on the numbers in town at the rally, something police are thankful for.
"It couldn't have gone any better as far as the number of people that showed up an the control we've seen so far," said Captain Joe Taylor of Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
Two people were arrested. One for Resisting & Obstructing an officer and another for Interfering with an officer, in the aftermath of the event.
While they're pleased with the low turn-out, they say this is not over yet. They will be following up in town all evening to make sure there are no problems between the white supremacist group and protesters.
Source: WoodTV
KALAMAZOO -- Police say Saturday's rally was quiet compared to past rallies.
Around 200 people came out, mostly protesters. That number not comparing to over 400 officers on duty.
It helped, they say, to let the rally take place in the parking lot of Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety where they could easily take control of any situation.
The tapes and gates were in place early Saturday morning.
Police officers filed in to man their stations. Many more located at street corners all over Kalamazoo.
A white supremacist group was set to rally at 1:00 p.m. Saturday.
Bashun Bransn told 24 Hour News 8 he came out to see what it was all about.
"I just look at the stupidity and go back and get on the track. This is just disgusting to me," Bransn said.
He says he'll use what he hears to try and teach a message about peace through music as Bransn is a rapper.
While others looked on, the words of radio talk show host Hal Turner, the man leading the rally, rang through a vacant parking lot.
"Behavior is the reason this rally has to occur," Turner said. "The city of Kalamazoo has a problem with black gangs."
It's a message Turner has sent e-mails about trying to get publicity.
Saturday his words were only heard for an hour.
Some people, however, ignored those words completely. Across town a peace rally where families came together.
"The ones for unity in the community are out here," Yolanda Neals told 24 Hour News 8.
The numbers cut down on the numbers in town at the rally, something police are thankful for.
"It couldn't have gone any better as far as the number of people that showed up an the control we've seen so far," said Captain Joe Taylor of Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
Two people were arrested. One for Resisting & Obstructing an officer and another for Interfering with an officer, in the aftermath of the event.
While they're pleased with the low turn-out, they say this is not over yet. They will be following up in town all evening to make sure there are no problems between the white supremacist group and protesters.
Source: WoodTV
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Pitt Co. Woman In Shock After Getting Racist Email From Local Business
Woman Wants Answers After Accidentally Being Copied Into A Racist Email About Her Resume
By Seth Browning
On the hunt for a job, and armed with a business degree, Tabitha Ross says she was up for anything, except, for a recent email, (quoting email) “I think she may be black. Was a McDonald’s cashier for 5 years."
The ECU grad says she sat in shock, “I’ve never seen racism or discrimination in my face like that.”, after she was accidentally copied an internal email, from Scott Chamblee's e mail address, “They didn't look at previous work experience. They didn't look at look at my current job. Anything. Just for working at McDonald’s. I must obviously be black."
Ross emailed back. She got a reply from Mr. Chamblee, saying it was a "tragic mistake," and not from him, but from another employee, who was later fired.
Nine on your side went to talk to Mr. Chamblee at Richard Cox CPA. An unidentified employee said Chamblee wasn't there. However he did say the company was taking it seriously. Seth: “Have other people involved in this email been addressed as well?" Employee: “Correct. I mean that's what the stipulation of someone being let go is all about."
But Ross wants more, “I want a name. I want to know what they were thinking." Meantime she says she's bouncing back, but wondering if something other than her resume is standing her way.
Source: WNCT
By Seth Browning
On the hunt for a job, and armed with a business degree, Tabitha Ross says she was up for anything, except, for a recent email, (quoting email) “I think she may be black. Was a McDonald’s cashier for 5 years."
The ECU grad says she sat in shock, “I’ve never seen racism or discrimination in my face like that.”, after she was accidentally copied an internal email, from Scott Chamblee's e mail address, “They didn't look at previous work experience. They didn't look at look at my current job. Anything. Just for working at McDonald’s. I must obviously be black."
Ross emailed back. She got a reply from Mr. Chamblee, saying it was a "tragic mistake," and not from him, but from another employee, who was later fired.
Nine on your side went to talk to Mr. Chamblee at Richard Cox CPA. An unidentified employee said Chamblee wasn't there. However he did say the company was taking it seriously. Seth: “Have other people involved in this email been addressed as well?" Employee: “Correct. I mean that's what the stipulation of someone being let go is all about."
But Ross wants more, “I want a name. I want to know what they were thinking." Meantime she says she's bouncing back, but wondering if something other than her resume is standing her way.
Source: WNCT
LA Town Chops Down “Racist” Tree - The Jena 6
Black Teens' Case Intensifies Racial Issues
Source: WashingtonPost
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 4, 2007; A03
JENA, La. -- Here in the woodsy heart of Louisiana, town leaders were looking for a fresh start, a way to erase the recent memory of Jim Crow-like hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree at the local high school. So they cut the tree down.
But after the events of the past 12 months, that attempt by white officials about two weeks ago to heal the town's deep racial divide before the start of a new school year might be too little, too late.
A few weeks after the nooses were discovered in September, an arsonist torched a wing of Jena High School. Race fights roiled the town for days, culminating in a schoolyard brawl that led the LaSalle Parish district attorney to charge six black teenagers with attempted murder for beating up a white teenager who suffered no life-threatening injuries.
Mychal Bell, the first of the six to be tried, is scheduled to be sentenced in September. He was convicted in July by an all-white jury on reduced charges of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit it. Like his co-defendants -- Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theodore Shaw and Jesse Beard -- Bell had no prior criminal record.
He faces up to 22 years in prison, and civil rights advocates say the reduced charges were still excessive and did not fit the crime. "Can they really do this to me?" Bell asked recently, sitting in his jail cell looking frightened and numb.
The white teenager who was beaten, Justin Barker, 17, was knocked out but walked out of a hospital after two hours of treatment for a concussion and an eye that was swollen shut. He attended a ring ceremony later that night.
District Attorney Reed Walters said in December that his decision to prosecute the black teenagers to the full extent of the law had nothing to do with race. He would not comment further on the case while it is pending. But black residents in Jena said issues of race permeate their town, 230 miles northwest of New Orleans.
Civil rights advocates say the issues are much larger than Jena. Zealous prosecutions of black youngsters are multiplying across the nation, they say. They cite three highly visible cases in which white prosecutors won prison sentences of up to 10 years against black teenagers, only to have those sentences voided on appeal.
In Douglas County, Ga., Genarlow Wilson was convicted of molestation and sentenced to 10 years for engaging in consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. He served more than two years before a judge voided the sentence, but Wilson, now 21, remains in prison while the state appeals.
Also in Georgia, the state Supreme Court threw out the conviction of Marcus Dixon, 19, who was serving a 10-year prison sentence for having sex with an underage white girl in 2003.
In Paris, Tex., a special conservator ordered the release of Shaquanda Cotton, 16, who was serving up to seven years for shoving a white teacher's aide in 2005. Months earlier, the same white judge had given probation to a 14-year-old white girl who burned down her family's home.
"We are seeing two systems of justice: one system of justice for white folks and one system of justice for black folks," said Jordan Flaherty, an editor who is following the Louisiana case for Left Turn magazine, an liberal activist publication based in New York.
"If this had been a fight between only black students, there would not have been this penalty," said Flaherty, who is white. "This is not a group of kids with a history of trouble, but they do have a history of speaking out."
Liz Ryan, chief executive of the Washington-based Campaign for Youth Justice, said Flaherty's observations are supported by research. Black youths represented 28 percent of juvenile arrests and 58 percent of youths sent to adult prisons between 2002 and 2004, according to a study by the campaign titled "And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Minority Youth in the Justice System."
"Kids of color are much more likely to be sent to adult courts than white kids," Ryan said. "It's the greatest disparity in the juvenile justice system."
The parents of the victim, David and Kelli Barker, told reporters they are tired of the attention generated by the case and declined to comment. But in a June interview with the Daily Town Talk newspaper in nearby Alexandria, La., David Barker said the prosecution was fair.
"All you hear is, 'Justice for the Jena Six.' I wouldn't mind justice for the one," he said. "It doesn't matter the race -- what matters is what happened to our son."
Jena sits on a winding state highway, a sleepy rural outpost. Once upon a time, it was Ku Klux Klan country. But, "in the past 50 years, our little town has come a long way," said school board member Billy Wayne Fowler. He said white people in the town are no longer racist, but he acknowledged that black people were mistreated in the past.
Black residents said the tying of the nooses was evidence that race relations have not improved that much. They said the superintendent's decision to hand only a three-day suspension to the white students who tied the nooses, overriding the principal's decision to expel them, sparked the anger that led to the disturbance.
The chain of events began at the start of school last September. At an assembly that kicked off classes, a black freshman asked the white principal if black students could sit under "the white tree" -- a shade tree where only white students regularly sat. The answer was, "You can sit anywhere you want."
But when black students showed up in the broiling hot yard, they found three nooses hanging from the tree's branches. After a number of scuffles, the district attorney came to the school and gathered students for a tough talk.
"I can make your life go away with the stroke of a pen," they recalled him saying. Black students said he looked directly at them. Walters denied it.
The incident was never reported to police, said U.S. Attorney Donald W. Washington. A report might have triggered a hate-crime investigation, although federal authorities rarely go after juveniles for such crimes. Washington added that if the students had been expelled, tensions might have been eased and the violence avoided.
In the weeks that followed, the fighting continued. In one scuffle, Robert Bailey, one of the six teenagers now facing trial, said a white man broke a beer bottle over his head after jumping him at a party, but there was no immediate investigation. Months later, Justin Sloan, who is white, was charged with simple battery and given probation for that attack.
Bailey was involved in a second incident when he and friends spotted one of his attackers at a gas station. As Bailey and his friends approached, they said, the white teenager ran to his truck and brandished an unloaded shotgun at them. Bailey helped wrest the weapon away, refused to give it back and was charged with stealing the gun.
Days later came the school fight that led to the prosecutions. Sheriff Carl Smith said the crimes justified the charges.
"It's gotten into the media, and the media has spread it all over the United States that this is about race when it's not about race," he said.
Black parents strongly disagree.
"It's always been about race in Jena. Once you're here, you learn to deal with what happens," said Caseptla Bailey, Robert Bailey's mother. "Some of the things that have gone on, we allowed to go on. It's just gotten to a point that people were ready to stand up and fight."
Source: WashingtonPost
Man Exposed After Denying KKK Affiliations
By Ken Ward
(07/30/07 -- HENDERSON) - For several weeks, the man accused of chasing a Henderson couple at gunpoint, has denied being a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
However, hours after speaking out, Eyewitness News obtained audio of a man who appears to be Anthony Finch, talking on a radio show organized by a white supremacist group, the National Socialist Workers Party.
The National Socialist Workers Party is reportedly the same group that has been sending out a mass mailing, threatening leaders of the NAACP.
The group has been printing out fliers urging Euro-Americans to aid a man at the heart of a racial incident. And it hasn't stopped with a flier.
The group is also on radio defending their decision to threaten NAACP leadership, which NAACP leaders want stopped.
"We see this as an uptake, as an escalation. And we take it as a threat against all NAACP and all people of good will," Rev. William Barber said.
The controversy started last month when Finch chased a black couple at gunpoint.
Police say the incident brings to attention whether Finch is a member or has been a member of the Klan.
"I've been a member of the Henderson Police Department and that's it for 23 and a half years, till I got sick and now I'm disabled," Finch claims.
Nevertheless, audio from a radio talk show, a man identifying himself as Anthony Finch of Henderson North Carolina spoke with a member of the national social workers party.
"What about your local Klan, the radio host said.
"What the Klan is doing here is pretty much inviting, trying to get people to help me here. I'm trying to get activists to help me here," Finch responded. "Everybody sees that because it's a white on black affair they don't want to get involved. Really I feel like a t shirt on a clothes line. Hung out to dry.
The NAACP says its time for state leaders to step in.
"This is not America. We cannot be concerned about terrorism over yonder and not be concerned about domestic terrorism here in our own back yard," Barber said.
The NAACP has also reported the threat to the FBI, an investigation is reportedly underway.
Source: ABCLocal
(07/30/07 -- HENDERSON) - For several weeks, the man accused of chasing a Henderson couple at gunpoint, has denied being a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
However, hours after speaking out, Eyewitness News obtained audio of a man who appears to be Anthony Finch, talking on a radio show organized by a white supremacist group, the National Socialist Workers Party.
The National Socialist Workers Party is reportedly the same group that has been sending out a mass mailing, threatening leaders of the NAACP.
The group has been printing out fliers urging Euro-Americans to aid a man at the heart of a racial incident. And it hasn't stopped with a flier.
The group is also on radio defending their decision to threaten NAACP leadership, which NAACP leaders want stopped.
"We see this as an uptake, as an escalation. And we take it as a threat against all NAACP and all people of good will," Rev. William Barber said.
The controversy started last month when Finch chased a black couple at gunpoint.
Police say the incident brings to attention whether Finch is a member or has been a member of the Klan.
"I've been a member of the Henderson Police Department and that's it for 23 and a half years, till I got sick and now I'm disabled," Finch claims.
Nevertheless, audio from a radio talk show, a man identifying himself as Anthony Finch of Henderson North Carolina spoke with a member of the national social workers party.
"What about your local Klan, the radio host said.
"What the Klan is doing here is pretty much inviting, trying to get people to help me here. I'm trying to get activists to help me here," Finch responded. "Everybody sees that because it's a white on black affair they don't want to get involved. Really I feel like a t shirt on a clothes line. Hung out to dry.
The NAACP says its time for state leaders to step in.
"This is not America. We cannot be concerned about terrorism over yonder and not be concerned about domestic terrorism here in our own back yard," Barber said.
The NAACP has also reported the threat to the FBI, an investigation is reportedly underway.
Source: ABCLocal
14 named in Nevada prison white supremacist gang bust
Update:
The group of men accused of organizing a white-supremacist gang in the Nevada state prison system were arraigned in federal court Friday morning.
Seven of the fourteen men appeared in front of a judge and entered not guilty pleas to a number of charges including fraud, extortion, drugs, and murder. Prosecutors say the gang offers protection only to white male inmates who join in on their crimes.
The men are scheduled to be back in court in mid-September.
___________________________________________
Fourteen members of the "Aryan Warriors," a white supremacist gang, have been indicted in Las Vegas in a case that has exposed a major crime ring inside Nevada's prison system. Investigators say this network of inmates use violence, intimidation and racial hatred to achieve their goals.
The group of white supremacists call themselves the "Aryan Warriors" and they now face federal charges of conspiring to commit everything from drug trafficking to murder.
The alleged gang leader is Ronald Sellers; prosecutors say he was involved in a fatal knife attack on another inmate. The indictment also alleges that gang members would extort money from the relatives of other inmates whose safety the gang members had the power to threaten.
All of this was done, according to prosecutors, to finance and spread a message of hatred and racial supremacy. And certain prison employees may have become involved in the corruption.
"There were allegations in the indictment that prison employees brought drugs into the institution," said Howard Skolnik, who runs the Nevada prison system.
Prosecutors also say the prison gang was involved in plenty of crime outside the prison walls such as distributing illegal drugs like methamphetamine, in neighborhoods all around the state.
Even though the indictment mentions corrupt activities by prison workers, no employees of the prison system have been arrested. We're told this investigation has lasted for four years but it is still far from over.
______________________________________
Federal authorities in Las Vegas say they've busted up a racist white supremacist gang based in the Nevada state prison system.
Fourteen men are named in a federal racketeering indictment unsealed today charging them with murder, extortion, drug dealing, fraud, identity theft and other violent crimes.
The U.S. attorney's office and FBI say the men were members of the Aryan Warriors -- based in the prison system, but with tentacles in methamphetamine distribution in cities around the region.
The charges include allegations stemming from the stabbing death of a prison inmate in August 2001; assaults on two other inmates in 2004 and 2005; and the February beating of a person on the outside.
They're also accused of threatening and extorting money from inmate families, and stealing and using identification documents and credit cards.
Four of the accused were arrested this morning in Las Vegas. One was arrested in Pahrump. The others are already in federal or state prisons. They're all due tomorrow morning before a magistrate in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Source: KVBC
The group of men accused of organizing a white-supremacist gang in the Nevada state prison system were arraigned in federal court Friday morning.
Seven of the fourteen men appeared in front of a judge and entered not guilty pleas to a number of charges including fraud, extortion, drugs, and murder. Prosecutors say the gang offers protection only to white male inmates who join in on their crimes.
The men are scheduled to be back in court in mid-September.
___________________________________________
Fourteen members of the "Aryan Warriors," a white supremacist gang, have been indicted in Las Vegas in a case that has exposed a major crime ring inside Nevada's prison system. Investigators say this network of inmates use violence, intimidation and racial hatred to achieve their goals.
The group of white supremacists call themselves the "Aryan Warriors" and they now face federal charges of conspiring to commit everything from drug trafficking to murder.
The alleged gang leader is Ronald Sellers; prosecutors say he was involved in a fatal knife attack on another inmate. The indictment also alleges that gang members would extort money from the relatives of other inmates whose safety the gang members had the power to threaten.
All of this was done, according to prosecutors, to finance and spread a message of hatred and racial supremacy. And certain prison employees may have become involved in the corruption.
"There were allegations in the indictment that prison employees brought drugs into the institution," said Howard Skolnik, who runs the Nevada prison system.
Prosecutors also say the prison gang was involved in plenty of crime outside the prison walls such as distributing illegal drugs like methamphetamine, in neighborhoods all around the state.
Even though the indictment mentions corrupt activities by prison workers, no employees of the prison system have been arrested. We're told this investigation has lasted for four years but it is still far from over.
______________________________________
Federal authorities in Las Vegas say they've busted up a racist white supremacist gang based in the Nevada state prison system.
Fourteen men are named in a federal racketeering indictment unsealed today charging them with murder, extortion, drug dealing, fraud, identity theft and other violent crimes.
The U.S. attorney's office and FBI say the men were members of the Aryan Warriors -- based in the prison system, but with tentacles in methamphetamine distribution in cities around the region.
The charges include allegations stemming from the stabbing death of a prison inmate in August 2001; assaults on two other inmates in 2004 and 2005; and the February beating of a person on the outside.
They're also accused of threatening and extorting money from inmate families, and stealing and using identification documents and credit cards.
Four of the accused were arrested this morning in Las Vegas. One was arrested in Pahrump. The others are already in federal or state prisons. They're all due tomorrow morning before a magistrate in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Source: KVBC
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