Full text
Don Black said he despises Barack Obama. And he said he believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of the United States.
Black, a 55-year-old former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, isn't the only person who holds such firm beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which today released its annual hate group report.
The center's report, "The Year in Hate," found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups -- defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people -- active in 2008. That's a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before.
What makes this year's report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about -- the nation's first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs. For the past decade, Latino immigration has fueled the growth of hate groups. Watch what the family of a hate crime victim has to say »
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Westboro Baptist Church in action
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CANTON —
The controversial, anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church is planning to picket Canton High School on March 20 as part of a daylong visit to the Boston area.
Members of the Rev. Fred Phelps’ tiny, ultra-fundamentalist group sent out a fax Monday saying that it will hold an “education picket” at the school.
Like many other schools in the state, Canton High has a Gay-Straight Alliance student group.
A Canton police sergeant said last night the department didn’t know about it.
CANTON —
The controversial, anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church is planning to picket Canton High School on March 20 as part of a daylong visit to the Boston area.
Members of the Rev. Fred Phelps’ tiny, ultra-fundamentalist group sent out a fax Monday saying that it will hold an “education picket” at the school.
Like many other schools in the state, Canton High has a Gay-Straight Alliance student group.
A Canton police sergeant said last night the department didn’t know about it.
Two charged with KKK hate crime
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Two Medford men face up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of conspiring to interfere with civil rights after they burned the image of a cross and the letters
"KKK" in the yard of a mixed race couple last spring.
Gary Moss, 38, and Devan Klausegger, 29, lodged their pleas in a Portland federal court. They are scheduled for sentencing on May 5.
According to their plea agreement, Moss admitted he poured the flammable liquid on the front lawn of the residence of Sol and Jonathan Whyte in the shape of a cross and the letters "KKK."
Klausegger then handed Moss a small explosive device that Moss used to ignite the liquid. They admitted these actions were done with the intent to interfere with the victims' rights because Jonathan Whyte is black.
Moss and Klausegger face a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Sol Whyte said a federal lawyer has told her the pair will agree to spend four and a half years behind bars as part of the plea deal.
"I wish it was more, but I am comfortable with that amount," she said.
The Whytes have worked to put the tumultuous events of the past year behind them, but their two daughters still long for their previous home.
"We had a huge backyard that they really liked," Whyte said.
The cost of the unexpected move forced Whyte to return to full-time work. Before the hate crime was committed in her front yard, she stayed home to care for her daughters.
Two Medford men face up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of conspiring to interfere with civil rights after they burned the image of a cross and the letters
"KKK" in the yard of a mixed race couple last spring.
Gary Moss, 38, and Devan Klausegger, 29, lodged their pleas in a Portland federal court. They are scheduled for sentencing on May 5.
According to their plea agreement, Moss admitted he poured the flammable liquid on the front lawn of the residence of Sol and Jonathan Whyte in the shape of a cross and the letters "KKK."
Klausegger then handed Moss a small explosive device that Moss used to ignite the liquid. They admitted these actions were done with the intent to interfere with the victims' rights because Jonathan Whyte is black.
Moss and Klausegger face a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
Sol Whyte said a federal lawyer has told her the pair will agree to spend four and a half years behind bars as part of the plea deal.
"I wish it was more, but I am comfortable with that amount," she said.
The Whytes have worked to put the tumultuous events of the past year behind them, but their two daughters still long for their previous home.
"We had a huge backyard that they really liked," Whyte said.
The cost of the unexpected move forced Whyte to return to full-time work. Before the hate crime was committed in her front yard, she stayed home to care for her daughters.
Police arrest German suspect over neo-Nazi beating
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Erfurt, Germany - German police have arrested the principal suspect after a neo-Nazi attack on leftists in a highway rest area, police in the city of Erfurt said Tuesday, but they are still hunting for a Swedish man thought to have taken part in the beating. Germans were shocked by the
February 14 roadside attack, just hours after 10,000 leftists and pacifists had mounted a counter-demonstration in Dresden against a procession by 6,000 far rightists.
Participants on both sides gathered from all over Germany and beyond in Germany.
A 42-year-old man suffered serious head injuries when a busload of neo-Nazis stopped next to two coaches of leftists in a motorway services area and attacked them. Four others were hurt.
Erfurt police said the 32-year-old who had been detained came from the west of Germany and had a record of rightist violence. The man from Sweden and a third man were still being sought.
Erfurt, Germany - German police have arrested the principal suspect after a neo-Nazi attack on leftists in a highway rest area, police in the city of Erfurt said Tuesday, but they are still hunting for a Swedish man thought to have taken part in the beating. Germans were shocked by the
February 14 roadside attack, just hours after 10,000 leftists and pacifists had mounted a counter-demonstration in Dresden against a procession by 6,000 far rightists.
Participants on both sides gathered from all over Germany and beyond in Germany.
A 42-year-old man suffered serious head injuries when a busload of neo-Nazis stopped next to two coaches of leftists in a motorway services area and attacked them. Four others were hurt.
Erfurt police said the 32-year-old who had been detained came from the west of Germany and had a record of rightist violence. The man from Sweden and a third man were still being sought.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Town battles Neo-Nazi
Full story
Crowds are protesting against Neo-Nazis who take over the town on a regular basis, and the memorial to the dead of the first and the second world wars has become a focal point.
It all started ten years ago when a far-right organisation that supported Nazi ideology gathered at the memorial for Remembrance Day.
To prevent a repeat, the mayor of the town designated the memorial as private property. However, this only lit the fuse of the conflict and the annual gatherings have now become monthly protests.
Crowds are protesting against Neo-Nazis who take over the town on a regular basis, and the memorial to the dead of the first and the second world wars has become a focal point.
It all started ten years ago when a far-right organisation that supported Nazi ideology gathered at the memorial for Remembrance Day.
To prevent a repeat, the mayor of the town designated the memorial as private property. However, this only lit the fuse of the conflict and the annual gatherings have now become monthly protests.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
KKK loser dies
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/534059.html
Virgil Griffin was defiant to the end.
In interviews over the years, there were few apologies for cross burnings, his views on race – or his part in a 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro where five people were fatally shot.
Four years ago, he told a group studying the shootings that he never would have gone to that rally had he not been goaded.
“They told us to ‘come out from under our rocks.' I don't hide under no rock for nobody,” said Griffin, imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based Cleveland Knights of the KKK.
Wednesday, Virgil Lee Griffin Sr. of Mount Holly died at Gaston County Memorial, surrounded by family. He was 64.
The Klan brought him notoriety. The organization he been a part of since his 20s had seen its numbers dwindle, but Griffin and other Klan officials were in the midst of rebuilding, exploiting fears over illegal immigration to draw members, according to agencies that track hate groups.
“People are tired of this mess,” Griffin told the Observer in 2007. “The illegal immigrants are taking this country over.”
The message was the same in the 1960s and '70s; the target different. In 1965, Griffin and another man were convicted of posing as detectives investigating a racial incident at a school. In 1980, Griffin was charged in a cross burning in Lincoln County.
But it was the November 1979 Greensboro rally held by members of the Communist Workers Party where Griffin won his biggest headlines.
The shootings came months after growing tension.
Virgil Griffin was defiant to the end.
In interviews over the years, there were few apologies for cross burnings, his views on race – or his part in a 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro where five people were fatally shot.
Four years ago, he told a group studying the shootings that he never would have gone to that rally had he not been goaded.
“They told us to ‘come out from under our rocks.' I don't hide under no rock for nobody,” said Griffin, imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based Cleveland Knights of the KKK.
Wednesday, Virgil Lee Griffin Sr. of Mount Holly died at Gaston County Memorial, surrounded by family. He was 64.
The Klan brought him notoriety. The organization he been a part of since his 20s had seen its numbers dwindle, but Griffin and other Klan officials were in the midst of rebuilding, exploiting fears over illegal immigration to draw members, according to agencies that track hate groups.
“People are tired of this mess,” Griffin told the Observer in 2007. “The illegal immigrants are taking this country over.”
The message was the same in the 1960s and '70s; the target different. In 1965, Griffin and another man were convicted of posing as detectives investigating a racial incident at a school. In 1980, Griffin was charged in a cross burning in Lincoln County.
But it was the November 1979 Greensboro rally held by members of the Communist Workers Party where Griffin won his biggest headlines.
The shootings came months after growing tension.
KKK loser dies
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/534059.html
Virgil Griffin was defiant to the end.
In interviews over the years, there were few apologies for cross burnings, his views on race – or his part in a 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro where five people were fatally shot.
Four years ago, he told a group studying the shootings that he never would have gone to that rally had he not been goaded.
“They told us to ‘come out from under our rocks.' I don't hide under no rock for nobody,” said Griffin, imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based Cleveland Knights of the KKK.
Wednesday, Virgil Lee Griffin Sr. of Mount Holly died at Gaston County Memorial, surrounded by family. He was 64.
The Klan brought him notoriety. The organization he been a part of since his 20s had seen its numbers dwindle, but Griffin and other Klan officials were in the midst of rebuilding, exploiting fears over illegal immigration to draw members, according to agencies that track hate groups.
“People are tired of this mess,” Griffin told the Observer in 2007. “The illegal immigrants are taking this country over.”
The message was the same in the 1960s and '70s; the target different. In 1965, Griffin and another man were convicted of posing as detectives investigating a racial incident at a school. In 1980, Griffin was charged in a cross burning in Lincoln County.
But it was the November 1979 Greensboro rally held by members of the Communist Workers Party where Griffin won his biggest headlines.
The shootings came months after growing tension.
Virgil Griffin was defiant to the end.
In interviews over the years, there were few apologies for cross burnings, his views on race – or his part in a 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally in Greensboro where five people were fatally shot.
Four years ago, he told a group studying the shootings that he never would have gone to that rally had he not been goaded.
“They told us to ‘come out from under our rocks.' I don't hide under no rock for nobody,” said Griffin, imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based Cleveland Knights of the KKK.
Wednesday, Virgil Lee Griffin Sr. of Mount Holly died at Gaston County Memorial, surrounded by family. He was 64.
The Klan brought him notoriety. The organization he been a part of since his 20s had seen its numbers dwindle, but Griffin and other Klan officials were in the midst of rebuilding, exploiting fears over illegal immigration to draw members, according to agencies that track hate groups.
“People are tired of this mess,” Griffin told the Observer in 2007. “The illegal immigrants are taking this country over.”
The message was the same in the 1960s and '70s; the target different. In 1965, Griffin and another man were convicted of posing as detectives investigating a racial incident at a school. In 1980, Griffin was charged in a cross burning in Lincoln County.
But it was the November 1979 Greensboro rally held by members of the Communist Workers Party where Griffin won his biggest headlines.
The shootings came months after growing tension.
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