June 29 and 30, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-parents-in-the-us-arent-as-happy-as-childless-couples/

Why parents in the U.S. have the biggest "happiness gap"
By MARY ELIZABETH DALLAS HEALTHDAY
June 29, 2016, 9:58 AM

Photograph -- A new study of 22 industrialized countries found the largest "happiness gap" between those who have kids and those who don't can be found in the U.S. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
Related: The top 10 cities for working parents
Play VIDEO -- Will birth of your first child make you unhappy?


Parents in the United States are not quite as happy as their childless peers, a new report reveals.

The analysis of 22 industrialized countries found that the largest "happiness gap" between those who have kids and those who don't can be found in America.

That's thanks to the dearth of workplace policies enabling employees of U.S. companies to have a more flexible schedule or take paid time off for illness, vacations or the birth of a child, the researchers said.

"The United States, without any standard paid leave available to mothers or parents -- or any standard vacation or sick leave to support raising a dependent child -- falls strikingly behind all the other countries we examined in terms of providing for parents' happiness and overall well-being," said researcher Matthew Andersson. He is an assistant professor of sociology at Baylor University, in Waco, Texas.

For the report, researchers from Baylor, the University of Texas at Austin and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., compared data from the United States, European countries, Australia, New Zealand and Russia.

The research revealed that countries with government-mandated paid leave policies have a smaller "happiness gap" between parents and couples who don't have kids.

"In fact, in those places [with leave policies], parents might be slightly happier," Andersson said in a Baylor news release.

After considering each country's economy and fertility rate and testing theories that could take a toll on parents' happiness -- such as unexpected births or large families -- the researchers found these variables were insignificant.

"Another striking finding was that giving money to parents in child allowances or monthly payments had less effect on parental happiness than giving them the tools such as flexible work time," the researchers said in the report.

The researchers said programs like subsidized child care actually improve the happiness of society as a whole, "with an extra happiness bonus for parents of minor children."

The findings were published June 22 in the American Journal of Sociology.



I’ve seen studies like this one before, especially comparing us with Scandinavian countries such as Sweden. The lack of financial security here in the US for working class families and the poor has been and still is commonplace, and the fact that most workplaces don’t give vacation time or even guaranteed sick leave very freely on the lower worker levels is well known. To give time off for maternity needs has only in the last 15 to 20 years been available for those who are not in the management levels. One of our other problems here is that many workers are classed as part time or temporary, and do not qualify for anything of the sort.

We in the US tend to think we live in the best country on earth, but in so many ways it falls short. The article states that money is less important than time off, but since both are lacking, the situation is just made worse. The loss of union power is a major cause of that in my view. Some businesses really are genuinely generous toward those on whom they depend for their profits. I will praise my favorite workplace in Bethesda, MD, the Calvert Group. They not only gave a decent salary, but benefits such as time off work and pension plans. Without a government mandate of some kind, I don’t see the average American business doing that.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ivory-coast-gay-men-assaulted-us-embassy-photo-them-signing-orlando-massacre/

Gay men attacked over photo posted by U.S. embassy
AP June 29, 2016, 11:01 AM

Photograph -- A photo posted to the website of the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, with the caption "LGBTI community signing the condolence book" shows Ivorians -- identities obscurred by CBS News -- signing a book of condolences for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. U.S. EMBASSY IN COTE D'IVOIRE
Related: 911 written logs from Orlando nightclub shooting released


ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Gay men in Ivory Coast say they've been assaulted and forced to flee their homes after the U.S. Embassy published a photo of them signing a condolence book for victims of this month's killings at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

The photo, published on the embassy's website, shows the faces of six men with the caption "LGBTI community signing the condolence book." It was taken at the embassy on June 16, the same day Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan and other officials signed the book in honor of the 49 people killed in the Orlando attack.

The photo has been widely shared on social media and two of the men said that in the days after it was published an angry mob punched and kicked them while shouting anti-gay slurs. The men spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for their safety.

Four of the six men, including the two attacked, said they have fled their homes under pressure from family and friends who had been unaware of their sexual orientation.

The men said they were not contacted before the photo was published. However the U.S. embassy did contact the heads of three Ivory Coast organizations that advocate for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, according to press officer Elizabeth Ategou. Those activists gave their approval, but they were not in the photo or at the embassy event.

Ategou said the embassy "deeply regrets that any individuals were attacked based on any kind of orientation they might have." She said the embassy was in contact with the men and encouraged them to report the attacks to police.

The head of one gay rights group who approved the photo, and who also insisted on anonymity for his safety, said he would not have approved it had he known those pictured would be identified so explicitly as members of the "LGBTI community."

The photo remained on the embassy's website Wednesday. Ategou said the embassy had received no requests to take it down.

Same-sex relations are not a crime in Ivory Coast, but there are no legal protections for sexual minorities. In January 2014, a mob ransacked the Abidjan headquarters of the country's most prominent gay rights organization.

The U.S. Embassy in Abidjan has strengthened ties with the country's LGBT activists following an Obama administration memorandum in 2011 that empowered "all agencies engaged abroad" to promote and protect the human rights of sexual minorities.



“Gay men in Ivory Coast say they've been assaulted and forced to flee their homes after the U.S. Embassy published a photo of them signing a condolence book for victims of this month's killings at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The photo, published on the embassy's website, shows the faces of six men with the caption "LGBTI community signing the condolence book." It was taken at the embassy on June 16, the same day Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan and other officials signed the book in honor of the 49 people killed in the Orlando attack. The photo has been widely shared on social media and two of the men said that in the days after it was published an angry mob punched and kicked them while shouting anti-gay slurs. The men spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for their safety. …. However the U.S. embassy did contact the heads of three Ivory Coast organizations that advocate for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, according to press officer Elizabeth Ategou. Those activists gave their approval, but they were not in the photo or at the embassy event. …. The head of one gay rights group who approved the photo, and who also insisted on anonymity for his safety, said he would not have approved it had he known those pictured would be identified so explicitly as members of the "LGBTI community.”


“Same-sex relations are not a crime in Ivory Coast, but there are no legal protections for sexual minorities.” This statement put my thoughts on the track of a US history of hate crimes, and some half dozen articles are available on the Internet. For a listing and summary of some of those go to my single subject blog of today on this site under the title “Hate Crimes US Overview, June 29, 2016.” From the “crimemuseum” article below comes this statement: “Statistics provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation have shown that hate crimes are on the rise in America. In 2006, the number of crimes increased by 8% from the year before. These bleak facts show that despite how far society has advanced, hate crimes are still far from history.”

We in this country have found it necessary to make violence and discrimination against anyone based on race, religion, etc. illegal. Such law has been on the books for about a generation, starting with the 1960s due to the cultural uprising under Martin Luther King and others before him. That is what must be done everywhere for these crimes to begin to disappear. Human nature isn’t nearly virtuous enough to do it without the threat of prison. The same is, of course, true of all forms of the White Supremacy movement. Religionism is also rampant, now in particular against all Islamic people. We seem to be moving toward progress, though, with the Supreme Court weighing in on the antigay activities, primarily by Fundamentalist Christians.

Not all Christians are of this stamp, by any means, including even Fundamentalist Christians, but there is an active and growing movement among them that is primarily political and Dominionist in its’ focus, and especially in the Tea Party. The Westboro Baptist Church is the most well-known of those, and it is not affiliated with any other church or group. (See below.)

LGBT rights have not been so protected, but some legal perspectives are changing. A cake baker must not discriminate against a gay couple by refusing to supply a cake for their wedding, now, by order of the Supreme Court.

Within my lifetime there have been some events like this in the US news, though it came more in the form of three or four ignorant and violent men setting upon a gay man. In several of those cases, the man died from the assault. One was in a city environment associated with a gay bar, and the other was in a rural setting. It wasn’t such an event as that in the Ivory Coast, with a mob, but the one which I particularly remember occurred in a semi-rural area in which a gay man was found bound to a farmer’s fence post and murdered. There have been other single incidents like that earlier, also, plus the famous Stonewall Inn riot in 1969. Shamefully, that one involved a police raid on the gay bar.

Violence against groups has occurred in the South and elsewhere for years with as little as a short news article being said about it, with the result that laws intended specifically to stop it were not made. Until recently there has been little push from the LGBT community. With groups like the ACLU, however, that is changing.

The short article in www.crimemuseum.org discusses hate crimes in the US. See below. Also go to my alternate blog for today called “Hate Crimes US Overview, June 29, 2016” which contains material based on hate activity in general in the US, including some about what portions of our law have been brought to bear on it.


Westboro Baptist Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a Baptist church (unaffiliated with any Baptist organization) which is known for its hate speech, especially against LGBT people (homophobia), Catholics (anti-Catholicism), Muslims (Islamophobia), Jews (religious antisemitism), American soldiers and politicians.[3][4] The church is widely known as a hate group[5] and is monitored as such by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The church has been involved in actions against gay people since at least 1991, when it sought a crackdown on homosexual activity at Gage Park six blocks northwest of the church.[6] In addition to conducting anti-gay protests at military funerals, the organization pickets celebrity funerals and public events.[7] Protests have also been held against Jews and Catholics, and some protests have included WBC members stomping on the American flag and/or flying the flag upside down on a flagpole. The church also has made statements such as, "thank God for dead soldiers," "God blew up the troops," "thank God for 9/11," and "God hates America."[8]

The church is headquartered in a residential neighborhood on the west side of Topeka about 3 miles (5 km) west of the Kansas State Capitol. Its first public service was held on the afternoon of November 27, 1955.[9] The church was headed by Fred Phelps before his death in March 2014, though church representatives said the church had had no defined leader for some time before his death.[10] The church consists primarily of members of Phelps's extended family,[11] and in 2011, the church stated that it had about 40 members.[2]

The WBC is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination, although it describes itself as Primitive Baptist and following the Five points of Calvinism.[1] The Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention (the two largest Baptist denominations) have both denounced the WBC over the years.[12] In addition, other mainstream Christian denominations, such as the Methodist Church, Baptist Church, Reformed Church, and Evangelical Church have condemned the actions of the independent Westboro Baptist Church.[13]


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-stonewall-riot

1969
The Stonewall Riot

Just after 3 a.m., a police raid of the Stonewall Inn–a gay club located on New York City’s Christopher Street–turns violent as patrons and local sympathizers begin rioting against the police.

Although the police were legally justified in raiding the club, which was serving liquor without a license among other violations, New York’s gay community had grown weary of the police department targeting gay clubs, a majority of which had already been closed. The crowd on the street watched quietly as Stonewall’s employees were arrested, but when three drag queens and a lesbian were forced into the paddy wagon, the crowd began throwing bottles at the police. The officers were forced to take shelter inside the establishment, and two policemen were slightly injured before reinforcements arrived to disperse the mob. The protest, however, spilled over into the neighboring streets, and order was not restored until the deployment of New York’s riot police.

The so-called Stonewall Riot was followed by several days of demonstrations in New York and was the impetus for the formation of the Gay Liberation Front as well as other gay, lesbian, and bisexual civil rights organizations. It is also regarded by many as history’s first major protest on behalf of equal rights for homosexuals.


http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/history-of-hate-crime/

CRIME MUSEUM

Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances Crime Museum closed its doors to the public on September 30, 2015. However, while we are not operating a museum in DC, Crime Museum will still operate the Natalee Halloway Resource Center, the Crime Library, law enforcement related education programs, and continue to be a repository for famous crime and law enforcement related objects.

For Artifact Donations Please Contact:
artifacts@crimemuseum.org

History Of Hate Crime
Home » Crime Library » History Of Hate Crime
4585446_orig

A hate crime is defined as any wrong doing perpetrated against a particular group of people. It is a form of prejudice directed at a group of individuals based on their ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious preference, or any other defining characteristic. Anytime two different groups of people come in contact with each other, there is the possibility of tension or conflict developing, which often leads to violence. Whether the crime in question is assault, theft, verbal abuse or even murder, the motivation behind it is based on the hatred for a group that is perceived as being different in some way.

The origin of hate crimes dates back to ancient civilizations. One of the earliest examples is from the Roman Empire, which was well known for persecuting various religious groups. According to several historical documents, Christianity was largely tolerated by Emperor Nero until the year 64 AD, when a tremendous fire destroyed a great portion of Rome. The Emperor felt he was being blamed for the damage, so he shifted the guilt to the Christians and called for anyone who followed the religion to be punished. This led to years of hate crimes against anyone who followed the beliefs of Christianity as well as several other religious groups.

Some hate crimes have been so tremendous that they have affected the entire world. One of the most notable is the Nazi’s persecution of the Jewish people. Hitler’s “Final Solution” called for the total annihilation of the Jews and led to building of full scale death camps. This dark period in world history, The Holocaust, resulted in the mass murder of millions of people. In more recent years, the act of genocide, or attempting to obliterate an entire ethnic, racial or religious group, has occurred in both Bosnia and Rwanda.

Hate crimes occur on a smaller scale constantly all over the world. In the United States the majority of hate crimes are racially motivated. These crimes primarily consist of intimidation, vandalism and assault. Statistics provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation have shown that hate crimes are on the rise in America. In 2006, the number of crimes increased by 8% from the year before. These bleak facts show that despite how far society has advanced, hate crimes are still far from history.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/istanbul-airport-attack-turkey-arrest-raids-isis-chechen/

Arrests as ISIS eyed in Istanbul airport carnage
CBS NEWS
June 30, 2016, 6:48 AM

Photograph -- gettyimages-543494336.jpg A wounded girl from the Ataturk Airport suicide bomb attack is carried to the Bakirkoy Sadi Konuk Hospital, in the early hours of June 29, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. DEFNE KARADENIZ/GETTY IMAGES
Photograph -- Three men believed to be the suicide bombers who attacked Istanbul's Ataturk Airport are seen arriving at the airport in Turkey, June 28, 2016. HABERTURK
Play VIDEO -- CIA director: Istanbul airport attack bears ISIS imprint
Play VIDEO -- Investigators working to identify Istanbul attackers


ISTANBUL -- Turkish police swept into 16 different locations across the capital city on Thursday, taking 13 people into custody on suspicion of involvement in the deadly attack on Istanbul's airport.

CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports that consensus is building that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was behind the attack that left 42 people dead and at least 230 others wounded, and we now have a much clearer idea of how it was carried out.

It began when the three attackers arrived at the international terminal of the busy Ataturk international airport together in a taxi -- armed with automatic weapons, grenades and suicide vests -- and then split up.

Those tactics alone, according to U.S. intelligence officials, suggest ISIS involvement. CIA Director John Brennan didn't officially assign blame on Wednesday, but he came close, saying the carnage "certainly bears the hallmarks of ISIL's depravity," using an alternate acronym for the group.

CBS News has learned that there had been ISIS "chatter" in recent months indicating that the group was intent on targeting transportation hubs in Turkey -- including Ataturk Airport.

A U.S. intelligence source said Turkish investigators had located the taxi driver who dropped the attackers off at the airport, who said he didn't recognize the language the men in his cab were speaking.

U.S. sources have confirmed to CBS News that the attackers were not Turkish nationals, saying at least one of them was likely from the restive Russian region of Chechnya.

Turkish officials told news agencies on Thursday that the bombers were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, but American officials did not immediately confirm that information.

DNA tests are underway to confirm the attackers' identities.

There were further unconfirmed reports Thursday bolstering the theory that at least one of the attackers was from Russia, and may have traveled to Turkey from the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria. Turkey's southern border is shared with Syria.

Turkish media have published an image from a security camera that they say shows the three bombers arriving.

Williams says two of the attackers managed to force their way inside the building, armed with guns and hand grenades, despite a first security perimeter at the terminal door.

Reports in Turkish media say one of the bombers can be seen on security cameras dressed in a thick, quilted jacket -- in the middle of summer -- which should have aroused suspicion.

One of the bombers detonated his explosives in the middle of the busy arrivals area, another at a nearby entrance, and the third upstairs in the departures section, close to passport control.

Turkish security personnel managed to shoot that last attacker, leaving him sprawled on the ground before he too blew himself up.

"I heard the blast, so I thought there must be some bomb, because then (I heard) shooting," Martin Kemper, from Atlanta, Georgia, told CBS News. He was just a short distance away from that blast, waiting for a connecting flight.

The attack sent him and other panicked passengers running for a place to hide.

"It was terrifying, especially as you have these images, the bomb went off -- ok, you're still alive, but now they come and shoot you -- because you think of Paris, Orlando, you know, all this what you have seen," Kemper said.

Heartbroken relatives began burying the dead on Wednesday. Most of those killed were Muslims, murdered by terrorists during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The attackers were not Muslims, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding that through their actions they "prepared their place in hell."


“Turkish police swept into 16 different locations across the capital city on Thursday, taking 13 people into custody on suspicion of involvement in the deadly attack on Istanbul's airport. CBS News Correspondent Holly Williams reports that consensus is building that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was behind the attack that left 42 people dead and at least 230 others wounded, and we now have a much clearer idea of how it was carried out. …. CBS News has learned that there had been ISIS "chatter" in recent months indicating that the group was intent on targeting transportation hubs in Turkey -- including Ataturk Airport. A U.S. intelligence source said Turkish investigators had located the taxi driver who dropped the attackers off at the airport, who said he didn't recognize the language the men in his cab were speaking. U.S. sources have confirmed to CBS News that the attackers were not Turkish nationals, saying at least one of them was likely from the restive Russian region of Chechnya. …. Turkish officials told news agencies on Thursday that the bombers were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, but American officials did not immediately confirm that information. DNA tests are underway to confirm the attackers' identities. …. Reports in Turkish media say one of the bombers can be seen on security cameras dressed in a thick, quilted jacket -- in the middle of summer -- which should have aroused suspicion. One of the bombers detonated his explosives in the middle of the busy arrivals area, another at a nearby entrance, and the third upstairs in the departures section, close to passport control.


Sixteen locations in Istanbul and 13 more arrested – that is good work by the police. The death and injury toll here is horrific, however, and I wonder what level and type of guard systems they have at the airport. Russia (Chechnya), Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan – the suspected origins of the men -- are known for their warlike nature and primitive, tribal lifestyles, at any rate I consider it primitive. There is a certain virtue to being truly “tough,” though, and they are tough. ISIS is reaching out to so many parts of the world successfully, that it really is frightening to me. How is ISIS going to be subdued?




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-navy-investigation-sailors-iran-persian-gulf/

U.S. Navy investigation finds sailors ill-prepared for Iran encounter in Persian Gulf
CBS/AP
June 30, 2016, 12:15 PM

Photograph -- This picture released by the Iranian state-run IRIB News Agency on Jan. 13, 2016, shows the detention of American Navy sailors by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Persian Gulf, Iran. SEPAHNEWS VIA AP
Play VIDEO -- Iran releases video showing U.S. sailor admitting mistake
Play VIDEO -- Iran releases detained U.S. Navy sailors
Play VIDEO -- VP Biden on State of the Union, Iran's release of U.S. sailors
Play VIDEO -- Iran releases 10 U.S. sailors after detainment


WASHINGTON -- Weak leadership, poor judgment, a lack of "warfighting toughness" and a litany of errors led to the embarrassing capture and detention by Iran of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf in January, according to a Navy investigation released Thursday.

Six officers and three enlisted sailors have been disciplined or face disciplinary action.

The partially censored report also cited instances of unnamed sailors violating the military's code of conduct while in captivity. One sailor made "statements adverse to U.S. interests" during interrogation. A different sailor encouraged fellow crewmembers to eat food offered to them while being videotaped by the Iranians.

A sailor was said to have failed to uphold the code of conduct standards when he ordered crewmembers to cooperate with the Iranian video production and "acquiesced" in making an Iranian-scripted statement on camera in exchange for the crews' release.

Officials said that as a result, the Navy is stepping up training in adherence to the code of conduct.

The trouble for Riverine Command Boats 802 and 805, each with five sailors aboard, began even before they left port in Kuwait Jan. 12 on a short-notice, 300-mile journey to Bahrain, home of the Navy's 5th Fleet. They were delayed, unprepared, poorly supervised and ill-suited for the mission, the report said.

At least one sailor had been up all night with boat repairs. Their higher headquarters failed to arrange air or surface monitoring of the boats' transit. Such monitoring "would likely have prevented" the sailors' capture by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, according to the report.

The Navy's top officer, Adm. John Richardson, presented the investigation's results at a Pentagon news conference. He declined to go into some details, saying he must not be seen as influencing the outcome of disciplinary actions that in some cases have not been completed.

Last week the Navy announced the firing of Capt. Kyle Moses, who was commander of the Navy task force that was in charge of the boats during their mission.

Richardson said the scope of problems uncovered in the investigation was so great that the embarrassing episode will become a case study.

"This will be something we can mine for a lot of lessons," he said.

The lengthy investigation concluded that while the boat crews erred in entering Iranian waters, the Iranians violated international law by impeding the boats' "innocent passage," and violated U.S. sovereign immunity by boarding and seizing the boats.

"Those boats and crewmembers had every right to be where they were that day," Richardson said, even though they got there by mistake.

In addition to the range of problems that plagued the crew and the sailors' chain of command, the incident has raised questions about the Navy's preparedness in a waterway known to pose risks amid tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

The trip planning "ignored established crew rest directives and sound navigational practices," the report said.

The boat crews had planned their route but made an unauthorized deviation that took them into Saudi and Iranian territorial waters. More mistakes followed as both boats stopped inside Iranian waters while one crew was attending to an engine failure. They could see Iran's Farsi Island in the distance but thought it was Saudi territory.

Other rules were "ignored for convenience," resulting in the boats being "unable to present the appearance of a hard target or to defend themselves against (Iranian) aggression." The Iranians boarded the U.S. boats, confronted the sailors at gunpoint and took them to Farsi Island, where they remained overnight before being released after Washington intervened.

"Decision-makers at every level failed to intervene when the boats could not achieve minimum communications standards ... and when the (boats) violated Saudi and Iranian territorial seas," the report said.

In January, a statement posted online by Iran's Revolutionary Guard said that the sailors had apologized for the incident. However, Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to "CBS This Morning," earlier this year denied that Americans made any apology.

"There's nothing to apologize for," Biden said. "When you have a problem with the boat, you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice."

While there was no official apology issued, Iran state television showed footage showing one U.S. sailor apologizing, calling the incident a "mistake."



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35300019

US thanks Iran for swift release of 10 Navy sailors
13 January 2016

From the section Middle East

Video -- One of the US servicemen thanks Iran for its hospitality and help
Photograph -- A group of 10 US sailors arrested for entering Iranian waters, Image copyright Sepahnews, Image caption The Guards published pictures of the nine men and one woman being held
Video -- General Ali Fadavi of the Revolutionary Guard said the sailors were not spying
Video -- The BBC's Jonathan Beale looks at why the US Navy sailors were released so quickly
Three Photographs -- Weaponry apparently being confiscated by Iranian authorities on Tuesday, in pictures carried by Iranian state broadcaster Irib News Image copyright Irib News
Iranian officer apparently pictured during detention of US sailors on Tuesday, in pictures carried by Iranian state broadcaster Irib News Image copyright Irib News
Later pictures published on the Revolutionary Guards' website showed the group sitting on a Persian rug, with the one female member wearing a headscarf.


The US has thanked Iran for the swift release of 10 US sailors held for entering its territorial waters.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the resolution of the matter was "testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe".

Republican presidential hopefuls had criticised the administration over its handling of the incident.

A deal on Iran's nuclear activities - which they also disparage - is said to be days away from implementation.

The sailors were detained on Tuesday when one of their two vessels broke down while training in the Gulf.

The incursion was "unintentional", a statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards quoted by state media said.

Iranian state media said the sailors were released into international waters after they apologised. But Vice-President Joe Biden denied this, saying the boat had had simply a problem and there was "nothing to apologise for."

The US is investigating how the sailors entered Iranian waters.

Thanking Iranian authorities for their "co-operation and quick response", Mr Kerry said: "These are always situations which have an ability if not properly guided to get out of control...

"This kind of issue was able to be peacefully resolved and officially resolved, and that is testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure, and strong," he added.

Iranian state broadcaster Irib News has published pictures of the sailors apparently being detained.

Iran-US relations pass a test: Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent

The tentative and still largely potential softening of relations between Washington and Tehran in the wake of the nuclear deal seems to have passed a delicate initial test.

The Tehran authorities have quickly accepted that the US patrol boats strayed into their waters by accident.

The process to begin lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear activities is expected to get under way at the end of this week.

There are many conservatives and hardliners in both countries who would dearly love to sabotage the deal. Consequently both governments may well have been eager to get this episode resolved as quickly as possible.

Clearly the economic benefits of lifting the sanctions may have been too great an inducement for the agreement to be derailed now.


Mr Kerry called Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shortly after the incident. The pair developed a personal rapport during the nuclear talks.

Those detained - nine men and one woman - were taken to Farsi Island, in the middle of the Gulf, where Iran has a naval base.

Conservatives in both countries have opposed the nuclear deal, under which Iran will limit its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

In the US, Republican presidential candidates were among those expressing outrage at the sailors' detention.

"Iran is testing the boundaries of this administration's resolve," said Marco Rubio.

"[Barack] Obama's humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again," Jeb Bush said in a tweet before the sailors were released.

Donald Trump said Iran was "toying" with the US.

Iran's deputy nuclear chief has meanwhile denied a report the Arak heavy-water reactor had been decommissioned, which would be a final step towards implementation of the nuclear deal.


Restraint in Iranian media, by BBC Monitoring

Iranian state media's coverage of the incident has been studiously restrained and measured in tone.

The usual pejorative terms usually reserved for the US and other Western powers - such as "global arrogance" and "enemies" - have been conspicuous by their absence.

State TV and radio reports did highlight that the US incursion had been "illegal" and that Tehran wanted an apology, later reporting that it had got it.

The mood music was far less tense and confrontational than during the capture of British sailors in in 2007, with Iran insisting they strayed into its water - an accusation London denied.

Then, the Iranian media initially accused the UK servicemen of spying, and later mockingly reported that one of them had cried when his music player was confiscated.

Read the full media report

Q&A: Iran's nuclear deal

What is it? In July, Iran agreed a landmark nuclear deal with six world powers to limit its sensitive nuclear activities for more than a decade in return for the lifting of crippling sanctions. The US is confident the agreement will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran says it has the right to nuclear energy - and stresses that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

When is 'implementation day'? Iran will not see the UN, US and EU sanctions lifted until the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), certifies that it has fulfilled its commitments under the deal. Iran reportedly says the IAEA will do so this Friday. US Secretary of State John Kerry says implementation will take place "within coming days".

What does Iran stand to gain? The sanctions have cost Iran more than more than $160bn (£102bn) in oil revenue since 2012 alone. Once they are lifted, the country will be able to resume selling oil on international markets and using the global financial system for trade. Iran has the fourth largest oil reserves in the world and the energy industry is braced for lower prices. Iran will also be able to access more than $100bn in assets frozen overseas.



Excerpt -- cbsnews -- “Weak leadership, poor judgment, a lack of "warfighting toughness" and a litany of errors led to the embarrassing capture and detention by Iran of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf in January, according to a Navy investigation released Thursday. Six officers and three enlisted sailors have been disciplined or face disciplinary action. The partially censored report also cited instances of unnamed sailors violating the military's code of conduct while in captivity. One sailor made "statements adverse to U.S. interests" during interrogation. A different sailor encouraged fellow crewmembers to eat food offered to them while being videotaped by the Iranians. …. A sailor was said to have failed to uphold the code of conduct standards when he ordered crewmembers to cooperate with the Iranian video production and "acquiesced" in making an Iranian-scripted statement on camera in exchange for the crews' release. Officials said that as a result, the Navy is stepping up training in adherence to the code of conduct. …. At least one sailor had been up all night with boat repairs. Their higher headquarters failed to arrange air or surface monitoring of the boats' transit. Such monitoring "would likely have prevented" the sailors' capture by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, according to the report. …. Last week the Navy announced the firing of Capt. Kyle Moses, who was commander of the Navy task force that was in charge of the boats during their mission. Richardson said the scope of problems uncovered in the investigation was so great that the embarrassing episode will become a case study. …. In January, a statement posted online by Iran's Revolutionary Guard said that the sailors had apologized for the incident. However, Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to "CBS This Morning," earlier this year denied that Americans made any apology. "There's nothing to apologize for," Biden said. "When you have a problem with the boat, you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice." While there was no official apology issued, Iran state television showed footage showing one U.S. sailor apologizing, calling the incident a "mistake."


Excerpt – BBC – “Thanking Iranian authorities for their "co-operation and quick response", Mr Kerry said: "These are always situations which have an ability if not properly guided to get out of control... "This kind of issue was able to be peacefully resolved and officially resolved, and that is testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure, and strong," he added. Iranian state broadcaster Irib News has published pictures of the sailors apparently being detained. Iran-US relations pass a test: Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent The tentative and still largely potential softening of relations between Washington and Tehran in the wake of the nuclear deal seems to have passed a delicate initial test.”


The Pentagon is being too harsh on the sailors in my opinion unless the fact that they strayed from their path by some worse incident -- drunkenness, etc. Jonathan Marcus’ description that our two nations passed a “delicate” test is the way to look at the matter, and that’s a good thing, not shameful. It looks as though the US is maturing as a society and a world power.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-military-transgender-ban-ended-pentagon/

U.S. military transgender ban ended by Pentagon
AP June 30, 2016, 1:58 PM

Photograph -- U.S. soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division take part in a military parade to welcome their new command at the Arghandab Base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Aug. 9, 2010. YURI CORTEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
23 PHOTOS -- Transgender celebs you need to know


WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon announced Thursday that transgender people will be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, ending one of the last bans on service in the armed forces.

Saying it's the right thing to do, Defense Secretary Ash Carter laid out a yearlong implementation plan declaring that "Americans who want to serve and can meet our standards should be afforded the opportunity to compete to do so."

Speaking at a Pentagon press conference, Carter said, "Our mission is to defend this country, and we don't want barriers unrelated to a person's qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who can best accomplish the mission."

Under the new policy, by Oct. 1, transgender troops should be able to receive medical care and begin formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

And a year from now, he said, the military services will begin allowing transgender individuals to enlist, as long as they meet the required standards and have been stable in their identified gender for 18 months.

Carter's announcement comes despite concerns from senior military leaders that the department is moving too fast and that more time is needed to work through the changes. He said he discussed the plans extensively with his military leaders, and based on their recommendations, he made adjustments to the timeline. He said he has been told that the services now support the timeline.

Last July, Carter said he intended to rescind the ban, calling it outdated. He has long argued that the military must be more inclusive to bring in the best and brightest.

At the time he ordered a six-month study to include extensive medical and scientific research and discussions with other nations and companies with experience in the process. He extended the study because the military wanted more time. Officials told The Associated Press he wanted to insure there was no impact on military readiness, but over time he became frustrated with the slow progress.

The new policy provides broad guidelines for transgender service members. They will be able to use the bathrooms, housing, uniforms and fitness standards of their preferred gender only after they have legally transitioned to that identity, according to officials.

The new rules, however, give commanders the discretion to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, including for job placement, deployments and training delays, based on the needs of the military mission and whether the service member can perform their duty.

The policy also allows commanders to approve certain accommodations when possible, such as when troops are showering. That could include installing shower curtains, towel hooks or allowing transgender troops to shower at different times or wear minimal clothing.

The military policy differs from civilian gender transitions, where transgender individuals often dress, live socially and work fulltime in their preferred gender during the process. Under the new policy, service members would only be able to do that when off-duty and away from their duty station.



“Speaking at a Pentagon press conference, Carter said, "Our mission is to defend this country, and we don't want barriers unrelated to a person's qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who can best accomplish the mission." Under the new policy, by Oct. 1, transgender troops should be able to receive medical care and begin formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system. And a year from now, he said, the military services will begin allowing transgender individuals to enlist, as long as they meet the required standards and have been stable in their identified gender for 18 months. …. Last July, Carter said he intended to rescind the ban, calling it outdated. He has long argued that the military must be more inclusive to bring in the best and brightest. At the time he ordered a six-month study to include extensive medical and scientific research and discussions with other nations and companies with experience in the process. …. The new policy provides broad guidelines for transgender service members. They will be able to use the bathrooms, housing, uniforms and fitness standards of their preferred gender only after they have legally transitioned to that identity, according to officials. The new rules, however, give commanders the discretion to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, including for job placement, deployments and training delays, based on the needs of the military mission and whether the service member can perform their duty. …. That could include installing shower curtains, towel hooks or allowing transgender troops to shower at different times or wear minimal clothing. The military policy differs from civilian gender transitions, where transgender individuals often dress, live socially and work fulltime in their preferred gender during the process. Under the new policy, service members would only be able to do that when off-duty and away from their duty station.”


They don’t already have shower curtains and towel hooks? What could be the point in that? Whatever. Men in the military have to rough it, I guess.

I’m glad to see they have what looks to be a workable plan to proceed into the future on this matter. If I read this correctly, the military is actually paying medical costs for the transgender change. That surprises me, and that the conservatives in Congress would pay for it surprises me more. It is wise that they are looking at the way other countries have done this. There will still be massive outrage among Right-leaning citizens over this, though. Do you remember Corp. Klinger on MASH? I finally got tired of those shows, but I do remember Klinger and Radar fondly.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-most-americans-back-no-fly-no-buy-gun-laws/

Poll: Most Americans back "no fly, no buy" gun laws
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
June 30, 2016, 12:34 PM

16 Photos -- Why the AR-15 is America's gun
Play VIDEO -- Democratic sit-in over gun control ends


As the debate over strengthening gun laws becomes increasingly tense on Capitol Hill, an overwhelming number of Americans are backing one key firearm proposal: Keeping guns from people on a terror watch list.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found that 86 percent of registered voters back such "no fly, no buy" gun legislation, compared with 12 percent that don't. And of those voters in households with a gun, 83 percent still back the proposal, versus 14 percent that don't.

A majority of voters also believe "it's possible to make new gun laws without interfering" with Americans' gun rights, 64 to 28 percent. Of those with firearms in their households, the number supporting drops to 59 percent, versus 33 percent that don't believe that.

More than nine in 10 Americans (93 percent) also think that background checks should be required for all gun buyers. Just six percent do not believe that. In households with guns, 92 percent of voters believe universal background checks should be instituted, compared to eight percent that don't. On a wholesale ban on assault weapons, 59 percent of Americans support it, compared to 37 percent that don't.

The poll also found that about 38 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the National Rifle Association, the United States' most prominent pro-gun lobby, compared to 36 percent that have an unfavorable opinion of the group.

Quinnipiac also asked voters whether they supported Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban, which the presumptive GOP nominee has seemed to soften on in recent weeks. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they opposed temporarily banning Muslims from the U.S. who aren't citizens, compared to 40 percent that backed the proposal.

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,610 registered voters nationwide from June 21-27. The poll had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.



The summary is that "no fly, no buy" … “without interfering" with Americans' gun rights … background checks should be required for all gun buyers” are approved by over 90% of polled citizens, even in homes that do have guns already. Interestingly, the opinions on the NRA were split almost evenly, so these commenters aren’t just Progressives, but a cross section of the US populace. That tells me that the Republicans in their hidebound stances against helpful gun laws aren’t even based in reality, except of course that their most important constituency, the NRA, wants NO restrictions! Only the issue of banning assault rifles got a less enthusiastic response, but even in that case almost 60% of that same 1600 people are in favor of it.

Many Republicans when they are in their closet praying are fully aware that there is no earthly need for assault rifles except in war. I was “yugely” glad to see that 52% of those polled were against even temporarily banning Muslims from entering the country. If we were to actually do these sensible things there would be fewer mass shootings like Orlando, not because there would be fewer insane or politically radical people, but because the most dangerous types of weapons would be more difficult to get and the nut jobs might actually be caught and prevented from acting. When we make those laws we should make the very effort to buy, sell or trade for an assault rifle a criminal offense.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/parris-island-south-carolina-marine-drill-instructors-investigation-hazing/

Marine drill instructors under hazing probe at time of recruit's death
By ALEX SUNDBY CBS NEWS
June 30, 2016, 11:30 AM

A group of U.S. Marine Corps drill instructors has been under investigation for hazing and abuse allegations for incidents dating back more than six months, during which time a recruit assigned to the group's battalion died at boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina.

Fifteen instructors and their leaders are under investigation, the Marine Corps Times reported on Wednesday.

A statement from the corps' Training and Education Command unit to the Times said investigations dating back to November center on a training battalion where recruit Raheel Siddiqui was assigned at the time of his death earlier this year.

Siddiqui, 20, fell to his death in a barracks stairwell on March 18, just days after his arrival to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, the Times reported.

An investigation into Siddiqui's death found that a drill instructor was "improperly placed in charge of recruits" while being the subject of an ongoing investigation, according to the Marine Corps statement.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal, citing multiple unnamed Marine officials, reported that the instructor supervising Siddiqui, a Muslim, allegedly put another Muslim recruit into a clothes dryer and made "racially charged remarks."

According to the Times, at least two Parris Island leaders have been fired in connection to the investigations into Siddiqui's death.

The Marines under investigation have been reassigned to duties where they don't directly interact with recruits, according to the Times.


“Fifteen instructors and their leaders are under investigation, the Marine Corps Times reported on Wednesday. A statement from the corps' Training and Education Command unit to the Times said investigations dating back to November center on a training battalion where recruit Raheel Siddiqui was assigned at the time of his death earlier this year. …. An investigation into Siddiqui's death found that a drill instructor was "improperly placed in charge of recruits" while being the subject of an ongoing investigation, according to the Marine Corps statement. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal, citing multiple unnamed Marine officials, reported that the instructor supervising Siddiqui, a Muslim, allegedly put another Muslim recruit into a clothes dryer and made "racially charged remarks."


Why does our society have so many deeply sick individuals in it? I think our ultra-competitiveness and lack of emotional support is the cause. It produces sociopaths. This starts in the home, continues in school especially in team sports like football, and then in the military it reaches its’ peak. There is also the troubling lack of education which ends in the racial/religious harassment entering the picture.

Oh, yes, and on college campuses where the Fraternity system takes over to stop the students from thinking for themselves. Hazing really should be removed from group activities entirely. In this case with the two Muslim men it was deadly. If that drill instructor doesn’t go to prison, I will be angry. Of course, there’s nothing I can do about it. The idea of “reprimanding” leaders who do things like this a big part of the problem -- just like the cop who pumps five or six bullets into a young man for running. Nine out of ten times they are not truly punished at all, and knowing that such is par for the course they continue to do the same things over and over again. The more “conservative” the organization is, the more these things will occur.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-donald-trump-populism-rant/

Obama goes on "rant" about Donald Trump's populism
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS
June 29, 2016, 5:21 PM

Play VIDEO -- Obama calls out Trump trade rhetoric
Play VIDEO -- Trump tries to capitalize on Brexit vote


President Obama went off on his own rant Wednesday at a trilateral press conference in which he disputed the idea that Donald Trump is a populist and that the presumptive GOP nominee instead promotes "nativism" or "xenophobia."

After reporters asked a series of questions of Mr. Obama, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mr. Obama decided he had something else to say in Ottawa -- he addressed the common theme of populism raised during the event.

"I'm not prepared to concede the notion that some of the rhetoric that's been popping up is populist," Mr. Obama said, referring to Trump.

He said the reason why he ran for president in 2008, again in 2012, and why he will continue to work in some capacity in public service after he leaves office next year is because he cares about people and making sure every child has the same opportunities as he had.

The president said he cares about poor people, about workers having a collective voice in the workplace, about kids getting an education and ensuring that the U.S. has a fair tax system.

"I suppose that makes me a populist," Mr. Obama said.

Without identifying him by name, Mr. Obama dismissed Trump as someone "who has never shown any regard for workers, who has never fought on behalf of any social justice issues" and who has worked against providing economic opportunities.

"They don't suddenly become a populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes," he said. "That's not the measure of populism; that's nativism or xenophobia...or it's just cynicism."

"Somebody who labels us versus them or engages in rhetoric about how we're going to look after ourselves and take it to the other guy. That's not the definition of populism," he added.

Obama acknowledged that he went off on a "rant" and that he has that freedom now since he's nearing the end of his two terms in office.

During the press conference, Mr. Obama also addressed Trump's comments Tuesday in which he talked about withdrawing from trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

"The prescription of withdrawing from trade deals and focusing solely on your local market, that's the wrong medicine. It's not feasible," Mr. Obama said.



“He said the reason why he ran for president in 2008, again in 2012, and why he will continue to work in some capacity in public service after he leaves office next year is because he cares about people and making sure every child has the same opportunities as he had. The president said he cares about poor people, about workers having a collective voice in the workplace, about kids getting an education and ensuring that the U.S. has a fair tax system. "I suppose that makes me a populist," Mr. Obama said. Without identifying him by name, Mr. Obama dismissed Trump as someone "who has never shown any regard for workers, who has never fought on behalf of any social justice issues" and who has worked against providing economic opportunities. …. "Somebody who labels us versus them or engages in rhetoric about how we're going to look after ourselves and take it to the other guy. That's not the definition of populism," he added. Obama acknowledged that he went off on a "rant" and that he has that freedom now since he's nearing the end of his two terms in office.”


So many of our “conservative” people absolutely hate Barack Obama. I can only conclude that they hate any bold positive attempt to make good changes and the undeniable proof that at least ONE black person has made good in this country. Changes that improve the lives of the poor and working class are good. Changes that give the very wealthy an almost intractable hold on the economy and government in this country, especially when it’s done through governmental action -- such as the Citizens United Supreme Court decision – are evil, in that those segments of our society have no will to share with the needy at all. Every time they have to pay some taxes they complain as if it is going to cripple them financially. While I am not saying that we should all get our pitchforks and hoes and take them to Congress to force our way, I do totally sympathize with those who speak of a revolution.

Listen to this great work of musical performance by Judy Collins. In my opinion she’s certainly the best female non-operatic singer of my generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkeXTlhX0OA
A Medley of four songs from Marat/Sade sung by Judy Collins.


http://www.judycollins.com/biography

Judy Collins

Judy Collins has inspired audiences with sublime vocals, boldly vulnerable personal life triumphs, and a firm commitment to social activism. In the 1960s, she evoked both the idealism and steely determination of a generation united against social and environmental injustices. Five decades later, her luminescent presence shines brightly as new generations bask in the glow of her iconic 50-album body of work, and heed inspiration from her spiritual discipline to thrive in the music industry for half a century.

The award-winning singer-songwriter is esteemed for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk standards and her own poetically poignant original compositions. Her stunning rendition of Joni Mitchell's “Both Sides Now” from her landmark 1967 album, Wildflowers, has been entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Judy's dreamy and sweetly intimate version of “Send in the Clowns”, a ballad written by Stephen Sondheim for the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, won “Song of the Year” at the 1975 Grammy Awards. She's garnered several top-ten hits gold- and platinum-selling albums. Recently, contemporary and classic artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Shawn Colvin, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, and Leonard Cohen honored her legacy with the album Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins.

Judy began her impressive music career at 13 as a piano prodigy dazzling audiences performing Mozart's “Concerto for Two Pianos”, but the hardluck tales and rugged sensitivity of folk revival music by artists such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger seduced her away from a life as a concert pianist. Her path pointed to a lifelong love affair with the guitar and pursuit of emotional truth in lyrics. The focus and regimented practice of classical music, however, would be a source of strength to her inner core as she navigated the highs and lows of the music business.

In 1961, she released her masterful debut, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, which featured interpretative works of social poets of the time such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Tom Paxton. This began a wonderfully fertile thirty-five year creative relationship with Jac Holzman and Elektra Records. Around this time Judy became a tastemaker within the thriving Greenwich Village folk community, and brought other singer-songwriters to a wider audience, including poet/musician Leonard Cohen – and musicians Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman. Throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and up to the present, she has remained a vital artist, enriching her catalog with critically acclaimed albums while balancing a robust touring schedule.

On September 18, 2015, Judy will release her first studio album in four years, Strangers Again. She invited a cast of icons and young talents to sing with her on this fresh collection, from Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne and Jeff Bridges to Glen Hansard, Ari Hest and Bhi Bhiman. Judy delicately soars over a revitalized “Send In The Clowns” and breathes new life into “Hallelujah.” She puts her indelible touch on songs by Leonard Bernstein, Randy Newman, James Taylor and more.

In 2012 she released the CD/DVD Judy Collins Live At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art which aired on PBS. This special television program was nominated for a New York Emmy and won a Bronze Medal at the 2013 New York Festival International Television & Film Awards. Based on it's success, in 2014 she filmed another spectacular show in Ireland at Dromoland Castle.Live In Ireland was released in 2014. This program also won a Bronze Medal at the 2014 New York Festival International Television & Film Awards and the program will broadcast on PBS in 2014 and 2015.

Judy has also authored several books, including the powerful and inspiring,Sanity Grace. For her most recent title, the memoirSweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music, she reaches deeply inside and, with unflinching candor, recalls her turbulent childhood, extraordinary rise to fame, her romance with Stephen Stills, her epic victories over depression and alcoholism, and her redemption through embracing a healthy and stable lifestyle and finding true love with Louis Nelson, her partner of 30 years. In addition, she remains a social activist, representing UNICEF and numerous other causes. She is the director (along with Jill Godmillow) of an Academy Award-nominated film about Antonia Brico ‐ PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN, the first woman to conduct major symphonies around the world ‐ and Judy's classical piano teacher when she was young.

Judy Collins is as creatively vigorous as ever, writing, touring worldwide, and nurturing fresh talent. She is a modern day Renaissance woman who is also an accomplished filmmaker, record label head, musical mentor, and an in-demand keynote speaker for mental health and suicide prevention. She continues to create music of hope and healing that lights up the world and speaks to the heart.



http://www.npr.org/2016/06/30/484192533/bipartisan-disapproval-follows-bill-clintons-meeting-with-loretta-lynch

Bipartisan Disapproval Follows Bill Clinton's Meeting With Loretta Lynch
Heard on All Things Considered
CARRIE JOHNSON
June 30, 2016 2:06 PM ET

Photograph -- Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she discussed family, golf and travel with Bill Clinton — not ongoing Justice Department investigations. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
POLITICS -- Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton Met Amid Email Investigation


A strange thing is uniting Democrats and Republicans in Washington: the widespread disapproval of a meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac in Arizona.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch speaks at a June 22 news conference in Washington.

Lynch told reporters the impromptu conversation on her government aircraft in Phoenix on Monday centered on social issues, from talk of grandchildren and Clinton's golf game to their recent travels. Nothing came up, the attorney general said, about any ongoing Justice Department investigations.

But the chat took place in the midst of an FBI investigation into the security of Hillary Clinton's private email server, which she used to conduct government business as secretary of state. And that's creating a major appearance problem for the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House and the top federal prosecutor in the country.

Democratic political strategist David Axelrod tweeted:

David Axelrod ✔ @davidaxelrod
I take @LorettaLynch & @billclinton at their word that their convo in Phoenix didn't touch on probe. But foolish to create such optics.
8:19 AM - 30 Jun 2016 · Chicago, IL, United States

On CNN, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., praised the attorney general for her law enforcement bona fides but offered this advice: "I think she should have said, 'look, I recognize you have a long record of leadership on fighting crime but this is not the time for us to have that conversation. After the election is over, I welcome your advise and input.'"

“He put her in a very difficult position.” Stephen Gillers.

Clinton's political opponent in the race for the White House was less measured. Republican Donald Trump told radio talk show host Mike Gallagher the meeting was "terrible."

"I think it's the biggest story, one of the big stories of this week of this month, of this year," Trump declared. "I've been talking about the rigged system, how it's rigged and, you know, this is terrible ... You see a thing like this and even in terms of judgment, how bad of judgment is it for him or for her to do this? I mean, who would do this? "

The number two Republican in the U.S. Senate, John Cornyn, had been calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Clinton email set-up since last September. In congressional hearings since then, Cornyn has pushed the attorney general about the independence of the inquiry and whether the White House was receiving updates on the status of the case.

Cornyn said the disclosure of the meeting between Bill Clinton and Lynch only heightened his concerns. "'This incident does nothing to instill confidence in the American people that her department can fully and fairly conduct this investigation, and that's why a special counsel is needed now more than ever," Cornyn said in a statement.

From the standpoint of legal ethics, Lynch did nothing wrong, said New York University law school professor Stephen Gillers. Gillers said he didn't think the attorney general needed to recuse herself from overseeing the email probe. But Gillers took a sterner tone with Bill Clinton.

"It was the height of insensitivity for the former president to approach the attorney general," Gillers said. "He put her in a very difficult position. She wasn't really free to say she wouldn't talk to a former president," after Clinton boarded her plane in Arizona.

"He jeopardized her independence and did create an appearance of impropriety going on to her plane," Gillers added.

Gillers said he takes Lynch at her word that no sensitive law enforcement matters came up in the 30-minute airport chat.

But, he said, the episode "feeds the dominant narrative that the Clintons don't follow the usual rules, that they're free to have back channel communications like this one and that's true even if we assume as I do that nothing improper was said. The public will be suspicious."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he didn't want to "second guess" Lynch and that her 30-year career in law enforcement should be a source of trust.



“From the standpoint of legal ethics, Lynch did nothing wrong, said New York University law school professor Stephen Gillers. Gillers said he didn't think the attorney general needed to recuse herself from overseeing the email probe. But Gillers took a sterner tone with Bill Clinton. "It was the height of insensitivity for the former president to approach the attorney general," Gillers said. "He put her in a very difficult position. She wasn't really free to say she wouldn't talk to a former president," after Clinton boarded her plane in Arizona. "He jeopardized her independence and did create an appearance of impropriety going on to her plane," Gillers added.” While this is another of the imprudent actions of Clinton, it’s a small matter, I’m pretty sure, since there is no proof at all that they talked about anything to do with Hillary’s investigation. Nonetheless, Axelrod’s statement below really “says it all!”

David Axelrod ✔ @davidaxelrod
I take @LorettaLynch & @billclinton at their word that their convo in Phoenix didn't touch on probe. But foolish to create such optics.
8:19 AM - 30 Jun 2016 · Chicago, IL, United States

Hate Crimes US Overview, June 29, 2016
Compiled by Lucy Maness Warner


One conclusion I have come to in looking at these articles below is that I am not in favor of complete “freedom of speech;” and that if the society or the individuals within it are greatly harmed, it should be punishable as a crime. Making our nation a cesspool of vicious actions toward “outsiders” is an introduction to a state of chaos if it continues. I certainly do not think all the racist and other hateful speech (“free speech”) that we are having lately is good for our country, despite the fact that the far Rightwing individuals, no matter what their party, tend to cry out that their “rights” are being abridged.

Such a diatribe about unbounded individual rights is not a rational means of solving our growing societal problem; is directly harmful to the victims even if the assault isn’t physical in nature; and it’s hateful to all decent people who have a sense of fairness and empathy for other life forms. One of my father’s sayings was (misquoted) “Your rights end where my nose begins.” A better quotation comes from http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/15/liberty-fist-nose/ is “Your Liberty To Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins.” According to “quoteinvestigator,” four (at least) men have been given as the originator of this statement, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.? John B. Finch? John Stuart Mill? Abraham Lincoln? Zechariah Chafee, Jr.?” Whoever said it, it is apropos. We are at a point at which we must move forward toward a greater level of civilization or fall back into barbarism. It’s fish or cut bait.

The article below by “civilrights.org” is very long, but also detailed and informative, which gives me some idea as to where our laws in this country should go, if we are to work against the hate filled society that we are rapidly becoming. This is not what Christianity is supposed to achieve. When I was growing up in the 1950s it was a problem, but not one that was in the newspaper particularly, or at least not spoken frequently terminology among the people I knew, as it is increasingly today. There's no question in my mind that it's largely economic, but also the old tradition of White Supremacy, and the election of a black president is the proximate cause. In those days it was more the visible and obvious fact that the old Jim Crow laws were on the books, with separate facilities in most public arenas.

http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/initiatives_awards/students_in_action/debate_hate.html
http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/nature-and-magnitude.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/free-speech-isnt-free/283672/
http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/nature-and-magnitude.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/



SO WHEN IS SPEECH ACTIONABLE?


http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/initiatives_awards/students_in_action/debate_hate.html

Students In Action
Debating the “Mighty Constitutional Opposites”

Debating Hate Speech

Hate speech is speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits. Should hate speech be discouraged? The answer is easy—of course! However, developing such policies runs the risk of limiting an individual’s ability to exercise free speech. When a conflict arises about which is more important—protecting community interests or safeguarding the rights of the individual—a balance must be found that protects the civil rights of all without limiting the civil liberties of the speaker.

In this country there is no right to speak fighting words—those words without social value, directed to a specific individual, that would provoke a reasonable member of the group about whom the words are spoken. For example, a person cannot utter a racial or ethnic epithet to another if those words are likely to cause the listener to react violently. However, under the First Amendment, individuals do have a right to speech that the listener disagrees with and to speech that is offensive and hateful.

Think about it. It’s always easier to defend someone’s right to say something with which you agree. But in a free society, you also have a duty to defend speech to which you may strongly object.

Acts Speak Louder than Words
One way to deal effectively with hate speech is to create laws and policies that discourage bad behavior but do not punish bad beliefs. Another way of saying this is to create laws and policies that do not attempt to define hate speech as hate crimes, or “acts.” In two recent hate crime cases, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that acts, but not speech, may be regulated by law.

R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377 (1992), involved the juvenile court proceeding of a white 14-year-old who burned a cross on the front lawn of the only black family in a St. Paul, Minn., neighborhood. Burning a cross is a very hateful thing to do: it is one of the symbols of the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that has spread hatred and harm throughout this country. The burning cross clearly demonstrated to this family that at least this youth did not welcome them in the neighborhood. The family brought charges, and the boy was prosecuted under a Minnesota criminal law that made it illegal to place, on public or private property, a burning cross, swastika, or other symbol likely to arouse “anger, alarm, or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, or gender.” The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Minnesota law was unconstitutional because it violated the youth’s First Amendment free speech rights.

Note that the Court did not rule that the act itself—burning a cross on the family’s front lawn—was legal. In fact, the youth could have been held criminally responsible for damaging property or for threatening or intimidating the family. Instead, the law was defective because it improperly focused on the motivation for—the thinking that results in—criminal behavior rather than on criminal behavior itself. It attempted to punish the youth for the content of his message, not for his actions.

In the second case, Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U.S. 476 (1993), Mitchell and several black youth were outside a movie theater after viewing Mississippi Burning, in which several blacks are beaten. A white youth happened to walk by, and Mitchell yelled, “There goes a white boy; go get him!” Mitchell and the others attacked and beat the boy.

In criminal law, penalties are usually based on factors such as the seriousness of the act, whether it was accidental or intentional, and the harm it caused to the victim. It is also not unusual to have crimes treated more harshly depending upon who the victim is. For example, in most states battery (beating someone) is punished more harshly if the victim is a senior citizen, a young child, a police officer, or a teacher.

Under Wisconsin law, the penalty for battery is increased if the offender intentionally selects the victim “because of the race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation and national origin or ancestry of that person.” The Supreme Court ruled in Wisconsin v. Mitchell that this increased penalty did not violate the free speech rights of the accused. The Court reasoned that the penalty was increased because the act itself was directed at a particular victim, not because of Mitchell’s thoughts.

Libertarian and Communitarian Perspectives
There is a range of approaches to when hate speech might be regulated. On one end is the libertarian perspective; on the other, the communitarian. In both R.A.V. and Mitchell, the Supreme Court took the libertarian approach.

Libertarians believe that individuals have the right to free speech and that government should be able to limit it only for the most compelling reasons. Most libertarians recognize fighting words as an example of a sufficiently compelling reason to limit free speech. Notwithstanding the libertarian viewpoint, the courts have been careful to interpret this exception narrowly.

Communitarians take a different approach. They believe that the community’s well-being is society’s most important goal and that an individual’s right to free speech may be limited in the interests of community harmony. They believe that treating people with fairness and dignity justifies at least some free-speech restrictions-that eliminating or reducing hate speech is a sufficiently compelling goal to justify government regulation. Communitarians would expand the fighting words doctrine to allow for increased government regulation.

Can a middle ground be found—a way to accommodate both the communitarian and libertarian perspectives? Perhaps so. Government has the obligation to protect speech by disallowing laws that are too restrictive, yet it can also encourage individuals to respect each other.

Success on Campus

Here’s how one community recently approached an incidence of hate speech by calling attention to it rather than attempting to suppress it—by encouraging speech that pointed out how out of place the hate speech was in a community that values the dignity of all.

Matt Hale, a notorious racist, was recently asked to speak at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Hale is the leader of the World of the Creator, a white supremacist group. His presence on campus was controversial. Several students, faculty, and community members thought that the university should cancel his appearance. Instead, he was allowed to speak. Hale’s audience was not impressed. He came across as having a confusing set of beliefs that were out of place in a democratic, multicultural society. Several faculty and students spoke out against his message of hatred.

By allowing Hale to speak, the university recognized free speech rights but also provided a means for community members to respond. Communitarian and libertarian goals were both met.

Activities

Activities related to the hate speech debate.



http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/free-speech-isnt-free/283672/

Free Speech Isn't Free -- A system that tolerates "hate speech" is probably superior to the alternatives, but defenders of an absolute right can't pretend no one gets hurt.

GARRETT EPPS
FEB 7, 2014

Photograph -- Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church protest outside a prayer rally in Houston in 2011. (Richard Carson/Reuters)
RELATED STORY -- Jonathan Rauch: The Case for Hate Speech


Millions of Americans support free speech. They firmly believe that we are the only country to have free speech, and that anyone who even questions free speech had damn well better shut the #$%& up.

Case in point: In a recent essay in The Daily Beast, Fordham Law Professor Thane Rosenbaum notes that European countries and Israel outlaw certain kinds of speech—Nazi symbols, anti-Semitic slurs, and Holocaust denial, and speech that incites hatred on the basis of race, religion, and so forth. The American law of free speech, he argues, assumes that the only function of law is to protect people against physical harm; it tolerates unlimited emotional harm. Rosenbaum cites recent studies (regrettably, without links) that show that "emotional harm is equal in intensity to that experienced by the body, and is even more long-lasting and traumatic." Thus, the victims of hate speech, he argues, suffer as much as or more than victims of hate crime. "Why should speech be exempt from public welfare concerns when its social costs can be even more injurious [than that of physical injury]?"

I believe—strongly—in the free-speech system we have. But most of the responses to Rosenbaum leave me uneasy. I think defenders of free speech need to face two facts: First, the American system of free speech is not the only one; most advanced democracies maintain relatively open societies under a different set of rules. Second, our system isn't cost-free. Repressing speech has costs, but so does allowing it. The only mature way to judge the system is to look at both sides of the ledger.

Most journalistic defenses of free speech take the form of "shut up and speak freely." The Beast itself provides Exhibit A: Cultural news editor Michael Moynihan announced that "we're one of the few countries in the Western world that takes freedom of speech seriously," and indignantly defended it against "those who pretend to be worried about trampling innocents in a crowded theater but are more interested in trampling your right to say whatever you damn well please." To Moynihan, Rosenbaum could not possibly be sincere or principled; he is just a would-be tyrant. The arguments about harm were "thin gruel"—not even worth answering. Moynihan's response isn't really an argument; it's a defense of privilege, like a Big Tobacco paean to the right to smoke in public.

In contrast to this standard-issue tantrum is a genuinely thoughtful and appropriate response from Jonathan Rauch at The Volokh Conspiracy, now a part of the Washington Post's web empire. Rauch responds that painful though hate speech may be for individual members of minorities or other targeted groups, its toleration is to their great collective benefit, because in a climate of free intellectual exchange hateful and bigoted ideas are refuted and discredited, not merely suppressed .... That is how we gay folks achieved the stunning gains we've made in America: by arguing toward truth.

I think he's right. But the argument isn't complete without conceding something most speech advocates don't like to admit:

Free speech does do harm.

It does a lot of harm.

And while it may produce social good much of the time, there's no guarantee—no "invisible hand" of the intellectual market—that ensures that on balance it does more good than harm. As Rauch says, it has produced a good result in the case of the gay-rights movement. But sometimes it doesn't.

Europeans remember a time when free speech didn't produce a happy ending. They don't live in a North Korea-style dystopia. They do "take free speech seriously," and in fact many of them think their system of free speech is freer than ours. Their view of human rights was forged immediately after World War II, and one lesson they took from it was that democratic institutions can be destroyed from within by forces like the Nazis who use mass communication to dehumanize whole races and religions, preparing the population to accept exclusion and even extermination. For that reason, some major human-rights instruments state that "incitement" to racial hatred, and "propaganda for war," not only may but must be forbidden. The same treaties strongly protect freedom of expression and opinion, but they set a boundary at what we call "hate speech."

It's a mistake to think that the U.S. system goes back to the foundation of the republic. At the end of World War II, in fact, our law was about the same as Europe's is today. The Supreme Court in Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952) upheld a state "group libel" law that made it a crime to publish anything that "exposes the citizens of any race, color, creed or religion to contempt, derision, or obloquy." European countries outlawed fascist and neo-Nazi parties; in the 1951 case Dennis v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld a federal statute that in essence outlawed the Communist Party as a "conspiracy" to advocate overthrowing the U.S. government. Justice Robert H. Jackson, who had been the chief U.S. prosecutor of Nazi war criminals, concurred in Dennis, warning that totalitarianism had produced "the intervention between the state and the citizen of permanently organized, well financed, semi-secret and highly disciplined political organizations." A totalitarian party "denies to its own members at the same time the freedom to dissent, to debate, to deviate from the party line, and enforces its authoritarian rule by crude purges, if nothing more violent." Beauharnais, Dennis, and similar cases were criticized at the time, and today they seem grievously wrong. But many thoughtful people supported those results at the time.

[LMW -- I have inserted this definition because the term “obloquy” was unfamiliar to me. Definition: Simple Definition of “obloquy” -- 1: harsh or critical statements about someone, 2: the condition of someone who lost the respect of other people]

U.S. law only began to protect hateful speech in the 1960s. The reason: Repressive Southern states were trying to criminalize the civil-rights movement.

U.S. law only began to protect hateful speech during the 1960s. The reason, in retrospect, is clear—repressive Southern state governments were trying to criminalize the civil-rights movement for its advocacy of change. White Southerners claimed (and many really believed) that the teachings of figures like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X were "hate speech" and would produce "race war." By the end of the decade, the Court had held that governments couldn't outlaw speech advocating law violation or even violent revolution. Neither Black Panthers nor the KKK nor Nazi groups could be marked off as beyond the pale purely on the basis of their message.

Those decisions paved the way for triumphs by civil rights, feminist, and gay-rights groups. But let's not pretend that nobody got hurt along the way. The price for our freedom—a price in genuine pain and intimidation—was paid by Holocaust survivors in Skokie and by civil-rights and women's-rights advocates subjected to vile abuse in public and private, and by gay men and lesbians who endured decades of deafening homophobic propaganda before the tide of public opinion turned.

Free speech can't be reaffirmed by drowning out its critics. It has to be defended as, in the words of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "an experiment, as all life is an experiment."

I admire people on both sides who admit that we can't be sure we've drawn the line properly. In Dennis, the case about Communists, Justice Felix Frankfurter voted to uphold the convictions. That vote is a disgrace; but it is slightly mitigated by this sentence in his concurrence: "Suppressing advocates of overthrow inevitably will also silence critics who do not advocate overthrow but fear that their criticism may be so construed .... It is a sobering fact that, in sustaining the convictions before us, we can hardly escape restriction on the interchange of ideas." When Holmes at last decided that subversive speech should be protected, he did so knowing full well that his rule, if adopted, might begin the death agony of democracy. "If in the long run the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to be accepted by the dominant forces of the community," he wrote in his dissent in Gitlow v. New York, "the only meaning of free speech is that they should be given their chance and have their way."

The reason that we allow speech cannot be that it is harmless. It must be that we prefer that people harm each other, and society, through speech than through bullets and bombs. American society is huge, brawling, and deeply divided against itself. Social conflict and change are bruising, ugly things, and in democracies they are carried on with words. That doesn't mean there aren't casualties, and it doesn't mean the right side will always win.

For that reason, questions about the current state of the law shouldn't be met with trolling and condescension. If free speech cannot defend itself in free debate, then it isn't really free speech at all; it's just a fancier version of the right to smoke.



This Atlantic article on the problems of tolerating hate speech alongside the constitutionally declared freedom of speech looks at the pros and cons of completely free speech. I personally do value free speech in general, because how else can we discuss and decide controversies? However hate speech of any kind is not a valid part of that approach to a meeting of the minds, and instead stirs up such a dangerous level of discord that we could find ourselves living in an environment like the old Western stories – Gunsmoke, etc. – in which a gang of riotous gun-carrying men totally disrupt order.

Recent free speech advocates mainly from the Tea Party, KKK and Militia groups have been complaining about their rights to discriminate against anyone and everyone, against whom we who are liberal in our views must speak out. The well-known exceptions for the irresponsible “crowded theater” example, advocating the overthrow of the government and the concept of “fighting words” do modify such a right. To me, hate speech is clearly and uncontrovertibly “fighting words,” and shouldn’t be allowed. Likewise refusing service on the base of any group identity characteristic, is harmful to society as a whole.

I will point up one more thing. Speech is inevitably a form of persuasion. Persuasion to incite violent harm, from assault of any person to “the overthrow of the US government,” is not allowed, so it seems to me that the wording in the Constitution should be broadened considerably to exclude the growing hate movement as being actionable in a court of law. I don’t know how great a penalty I would assign to it, but it is far from being unimportant. The vileness that has emerged in the last 30 years or so is making our country difficult to live within, in my opinion, and I dread the thought of an actual “race war” as some Rightists have been predicting lately -- almost with glee.



As for advocating the overthrow of the government, I found the following. Speech is not yet totally free on this subject.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread556577/pg1

Planning on Overthrowing the government? It's a Crime!
uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 115 > § 2384

Seditious conspiracy

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

You could be subject to a fine. Or you could be jailed for up to 20 years.

Sorry, your little song and dance with the Declaration of Independence doesn't cut it. It in fact is a crime to conspire to bring down the United States Government by force. Sorry internet revolutionaries. But those are the facts. In fact in a way you are putting a lot of liability on the ownership of ATS for discussing such things on a public forum.



This article gives a broader view on how our justice system and laws are constructed:

https://www.quora.com/Do-U-S-citizens-have-the-right-to-overthrow-the-U-S-government-If-so-please-provide-proof-the-constitution

Gary Porter, I teach Saturday Seminars on the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions.
1.7k Views · Gary has 120+ answers in U.S. Constitution

The Constitution is not our only document of government in this country. Four documents have been declared by Congress to represent our "Organic Law:" The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and The Northwest Ordinance of 1787. While the Supreme Court has rendered conflicting opinions as to the legal effect that should be given to Organic Law, we should note that the Declaration is on equal footing with the Constitution in that context.

The Court has called the Declaration the "thought and spirit" of our law while the Constitution is the body and letter of our law. The Constitution was a voluntary compact of either the states or the people, depending on your point of view, but both agree it was voluntary. Compacts entered voluntarily can generally be exited voluntarily unless the exit is positively proscribed by the compact. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits the voluntary withdrawal of a state or a portion of the people from the Constitution’s compact (The Articles of Confederation were declared to create a “perpetual league of friendship,” but were of course replaced by the Constitution. The Declaration, on the other hand, positively expresses a right, based on natural law, of replacing one government with another when the former has proven, through a long "train of abuses and usurpations" to have become tyrannical.

Unfortunately, Americans have largely abandoned natural law theory and it was forcefully displaced in most law schools by “legal positivism” in the late 1800’s by the efforts of Christopher Columbus Langdell, Dean of the Harvard Law School.

To abandon natural law in a legal system does not mean it no longer exists, only that it no longer enjoys the prominence it once did. Natural law is making a resurgence in some quarters.

If you want the American people to believe they can still replace one governmental system with another (which is what is generally afoot when an “overthrow” occurs) you should re-introduce them to natural law.



Who is Gregory lemke? :

Greg Lemke
Greg Lemke was a Democratic candidate for District 9A, Minnesota House of Representatives in the November 2, 2010 state legislative election.

Elections

2010
See also: Minnesota House of Representatives elections, 2010
Lemke ran for election to the District 9A seat in 2010. He had no primary opposition. He was defeated by Morrie Lanning (R) in the general election on November 2, 2010.[1]

LEMKE ON LAWS ABOUT BANNING OR LEGALLY CONTAINING CRIMES OF ISLAMIC PEOPLE IN THE US -- As for banning a religion or group, such as Donald Trump just recently claimed he would try to do, see the following.


https://votesmart.org/candidate/76137/greg-lemke#.V3QeovkrIb0
Greg Lemke's Political Summary

Rating: Greg Lemke was rated F by National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (Positions on Gun Rights)
11/12/2010
Endorsed: Greg Lemke was endorsed by Minnesota AFL-CIO
Endorsed: Greg Lemke was endorsed by Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota
09/30/2010
Endorsed: Greg Lemke was endorsed by Gay & Lesbian Political Victory Fund
09/28/2010
Positions: Greg Lemke has failed the 2010 Political Courage Test.
09/03/2010
Endorsed: Greg Lemke was endorsed by Clean Water Action
08/20/2010
Endorsed: Greg Lemke was endorsed by Stonewall DFL


I was afraid that Lemke might be a radical rightist, but he’s a Democrat instead and has been endorsed by liberal groups. Unless I misread this material, however, he seems to be leaning toward the Trump position. On the issue of constraining Islamic radicals in this country from doing harm, he wrote the following interesting suggestions.


http://www.gregorylemke.com/?p=1402

Laws Making Islam de facto Illegal in the United States

The Law United States Code re: Enemies of the State as published by Cornell Law School HERE:

From Ban Islam Now

Legal Indictments Likely to Succeed Against US Mosques
1.Sedition
2.Seditious Conspiracy
3.Insurrection
4.Misprision of Treason [Definition: mis·pri·sion -- misˈpriZHən/ Noun LAW, historical -- “the deliberate concealment of one's knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony.”]
5.Treason
6.Advocating Overthrow of Government
7.Teaching the Duty and Desirability of Overthrowing the US Government
8.Subversion of the US Government, Laws, Constitution and Amendments
9.Aiding, Abetting, Adhering, Financing and Giving Comfort to Enemies of the State
10.Printing, Publishing, editing, issuing, circulating, distributing and publicly displaying materials advocating, advising the desirability and propriety of overthrowing and destroying the US Government and Constitution
11.Organizing, Enlisting, recruiting for and affiliating with societies, groups and assemblies that advocate the above
12.Teaching, calling for and training Muslims to terrorize, intimidate and subjugate non-Muslim polities through violence, sabotage and murder
13.Calling for the Fatwah murder of: 1. Atheists / Polytheists / Gays / Apostates / Adulterers / Critics/
2.Cartoonists / Artists / Jews / Christians / Kaffirs / Infidels / Unbelievers
14.Q’uranic Authorization for every Muslim to execute any non-Muslim at his own discretion
15.Orders to Kill Every Jew

These Laws make Islam de facto illegal in the United States

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 115CHAPTER 115—TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 115 > § 2384§ 2384. Seditious conspiracy

www.liveuptoFreedom.com


National Socialist Party of America, march in Skokie IL in 1977

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_America_v._Village_of_Skokie

National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977) (also known as Smith v. Collin; sometimes referred to as the Skokie Affair), was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with freedom of assembly. The outcome was that the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the use of the swastika is a symbolic form of free speech entitled to First Amendment protections and determined that the swastika itself did not constitute "fighting words." Its ruling allowed the National Socialist Party of America to march.[1]

Background[edit]
In 1977 Frank Collin, the leader of National Socialist Party of America, announced the party's intention to march through Skokie, Illinois. In the predominantly Jewish community, one in six residents was a Holocaust survivor or was directly related to one.[2] Originally, the NSPA had planned a political rally in Marquette Park in Chicago; however the Chicago authorities blocked these plans by requiring the NSPA to post a public safety insurance bond and by banning political demonstrations in Marquette Park.

On behalf of the NSPA, the ACLU challenged the injunction issued by the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois that prohibited marchers at the proposed Skokie rally from wearing Nazi uniforms or displaying swastikas. The ACLU was represented by civil rights attorney Burton Joseph.[3][4] The challengers argued that the injunction violated the First Amendment rights of the marchers to express themselves.

Prior history[edit]
Both the Illinois Appellate Court and the Illinois Supreme Court refused to stay the injunction. The case was sent to the Supreme Court of the United States.[1]

On June 14, 1977, the Supreme Court ordered Illinois to hold a hearing on their ruling against the National Socialist Party of America, emphasizing that "if a State seeks to impose a restraint on First Amendment rights, it must provide strict procedural safeguards, including immediate appellate review... Absent such review, the State must instead allow a stay. The order of the Illinois Supreme Court constituted a denial of that right."[1] On remand, the Illinois Appellate Court eliminated the injunction against everything but the swastika. The Illinois Supreme Court heard the case again, focusing on the First Amendment implications of display of the swastika. Skokie attorneys argued that for Holocaust survivors, seeing the swastika was like being physically attacked.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the use of the swastika is a symbolic form of free speech entitled to First Amendment protections and determined that the swastika itself did not constitute "fighting words." Its ruling allowed the National Socialist Party of America to march.[1]

Effect of the decision[edit]
In the summer of 1978, in response to the Supreme Court's decision, some Holocaust survivors set up a museum on the Main Street of Skokie to commemorate those who had died in the concentration camps. Ultimately the NSPA failed to carry through its march in Skokie. (Gaining permission in Chicago, they marched there instead).

See also[edit]
Skokie (film)



http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/nature-and-magnitude.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

Confronting the New Faces of Hate: Hate Crimes In America 2009
LCCR Education Fund

Hate Crimes in America: The Nature and Magnitude of the Problem

For many Americans, the election of President Barack Obama appeared to close the book on a long history of inequality. But the spate of racially-motivated hate crimes and violence against minorities and immigrants that occurred in the final weeks before and after Election Day makes clear that a final victory over prejudice and racial hostility remains elusive.

Violence committed against individuals because of their race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation remains a serious problem in America. In the nearly twenty years since the 1990 enactment of the Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA), the number of hate crimes reported has consistently ranged around 7,500 or more annually, or nearly one every hour of the day. These data almost certainly understate the true numbers of hate crimes committed. Victims may be fearful of authorities and thus may not report these crimes. Or local authorities do not accurately report these violent incidents as hate crimes and thus fail to report them to the federal government.

All Americans have a stake in reducing hate crimes. These crimes are intended to intimidate not only the individual victim, but all members of the victim's community, and even members of other communities historically victimized by hate. By making these victims and communities fearful, angry, and suspicious of other groups — and of the authorities who are charged with protecting them — these incidents fragment and isolate our communities, tearing apart the interwoven fabric of American society.

In one of the most disturbing developments of recent years, some anti-immigration groups, claiming to warn people about the impact of illegal immigration, have inflamed the immigration debate by invoking the dehumanizing, racist stereotypes and bigotry of hate groups. It is no coincidence that as some voices in the anti-immigration debate have demonized immigrants as "invaders" who poison our communities with disease and criminality, haters have taken matters into their own hands.

With society and individuals under increasing stress due to unemployment and hard economic times, a tough law enforcement response to hate crimes, as well as education and programming to reduce violent bigotry, is urgently needed. In 1992, the American Psychological Association reported that "prejudice and discrimination" were leading causes of violence among American youth.1 Failure to address this unique type of crime could cause an isolated incident to explode into widespread community tension.

Eliminating prejudice requires that Americans develop respect for cultural differences and establish dialogue across racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious boundaries. Education, awareness, and acceptance of group differences are the cornerstones of a long-term solution to prejudice, discrimination, and bigotry. Hate crime laws and effective responses to hate violence by public officials and law enforcement authorities can play an essential role in deterring and preventing these crimes, creating a healthier and stronger society for all Americans.

Hate In America: A 2009 Environmental Scan

Since Congress enacted the Hate Crime Statistics Act in 1990, the FBI has been mandated to collect hate crime data from law enforcement agencies across America. Although the FBI's annual HCSA report clearly undercounts hate crimes, as will be discussed below, it still provides the best snapshot of the magnitude of the hate violence problem in America. As the 2007 HCSA report, the most recent available, makes clear, violence directed at individuals, houses of worship, and community institutions because of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin remains unacceptably high and continues to be a serious problem in America.

As documented by the FBI's 2007 HCSA report:

Approximately 51 percent of the reported hate crimes were race-based, with 18.4 percent on the basis of religion, 16.6 percent on the basis of sexual orientation, and 13.2 percent on the basis of ethnicity.

Approximately 69 percent of the reported race-based crimes were directed against blacks, 19 percent of the crimes were directed against whites, and 4.9 percent of the crimes were directed against Asians or Pacific Islanders. The number of hate crimes directed against individuals on the basis of their national origin/ethnicity increased to 1,007 in 2007 from 984 in 2006.

For the fourth year in a row, the number of reported crimes directed against Hispanics increased — from 576 in 2006 to 595 in 2007.

Though the overall number of hate crimes decreased slightly, the number of hate crimes directed at gay men and lesbians increased almost six percent — from 1,195 in 2006 to 1,265 in 2007.

Religion-based crimes decreased, from 1,462 in 2006 to 1,400 in 2007, but the number of reported anti-Jewish crimes increased slightly, from 967 in 2006 to 969 in 2007 — 12.7 percent of all hate crimes reported in 2007 — and 69 percent of the reported hate crimes based on religion.

Reported crimes against Muslims decreased from 156 to 115, 8.2 percent of the religion-based crimes. This is still more than four times the number of hate crimes reported against Muslims in 2000.2

The FBI HCSA Data Undercounts the Number of Hate Crimes

In 2007, 13,241 U.S. law enforcement agencies participated in the FBI's HCSA data collection effort — the largest number of police agencies in the seventeen-year history of the Act. Yet, only 2,025 of these participating agencies — 15.3 percent — reported even a single hate crime to the FBI.

As in past years, the vast majority of the participating agencies (84.7 percent) reported zero hate crimes. This does not mean that they failed to report; rather, they affirmatively reported to the FBI that no hate crimes occurred in their jurisdiction. In addition, more than 4,000 U.S. police agencies did not participate in this HCSA data collection effort — including at least four agencies in cities with populations of over 250,000 and at least 21 agencies in cities with populations between 100,000 and 250,000.

In contrast to the FBI's HCSA data, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2005 reported sharply higher numbers of hate crimes committed in the U.S.:

An annual average of 210,000 hate crime victimizations occurred from July 2000 through December 2003. During that period an average of 191,000 hate crime incidents involving one or more victims occurred annually. Victims also indicated that 92,000 of these hate crime victimizations were reported to police. These estimates were derived from victim reports to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).3
Studies by independent researchers and law enforcement organizations reveal that some of the most likely targets of hate violence are also the least likely to report these crimes to the police. There are many cultural and language barriers to reporting hate crimes to law enforcement officials. Some immigrant hate crime victims fear reprisals or deportation if incidents are reported. Many new Americans come from countries in which residents mistrust and would never call the police — especially if they were in trouble. Gay, lesbian, and transgender victims, facing hostility, discrimination, and, possibly, family pressures may also be reluctant to come forward to report these crimes.

All this evidence strongly suggests a significant underreporting of hate crimes in the United States.

The Legal Landscape: The Scope of Hate Crime Laws in America

The vast majority of hate crimes are investigated and prosecuted by state and local law enforcement officials. In general, a hate crime is a criminal offense intentionally directed at an individual or property in whole or in part because of the victim's actual or perceived race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. However, each state defines the criminal activity that constitutes a hate crime differently, and the breadth of coverage of these laws varies from state to state.

Hate crimes are generally not separate and distinct criminal offenses. At present, 45 states and the District of Columbia have enacted hate crime penalty enhancement laws, many based on a model statute drafted by the Anti-Defamation League in 1981. Under these laws, a perpetrator can face more severe penalties if the prosecutor can demonstrate, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the victim was intentionally targeted by the perpetrator on the basis of his or her personal characteristics. Almost every state penalty enhancement hate crime law explicitly includes crimes directed against an individual on the basis of race, religion, and national origin/ethnicity. Currently, however, only 30 states and the District of Columbia include sexual orientation-based crimes in these hate crimes statutes; only 26 states and the District of Columbia include coverage of gender-based crimes; only eleven states and the District of Columbia include coverage of gender identity-based crimes; and only 30 states and the District of Columbia include coverage for disability-based crimes.

Next Section: The State of Hate: Escalating Hate Violence Against Immigrants

http://www.civilrights.org/publications/hatecrimes/escalating-violence.html

The State of Hate: Escalating Hate Violence Against Immigrants

The increase in hate crimes directed against Hispanics for the fourth consecutive year is particularly noteworthy and worrisome because the number of hate crimes committed against other racial, ethnic, and religious groups has over the same period shown either no increase or a decrease.

Anti-Hispanic Hate Crime Incidents
Chart showing the number of anti-Hispanic hate crimes rising from 426 in 2003 to 595 in 2007.
Source: FBI data

The increase in violence against Hispanics correlates closely with the increasingly heated debate over Comprehensive Immigration Reform and an escalation in the level of anti-immigrant vitriol on radio, television, and the Internet. While reasonable people can and will disagree about the parameters of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, in some instances, the commentary about immigration reform has not been reasonable; it has been inflammatory. Warned an April 2009 assessment from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "in some cases, anti-Immigration or strident pro-enforcement fervor has been directed against specific groups and has the potential to turn violent."

This toxic environment, in which hateful rhetoric targets immigrants while the number of hate crimes against Hispanics and others perceived to be immigrants steadily increases, has caused a heightened sense of fear in communities around the country.

The Role of Extremist Anti-Immigration Groups

Some groups opposing immigration reform, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA, have portrayed immigrants as responsible for numerous societal ills, often using stereotypes and outright bigotry. While these groups, and other similar organizations, have strived to position themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America, a closer look at the public record reveals that some of these organizations have disturbing links to or relationships with extremists in the anti-Immigration movement. These seemingly "legitimate" advocates against illegal immigration are frequently quoted in the mainstream media, have been called to testify before Congress, and often hold meetings with lawmakers and other public figures. This is one of the most disturbing developments of the past few years: the legitimization and mainstreaming of virulently anti-immigrant rhetoric that veers dangerously close to — and too often crosses the line beyond civil discourse over contentious immigration policy issues.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) have become increasingly concerned about the virulent anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric employed by a handful of groups and coalitions that have tried to position themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America. Recently, SPLC published The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of Intolerance4 , which investigated three of these groups and found:

Three Washington, D.C.-based immigration-restriction organizations stand at the nexus of the American nativist movement: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA. Although on the surface they appear quite different — the first, the country's best-known anti-immigrant lobbying group; the second, an "independent" think tank; and the third, a powerful grassroots organizer — they are fruits of the same poisonous tree.
FAIR, CIS and NumbersUSA are all part of a network of restrictionist organizations conceived and created by John Tanton, the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. Tanton has for decades been at the heart of the white nationalist scene. He has met with leading white supremacists, promoted anti-Semitic ideas, and associated closely with the leaders of a eugenicist foundation once described by a leading newspaper as a "neo-Nazi organization." He has made a series of racist statements about Latinos and worried that they were out-breeding whites. At one point, he wrote candidly that to maintain American culture, "a European-American majority" is required.
FAIR, which Tanton founded and where he remains on the board, has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Among the reasons are its acceptance of $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund, a group founded to promote the genes of white colonials that funds studies of race, intelligence and genetics. FAIR has also hired as key officials men who also joined white supremacist groups. It has board members who regularly write for hate publications. It promotes racist conspiracy theories about Latinos. And it has produced television programming featuring white nationalists.
CIS was conceived by Tanton and began life as a program of FAIR. CIS presents itself as a scholarly think tank that produces serious immigration studies meant to serve "the broad national interest." But the reality is that CIS has never found any aspect of immigration that it liked, and it has frequently manipulated data to achieve the results it seeks. Its executive director last fall posted an item on the conservative National Review Online website about Washington Mutual, a bank that had earlier issued a press release about its inclusion on a list of "Business Diversity Elites" compiled by Hispanic Business magazine. Over a copy of the bank's press release, the CIS leader posted a headline — "Cause and Effect?" — that suggested a link between the bank's opening its ranks to Latinos and its subsequent collapse.
Like CIS, NumbersUSA bills itself as an organization that operates on its own and rejects racism completely. In fact, NumbersUSA was for the first five years of its existence a program of U.S. Inc., a foundation run by Tanton to fund numerous nativist groups, and its leader was an employee of that foundation for a decade. He helped edit Tanton's racist journal, The Social Contract, and was personally introduced by Tanton to a leader of the Pioneer Fund. He also edited a book by Tanton and another Tanton employee that was banned by Canadian border officials as hate literature and on one occasion spoke to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a hate group which has called blacks "a retrograde species of humanity."
Together, FAIR, CIS and NumbersUSA form the core of the nativist lobby in America. In 2007, they were key players in derailing bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform that had been expected by many observers to pass. Today, these organizations are frequently treated as if they were legitimate, mainstream commentators on immigration. But the truth is that they were all conceived and birthed by a man who sees America under threat by nonwhite immigrants. And they have never strayed far from their roots.5
The Infiltration of Mainstream Media

The increasing number of shrill anti-Immigration reform commentaries from high profile national media personalities, including CNN's Lou Dobbs and Talk Show Network's The Savage Nation host Michael Savage, correlates closely with the increase in hate crimes against Hispanics. There is a direct connection between the tenor of this rhetoric and the daily lives of immigrants, and many fear that the unintended consequence of media celebrities vilifying immigrants will be an atmosphere in which some people will act on these demonizing screeds, violently targeting immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants.

The frequent appearance of extremist groups such as FAIR on mainstream media programs and even at Congressional hearings is extremely worrisome. After reviewing FAIR's virulent rhetoric, SPLC found:

None of this — or any other material evidencing the bigotry and racism that courses through the group — seems to have affected FAIR's media standing. In 2008, the group was quoted in mainstream media outlets nearly 500 times. FAIR staff have been featured several times on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," along with countless appearances on other television news shows. Dobbs even ran his radio program from a FAIR event in Washington, D.C. this past September. And, perhaps most remarkably of all, FAIR has been taken seriously by Congress, claiming on its home page that it has been asked to testify on immigration bills "more than any other organization in America."6
As Alex Nogales, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) has noted, "We are very respectful of the First Amendment and free speech, but the hateful rhetoric, particularly against the immigrant minority communities, espoused by irresponsible TV and radio talk show hosts on American airwaves needs to be addressed." NHMC has undertaken a study to quantify hate speech in commercial radio, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to open an inquiry into hate speech on the nation's airwaves, and requested that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) update its 1993 report, The Role of Telecommunications in Hate Crime.7 In that report, NTIA found "deeply troubling" examples where "telecommunications has been used to advocate or encourage the commission of hate crimes." But the report concluded that "the extent to which such messages (of hate) actually lead to the commission of crimes is unclear."8

On July 5, 2007, Michael Savage suggested America would be a better place if students staging a hunger strike in the hope of securing immigration reform legislation starved to death:

SAVAGE: Then there's the story of college students who are fasting out here in the Bay Area. They're illegal aliens and they want green cards simply because they're students. I don't understand what — how this two and two adds up. I would say, let them fast until they starve to death, then that solves the problem. Because then we won't have a problem about giving them green cards because they're illegal aliens; they don't belong here to begin with. They broke into the country; they're criminals.9
Like Savage, Lou Dobbs has also stated on his CNN show, Lou Dobbs Tonight, "illegal aliens are criminals." (Lou Dobbs Tonight transcript, 4/6/05). As NCLR has pointed out, illegal immigrants are not considered criminals under current U.S. law. NCLR has chronicled many of Lou Dobbs's other comments made on CNN about immigrants and immigration reform:

Dobbs has used the term "anchor babies" to refer to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, suggesting inaccurately that having a U.S. citizen child is a means of acquiring legal immigration status or being protected from deportation. (Lou Dobbs Tonight transcript, 3/31/05).
Dobbs refers frequently to illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States as the "invasion" and as an "army of invaders" (Lou Dobbs Tonight transcript, 3/31/06). One of his reporters referred to a visit from Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox as a "Mexican military incursion."
Dobbs linked illegal aliens to a host of diseases including tuberculosis, malaria, and leprosy. In 2005, a reporter on the show claimed that there had been 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the previous three years (Lou Dobbs Tonight transcript, 4/14/05). This claim has been disputed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.10 To date, and despite protests to the contrary, Dobbs has never acknowledged the error on his show.
Dobbs has featured several stories on Lou Dobbs Tonight concerning the "reconquest" of the American Southwest. In one 2005 segment, a map purportedly showing "Aztlan" was provided to the show by the Council of Conservative Citizens, a prominent White supremacist organization (Lou Dobbs Tonight transcript, 5/23/06).
Dobbs has also been a cheerleader for the Minuteman Project. He devoted extensive coverage to the Minuteman's first action in 2005, calling the group a "remarkable success." Minuteman leaders were frequent guests on Lou Dobbs Tonight, and on one occasion Dobbs wished one "all the success in the world."11
Dobbs featured on Lou Dobbs Tonight the late Madeline Cosman as a "medical expert" in a discussion of the diseases that illegal aliens are bringing into the country. Ms. Cosman was not a medical doctor, but a prominent anti-immigrant activist who stated that Mexican immigrants were prone to molesting children (Lou Dobbs Tonight transcript, 6/8/05).
As noted above, the Council of Conservative Citizens, one of the most well-known White supremacist groups in the country, was featured as a "source" in a 2006 segment on the show.12
On May 2, 2007, Dobbs held a special "Broken Borders" town hall meeting edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight in Hazleton, Pennsylvania to spotlight that town's passage of its "Illegal Immigrant Relief Act." This town ordinance sought to suspend the business permits and licenses of employers who hired "unlawful workers" or landlords who rented to illegal aliens. During the show, Dobbs praised the town: "Hazleton, the community, is leading the battle against illegal immigration, stepping in where the federal government has simply failed to perform its duty." The website of the Lou Dobbs Tonight show solicited contributions for the town's "legal defense fund" after a lawsuit filed by MALDEF and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) prevented the law from taking effect.13

Fourteen months later, 20 miles from Hazleton in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, Luis Ramirez, a 25 year-old Mexican and father of two, was murdered because of his ethnicity in a brutal beating allegedly by four current and former high school football players. The teenagers reportedly yelled, "This is Shenandoah, this is America, go back to Mexico," as well as ethnic slurs. They then repeatedly punched Ramirez, knocking him to the ground, and then kicked him multiple times in the head. As Ramirez lay unconscious, convulsing and foaming at the mouth, one of the assailants reportedly yelled "Tell your fucking Mexican friends to get the fuck out of Shenandoah or you'll be fucking laying next to them."

On May 1, 2009, a jury convicted two teens of simple assault, a misdemeanor, acquitting them of the most serious charges brought against them, including murder, aggravated assault, and ethnic intimidation. A third teen faces counts of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation in juvenile court, while a fourth pleaded guilty in federal court to violating Ramirez’s civil rights in exchange for charges of third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and related counts against him being dropped.

Shenandoah had been considering an ordinance similar to Hazelton's but held off after the ACLU and MALDEF lawsuit blocked it from taking effect. Still, the Hazelton ordinance caused considerable tension between the town's Hispanic and white communities, which had formerly enjoyed peaceful relations. "They (the Hispanic community) just didn't feel comfortable then," said Flor Gomez, whose family runs a Mexican restaurant in Shenandoah. As The New York Times reported, "Many people believe the debate fueled by Hazleton's actions helped create the environment that led to Mr. Ramirez's death."

"Clearly there were a lot of factors here," said Gladys Limón, a lawyer for MALDEF. "But I do believe that the inflammatory rhetoric in the immigration debate does have a correlation with increased violence against Latinos."14

Next Section: The State of Hate: White Supremacist Groups Growing

The number of hate groups operating in the United States continued to rise in 2008 and has grown by 54 percent since 2000 — an increase fueled last year by immigration fears, a failing economy, and the successful campaign of Barack Obama, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC identified 926 hate groups active in 2008, up more than four percent from the 888 groups in 2007 and far above the 602 groups documented in 2000.15

"Barack Obama's election has inflamed racist extremists who see it as another sign that their country is under siege by nonwhites," said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report, a SPLC quarterly investigative journal that monitors the radical right. "The idea of a black man in the White House, combined with the deepening economic crisis and continuing high levels of Latino immigration, has given white supremacists a real platform on which to recruit."16

The DHS assessment on right-wing extremism, which was provided to federal, state, and local law enforcement, warned that right-wing extremists "may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment."

In the days prior to the presidential election, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee and Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Arkansas were arrested by federal agents for allegedly plotting to assassinate Obama followed by a plan to engage in a multi-state "killing spree." The men met through the Internet and planned to shoot 88 African Americans and behead another 14. Targets included a predominantly African-American school. At the end of the alleged spree, the men intended to try to kill Obama. "88," an important number in skinhead numerology, means "Heil Hitler" — as "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet. "14" likely refers to the "14 Words," a white supremacist slogan that originated with the late David Lane. Lane died last year in prison while serving a sentence for his role in an assassination plot carried out by The Order, a white supremacist terrorist group that was destroyed in 1984. One of the suspects, Cowart, is a known member of a new skinhead hate group, the Supreme White Alliance (SWA), formed at the beginning of 2008, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He attended a birthday party for Adolf Hitler held last April by the group. SWA is headed by Steven Edwards, son of Ron Edwards, who leads the Imperial Klans of America.17

After Obama's election victory in November, white supremacist online activity spiked, with people posting hundreds of messages to online forums. White supremacist groups and individuals claimed that the Obama presidency, the immigration issue, and tough economic times would serve as powerful catalysts for recruiting more people to the white supremacist movement. Jeff Schoep, head of the National Socialist Movement, the largest Neo-Nazi group in America, said interest in the NSM "has really spiked up," but would not reveal by how much.18 Don Black, a 55 year-old former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, claimed more than 2,000 people joined his website on the day after Obama's election, up from 80 on an ordinary day. Started in 1995, Black's website is one of the oldest and largest hate group sites, now claiming 110,000 members. As David Duke, a former Klan leader who was once a member of the Louisiana legislature, has said, Obama is a "visual aid" that galvanizes the white supremacist movement.19

According to Schoep, extremists are also exploiting the economic crisis, spreading propaganda that blames minorities and immigrants for the subprime mortgage meltdown. "Historically, when times get tough in our nation, that's how movements like ours gain a foothold," he said. "When the economy suffers, people are looking for answers. … We are the answer for white people."20 Membership in the National Socialist Movement has grown by 40 percent in recent months, according to Schoep, the "most dramatic growth" since the mid-1990s, mostly because of the nation's dire economic circumstances. "You have an American work force facing massive unemployment. And you have presidents and politicians flinging open the borders telling them to take the few jobs left while our men are in soup kitchens."21

In Pennsylvania, where the Hispanic population has increased 41 percent from 2000 through 2007, "Keystone United," a hate group that recently changed its name from "Keystone State Skinheads," has used the immigration issue to recruit new members. "A lot of these small working-class towns are being invaded by different types of people," said Douglas Myers, one of Keystone United's founders. USA Today described Keystone United as a group that "speaks out for the rights of whites being pushed aside by newcomers." The group plans family-friendly outings, meets in public libraries, and avoids the violence traditionally associated with skinheads. "It's not the footage from the ‘80s with people burning crosses. It's a very healthy environment," said Myers.22

Ann Van Dyke of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission said of Keystone United: "It appears they are tapping into and fanning the flames of mainstream America's fear of immigrants. They are increasingly using the language of Main Street, things like, ‘We want safe communities to raise our children.'"23

"Many white supremacist groups are going more mainstream," said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University criminologist who studies hate crime. "They are eliminating the sheets and armbands. … The groups realize if they want to be attractive to middle-class types, they need to look middle-class." Levin estimated fewer than 50,000 people are members of white supremacist groups, but he says their influence is growing with a more sophisticated approach.24

DHS assesses that since the 2008 election, right-wing extremists "have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers."

Next Section: The State of Hate: Exploiting the Internet to Promote Hatred


The State of Hate: Exploiting the Internet to Promote Hatred

Extremists have taken advantage of the open forums and venues on the Internet, as well as new technologies, to promote their bigoted ideology. Whereas hate mongers once had to stand on street corners and hand out mimeographed leaflets to passersby, the Internet has allowed extremists to access a potential audience of millions — including impressionable youth. It has also facilitated communication among like-minded bigots across borders and oceans, anonymously and cheaply enhancing their ability to promote and recruit for their cause.

During the period 2005-2008, white supremacists spread their hate messages and recruited new members through the use of social networking on mainstream sites such as MySpace or Facebook and extremist sites such as NewSaxon. Thousands of white supremacists have flocked to these sites, which allow them to link to other individuals much more easily than web-based forums or discussion groups. The two white supremacists arrested in the fall of 2008 for plotting a racist shooting spree and assassination attempt on Barack Obama were reportedly introduced to each other by a mutual friend on a social networking website. Even members of racist prison gangs have flocked to these sites and use them regularly.

In 2008, there has been a marked increase in anti-Semitic material in online discussion groups hosted on such mainstream websites as Yahoo!, Google, and AOL. Although there have been anti-Semitic comments on various online groups for some time, the number of these postings has doubled on Yahoo! Finance message boards as a result of the global economic crisis in the United States and the Bernard Madoff financial scandal. In addition, the recent comments have been more virulently anti-Semitic. These anti-Semitic postings have continued as the financial crisis has deepened. Yahoo!, however, has taken down many of the comments after they have been posted.

Haters are finding new and creative ways to spread their message. Many online newspapers allow readers to post comments after each article. Extremists are taking advantage of these open online venues to post anti-Semitic and racist comments, often completely unrelated to the article to which they are attached. In the wake of the Madoff scandal, the Florida-based Palm Beach Post had to disable its comments section due to the avalanche of anti-Semitic comments.

Anti-Semites and racists have found video-sharing websites, such as YouTube and MySpace Video, an effective means to promote propaganda and hateful material that might not otherwise be seen by the public. Internet users who search video-sharing sites will often find anti-Semitic and racist videos when looking for information completely unrelated to the videos due to misleading tags and titles that extremists attach to the videos when uploading them to the sites.

Extremist groups and individuals are reformatting their websites to make them accessible to as many people as possible on Internet-enabled cell phones through Mobile Web. For example, Stormfront, the largest and most popular white supremacist forum on the Internet, and the Vanguard News Network forum, another popular white supremacist site, are fully accessible and searchable via a cell phone.

Although hate speech is offensive and hurtful, the First Amendment usually protects such expression. Beyond spreading hate, however, there is a growing, disturbing trend to use the Internet to intimidate and harass individuals on the basis of their race, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin. When speech contains a direct, credible threat against an identifiable individual, organization, or institution, it crosses the line to criminal conduct. Hate speech containing criminal threats is not protected by the First Amendment.

Criminal cases concerning hate speech on the Internet have, to date, been few in number. The Internet is vast and perpetrators of online hate crimes hide behind anonymous screen names, electronically garbled addresses, and websites that can be relocated and abandoned overnight. Those who send threatening e-mail communications through the Internet may convey these messages anonymously across state lines to victims in another part of the country. Prosecutors face the daunting task of identifying the perpetrator, collecting and preserving evidence, and establishing jurisdiction over the criminal act.

Next Section: Hate Knows No Borders


Hate Knows No Borders24

The International Component

Bias-motivated violence has been on the rise in many countries across Europe, the former Soviet Union, and North America — in some cases more than doubling in the last five years. Racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim and anti-Roma bias, religious intolerance, disability bias, and homophobia are among the prejudices that have fueled hate crimes in those countries. That trend toward rising violence continued in 2007 and 2008 for several types of hate crime, including anti-Semitic, racist, and homophobic attacks. Although official data is available only for a minority of countries — mostly on racist violence alone — there were moderate to high rises in the officially recorded numbers of such attacks in 2006 and 2007 in Finland, Ireland, the Slovak Republic, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Information from nongovernmental monitors showed rising levels of racist violence in Greece, Italy, the Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, and Ukraine. A 2007 European crime victimization survey of people of immigrant background revealed high levels of hate crimes in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, despite the virtual absence of official data in those countries.

People of African origin and Roma were the targets of particularly frequent and extreme acts of racist and xenophobic violence in 2007 and 2008. Refugees and asylum seekers were also victims of numerous racist attacks. Anti-Muslim violence fueled by both racism and religious hatred continued at high levels, notably in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Mosques were desecrated or set alight, cemeteries were vandalized, and Muslim religious leaders, ordinary Muslims, and those perceived to be Muslim were targeted for sometimes deadly assaults.

The level of personal violence motivated by anti-Jewish prejudice remains historically high in many countries of Europe and North America. Anti-Semitic violence rose in Canada, Germany, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Violent attacks on persons as a proportion of overall incidents continued to rise in the United Kingdom and remained at high levels in France. Hundreds of Jewish cemeteries and memorials were vandalized throughout much of the region, mostly with impunity.

In the Russian Federation, Turkey, and the Central Asian republics, bias attacks on minority Christian faiths were increasingly common. Adherents of religions deemed by governments to be nontraditional in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union were among those targeted for violence, sometimes in the context of government restrictions on religious activities and official rhetoric that vilifies such groups.

In Ireland and the United Kingdom, a new pattern of violence emerged in which Eastern European immigrants from the newly expanded E.U. were targeted with violent assaults, firebombs, and murder. In Germany, Greece, and Switzerland, anti-immigrant political campaigns generated new waves of racist violence against immigrants. In Switzerland, there were at least six firebomb or gunfire attacks on housing for asylum seekers in 2007.

In Italy, in 2007 and 2008, anti-Roma rhetoric by top leaders combined with aggressive anti-Immigration policies to help generate racist violence at a level unprecedented in recent history. In several Italian cities, pogroms devastated Roma communities housing both Italian nationals and Roma immigrants. Attackers terrorized Roma and burned their settlements to the ground as police in some cases stood by. Some public officials added fuel to the fire by calling to eradicate the presence of Roma in towns and cities in official statements both before and after the attacks.

In Ukraine and the Russian Federation, extreme nationalists targeted immigrants and national minorities considered to be "dark-skinned" for assaults and, increasingly, murders. In the Russian Federation — where the leading NGO monitor of hate crimes documented nearly 100 racist or other bias-motivated murders in 2008 — racial chauvinist attackers, in a new phenomenon, video-taped the execution style murders and attacks of minority victims.

Continuing violence motivated by hatred and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity, though still largely unseen, is an intimidating day-to-day reality for people across Europe and North America. As in the past, the years 2007 and 2008 saw the greatest public visibility for LGBT persons in the form of gay pride parades, although that visibility triggered violence and other manifestations of intolerance in several countries. While gay pride events in Eastern Europe have frequently been targeted for verbal and physical attacks, increased official protection was reported in 2007 and 2008 in a number of countries in contrast to previous years, including Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania. In others, such as Moldova and the Russian Federation, the authorities themselves continued to contribute to the danger faced by the participants in gay pride parades. In Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia, violent attacks occurred despite police action to protect the marchers.

Government and Intergovernmental Responses

Overall, government responses to the rise of bias-motivated violence have been inadequate. Despite making official commitments to combat hate crime, many governments have yet to introduce necessary legislative tools, carry out official monitoring of incidents, or implement police training, educational, and community engagement programs that would contribute to a more robust response to the problem.

While more governments are now responding to hate crime violence with monitoring and reporting systems, these governments still represent a significant minority. Some 40 governments (among the 56 states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — the OSCE) do not collect and report expressly on violent hate crimes of any kind, or do so in an extremely limited manner. Even where data on racist violence may be developed, official data is often poorly disaggregated and does not cover certain bias crime, such as anti-Roma and anti-Muslim violence. Civil society groups help to fill these gaps in many countries, and have been instrumental in pointing out failures in government responses.

Though more than 38 of the 56 OSCE states have hate crime legislation of some kind, others have no such provisions. Even when hate crime legislation is on the books, most countries fall short on implementation. Italy, Spain, and Ukraine, for example, have hate crime legislation, but almost nothing to show with regard to reporting or prosecutions for hate crime incidents.

Some governments have responded to hate crime violence by strengthening their criminal justice response. This has included new legislation addressing hate crimes in Croatia (defining hate crimes to include a broad range of bias motivations, including sexual orientation and disability bias), Latvia (defining racist motivation as an aggravating circumstance), Portugal (on sexual orientation bias crimes). Others, like France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have seen the benefit of major initiatives by law enforcement and prosecution services to introduce training and procedures making the implementation of hate crime legislation a major priority.

European countries' criminal law most commonly addresses hate crimes motivated by racism (including bias motivated by national origin, ethnicity, and xenophobia) and religious intolerance. Hate crime laws extend to sexual orientation bias in twelve of the 56 OSCE countries, with disability bias covered in only seven.

On an intergovernmental level, the OSCE has addressed hate crimes as a human rights issue and as a threat to regional security. In a series of high-level decisions, OSCE participating states have made commitments to monitor hate crimes and to regularly report on these findings and measures taken to combat them. The organization — particularly through its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights' (ODIHR) Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Unit — has provided a unique forum to address hate crimes that brings together the governments of Europe, Central Asia, and North America. Among other initiatives, the OSCE has hosted a series of international conferences, round tables, and consultations on anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia, anti-Roma bias, and anti-Muslim bias; appointed three personal representatives to the Chairman-in-Office on combating various forms of discrimination; provided training for law enforcement and civil society groups monitoring hate crimes; and produced regular reporting on hate crimes and measures to combat them.

As part of one recent initiative, the ODIHR recently published new guidance designed to establish a common framework for improving responses to hate crimes within the OSCE. The new publication, Hate Crime Laws: A Practical Guide, provides practical and accessible advice for lawmakers, community-based organizations, and law enforcement personnel charged with prevention and effective response to bias-motivated violence. The Guide is drafted to reflect the many different legal systems and traditions from the 56 nations that comprise the OSCE. The Guide has been already been used by ODIHR as the basis for legislative reviews and training sessions and has been translated into several languages, including French, Russian, and German.

International Policy Recommendations for the Government of the United States

To demonstrate international leadership and reduce the number of hate crimes worldwide, the United States should take the following steps:

Demonstrate International Leadership at the OSCE

Take a leading political role in advancing the OSCE's tolerance and nondiscrimination agenda by ensuring support and guidance for the OSCE Chairman-in-Office's three personal representatives on combating intolerance and the ODIHR's Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Unit, as well as ensuring continued high-level discussions on hate crimes within the framework of the organization.

Provide for extrabudgetary contributions, secondment of personnel, and other in-kind support for OSCE programs to combat violent hate crimes, including making available its law enforcement expertise. In this connection, undertake a process to assess and reform the current mechanism of budget allocation by the State Department to ensure that the United States meets its funding obligations to the OSCE in a timely manner.

Advocate in Bilateral Relationships and Offer Technical Assistance

Promote stronger government responses to violent hate crime among OSCE participating states through U.S. reporting as well as the bilateral relationships of the United States with those countries, by:

Maintaining strong and inclusive State Department monitoring and public reporting on racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, homophobic, anti-Roma, and other bias-motivated violence — including by consulting with civil society groups as well as providing appropriate training for human rights officers and other relevant mission staff abroad.
Raising violent hate crime issues with representatives of foreign governments and encouraging, where appropriate, legal and other policy responses, including those contained in Human Rights First's ten-point plan for governments to combat violent hate crime.
Offering appropriate technical assistance and other forms of cooperation, including training of police and prosecutors in investigating, recording, reporting and prosecuting violent hate crimes.
Support Civil Society Organizations

Expand funding and other support to build the capacity of civil society groups in the OSCE region to combat violent hate crimes, by:

Providing extrabudgetary support to expand ODIHR's civil society training program on combating hate crimes.
Ensuring that groups working to combat all forms of violent hate crime have access to support under existing U.S. funding programs, including the Human Rights and Democracy Fund and programs for human rights defenders.
Next Section: Hate Crimes Against African Americans


Hate Crimes Against African Americans

Despite the election of our nation's first African-American president, African Americans remain by far the most frequent victims of hate crimes. Of the 7,624 hate crime incidents reported nationwide in 2007, the most recent year for which data is available, 34 percent (2,659) were perpetrated against African Americans, a number and percentage of incidents that has changed little over the past 10 years. According to the FBI's HCSA report, more than twice as many hate crimes were reported against African Americans as against any other group.

From lynching, to burning crosses and churches, to murdering a man by chaining him to a truck and dragging him down a road for three miles, anti-black violence has been and still remains the prototypical hate crime, intended not only to injure and kill individuals but to terrorize an entire group of people. Hate crimes against African Americans have an especially negative impact upon society for the history they recall and perpetuate, potentially intimidating not only African Americans, but other minority, ethnic, and religious groups.

Examples of recent hate crimes committed against African Americans include:

On Election Night 2008, Ralph Nicoletti and Michael Contreras, both 18, and Brian Carranza, 21, of Staten Island, New York decided shortly after learning of Barack Obama's election victory "to find African Americans to assault," according to a federal indictment and other court filings. The men then drove to a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Staten Island, where they came upon a 17 year-old African American who was walking home after watching the election at a friend's house. One of the defendants yelled "Obama!" Then, the men got out of the car and beat the youth with a metal pipe and a collapsible police baton, injuring his head and legs. The men went on to commit additional assaults that night.

Their hate crime spree culminated with crashing their car into a man who they mistakenly believed to be African-American, causing his body to shatter the windshield. While the victim ultimately survived the attack, he was in a coma for a period of time.26 Brian Carranza pleaded guilty to conspiring to assault Staten Island residents after the election of President Obama and faces 10 years in prison. Nicoletti and Contreras pleaded not guilty.27

Justin Sigler, 19, of Natchitoches, Louisiana, pleaded guilty in December 2008 to conspiring with two other individuals to violate the civil rights of a man in Lena, Louisiana who was the first African American to move into a home in the neighborhood. Sigler and two others fired shotguns at a target on a field adjacent to the victim's property before one member of the group turned his shotgun away from the target and toward the victim and his house. The next evening, Sigler, dressed in a white robe as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, went with his coconspirators to a field adjacent to the victim's residence and shouted, "White Power!" and "White Knights!" Shaken by these events, the family eventually sold their home.28

William A. "Bill" White, the self-proclaimed Commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, a neo-Nazi group, was indicted by a federal grand jury for, among other charges, using intimidation to delay or prevent the testimony of African-American tenants in an official court proceeding. The tenants were involved in a discrimination case against their landlord. On May 23, 2007, White allegedly mailed letters to the African-American tenants at their Virginia Beach, Virginia homes. The letters displayed the letterhead of the White National Socialist American Working Party, a Nazi swastika and White's signature and title. The letters read, in part: "I do not know [name redacted] but I do know your type of slum nigger, and I wanted you to know that your actions have not been missed by the white community ... and we know that you are and will never be anything other than a dirty parasite — and that our patience with you and the government that coddles you runs thin." In addition to the letter, White also included a copy of the ANSWP Magazine titled "The Negro Beast and Why Blacks Who Work Aren't Worth the Cost of Welfare."

The indictment also charged that White threatened to injure "LP," an African-American journalist. On June 3, 2007, at approximately 11 p.m., White called LP's personal telephone at his Bowie, Maryland home and spoke with LP's wife. Fifteen minutes later, White sent LP an e-mail, which read, in part: "You and your fellow black filth are quickly losing ground and I look forward to the rapidly approaching day when whites once again rise up and slaughter and enslave your ugly race to the last man, woman and child. Itz [sic] coming." White then listed LP's personal home phone number, date of birth, home address, and wife's name on overthrow.com and other websites frequented by white supremacists. At the end of the post, White wrote, "His wife gets very upset when you call."

Another count of the indictment charged White with threatening to injure "CT," the African-American mayor of a town in New Jersey. On March 1, 2008, White contacted CT via telephone and spoke with CT's wife. He identified himself as the Commander of a Neo-Nazi organization and told CT's wife that he knew where she lived and was going to put a swastika on her front yard. Soon after, White sent an e-mail to CT, which read, in part, as follows: "I recently read of the racism you've faced in New Jersey, and I wanted to make something perfectly clear:

1.You are a nigger unworthy to govern over any white man; and,
2. Fuck you. You've gotten exactly what you deserve from your constituents.
"Unfortunately, the days when white men would simply burn the local newspaper and run the nigger officials out with tar and feathers are past. However, your incidents give me hope that perhaps we shall see them again. … ps: we know where you live at [CT's address and phone number]. I just spoke to your wife [CT's wife's name]. I hope you got my message."29

Benjamin Haskell, 22, Michael Jacques, 24, and Thomas Gleason, 21, all of Springfield, Mass., were arrested on January 16, 2009 for allegedly burning and entirely destroying the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, a predominantly African-American congregation's nearly completed new church building. The building was burned to the ground on Nov. 5, 2008, hours after the election of President Barack Obama. Investigators determined the fire was caused by gasoline applied to the exterior and interior of the building.30 The three men were indicted by a federal grand jury on January 27, 2009 for conspiring to burn the church in retaliation for the election results.31

Steven Sandstrom, 23, and Gary L. Eye, 22, both of Kansas City, Missouri were sentenced to multiple life sentences on September 9, 2008 for the racially-motivated murder of William L. McCay on March 9, 2005. While McCay was walking to work one morning, Eye attempted to shoot McCay with Sandstrom's gun as they were driving in a stolen car. He missed and McCay fled. Eye and Sandstrom, afraid that McCay would report them to the police, pursued him. At the next block, Eye got out of the car and fatally shot him.32

Next Section: Hate Crimes Against Hispanics


Hate Crimes Against Hispanics

In the five years from 2003-2007, the number of hate crimes reported against Hispanics increased nearly 40 percent (from 426 in 2003 to 595 in 2007). Of all hate crimes reported in the United States in 2007, 7.8 percent were committed against Hispanics. Of hate crimes in 2007 motivated by bias due to the victim's ethnicity or national origin, nearly 60 percent were committed against Hispanics, up nearly 50 percent from 2003. This alarming increase, and its correlation to increasingly virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric, is discussed above in The State of Hate: Escalating Hate Violence Against Immigrants. Other examples of recent hate crimes committed against Hispanics include:

In Brooklyn, New York on December 7, 2008, Jose Osvaldo Sucuzhañay, a 31 year-old Ecuadorian and father of two, was walking home from a bar and a church party with his brother, their arms around each other, as is common among men in many Latino cultures. Three men drove up to the brothers yelling anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs. While his brother escaped, Sucuzhañay, who ran a local real estate agency and had lived in New York for a decade, was struck on the head by a beer bottle and fell to the ground. Another attacker beat his head with an aluminum baseball bat. The three attackers continued kicking and punching him. Suffering severe head fractures and extensive brain damage, he died two days later.33 Keith Phoenix, 28, and Hakim Scott, 25, were indicted on March 3, 2009. The two men were charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and assault, all as hate crimes, and could face 78 years to life in prison. Both men claim that they are not guilty.34

On Long Island, New York on November 8, 2008, Marcelo Lucero, a 37 year-old Ecuadorian real estate agent, was beaten and fatally stabbed by seven teenagers who were driving around to "go find some Mexicans to f— up." The teens spotted Lucero and a friend, then proceeded "[l]ike a lynch mob...got out of their car and surrounded Mr. Lucero," beating and stabbing him, according to the local prosecutor. The teenagers, all 17 and 16 years old, were charged with felony gang assault. One of them was also charged with manslaughter as a hate crime. Steve Levy, the County Executive of Suffolk County, where the murder occurred, has frequently and forcefully spoken out against immigrants, including on Lou Dobbs Tonight.

The New York Times editorialized about Lucero's death and hate crimes against Latinos:

A possible lynching in a New York suburb should be more than enough to force this country to acknowledge the bitter chill that has overcome Latinos in these days of rage against illegal immigration.
The atmosphere began to darken when Republican politicians decided a few years ago to exploit immigration as a wedge issue. They drafted harsh legislation to criminalize the undocumented. They cheered as vigilantes streamed to the border to confront the concocted crisis of Spanish-speaking workers sneaking in to steal jobs and spread diseases. Cable personalities and radio talk-show hosts latched on to the issue. Years of effort in Congress to assemble a responsible overhaul of the immigration system failed repeatedly. Its opponents wanted only to demonize and punish the Latino workers on which the country had come to depend.
A campaign of raids and deportations, led by federal agents with help from state and local posses, has become so pervasive that nearly 1 in 10 Latinos, including citizens and legal immigrants, have told of being stopped and asked about their immigration status, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Now that the economy is in free fall, the possibility of scapegoating is deepening Hispanic anxiety.35

Next Section: Hate Crimes Against Jews

Hate Crimes Against Jews

In 2007, there were 969 reported hate crimes committed against Jews, according to the FBI, constituting 12.7 percent of all hate crimes reported and 69 percent of religious bias hate crimes reported.

The Jewish community — unlike some new immigrant communities — has long understood the importance of reporting crimes directed against community members and institutions. The Anti-Defamation League has been collecting information on anti-Semitic incidents since 1979. Using official crime statistics and information provided to ADL's regional offices by victims, law enforcement officials, and community leaders, the ADL's Audit provides an annual snapshot of this activity and helps identify possible trends. In 2007 (the most recent report available), the League reported 1,460 incidents — 761 directed at individuals and 699 directed at institutions.36

The Nazi swastika, one of the most powerfully-enduring symbols of anti-Semitism and religious and ethnic hatred, has been present in hundreds of attacks against buildings, synagogues, cemeteries, and private homes over the past few years. In September 2007, for example, a massive swastika, the size of a football field, was carved into a New Jersey cornfield.

Hate groups continue to utilize the Internet to spread their message of anti-Semitism and hate. In recent years, groups such as the National Socialist Movement and Ku Klux Klan actively contributed to the continued Internet circulation of anti-Jewish conspiracy charges and theories of Jewish control of government, finance, and the media. There are thousands of hate sites on the Internet, and they continue to multiply. Many of these sites include Internet radio shows and downloadable music and games with anti-Semitic themes and propaganda. Extremists also continued to exploit social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs, using text messages and videos to propagate anti-Semitism.

Examples of recent anti-Semitic hate crimes include:

On June 10, 2009, a white supremacist and anti-Semite entered the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC and opened fire, killing a security guard, Stephen T. Johns, before being critically wounded himself. The shooter, James Von Brunn, has published an anti-Semitic book and created an anti-Semitic Web site, on which he posted Holocaust denial essays and embraced various conspiracy theories involving Jews, blacks and other minority groups. He had been arrested and imprisoned in 1981 for using a sawed-off shotgun to try to take Federal Reserve Board members hostage on the grounds that Jews control the nation's banking system.

That night, President Obama issued a statement saying, in part, "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world." Later in the week, the House of Representatives passed H Res 529 (pdf) and the Senate passed S Res 184 (pdf) to condemn the attack, support the important work of the Holocaust Museum, and express condolences to the family of Officer Johns.

On May 20, 2009, four New York residents were arrested for an alleged plot to attack two synagogues in the Bronx and to shoot down planes at a military base in Newburgh, New York. They were arrested after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside of the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center. They also plotted to destroy military aircraft at the New York Air National Guard Base located at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, New York.

Evidence indicates that the four perpetrators were Muslims and were motivated to act because of their hatred of America and Jews. "These were people who were eager to bring death to Jews," Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder said at a court hearing the day after the arrests. "These are extremely violent men." Authorities said the men were angry over the U.S. war in Afghanistan and had voiced hatred of Jews

The men reportedly began surveillance of several synagogues and a Jewish Community Center in the Bronx in April 2009. In preparation for the attack, the men went to a warehouse in Stamford, Connecticut to obtain what they believed to be a surface-to-air guided missile system and three IEDs, which they transported back to Newburgh. The men also purchased a semiautomatic handgun to use during the planned terrorist operation.

On June 2, the U.S. District Court in New York returned an eight-count indictment against the four suspects, adding three counts of attempting to use weapons of mass destruction and two counts of conspiracy to kill U.S. officers and employees.

In December 2007, four Jewish students from Hunter and Baruch Colleges in New York City were assaulted on a subway train by a group of eight assailants as they wished people a happy Hanukkah. At least two victims were punched in the face, and a knife was pulled. Police arrested the assailants after the train was stopped.
In January 2008, more than 50 headstones were overturned and vandalized in a northwest Chicago Jewish cemetery. The headstones were sprayed with anti-Semitic images, such as swastikas and the Star of David hanging from a gallows. Some grave markers also contained white supremacist symbols. A 21 year-old self-professed neo-Nazi was arrested and charged with felony hate crime and felony criminal damage to property.
In July 2006, an individual forced his way into the building of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and went on a murderous rampage, killing one woman, Pam Waechter, 58, and seriously injuring five others, one of whom was 17 weeks pregnant. Eyewitnesses reported that the murderer, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, forced his way through a security door and announced "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel" as he began shooting. The perpetrator told a 911 dispatcher "I want these Jews to get out….I'm upset at your foreign policy. These are Jews…." He was arrested and charged with fifteen felony counts, including murder. In June 2008, a jury deadlocked on the question of the insanity of the perpetrator. The King County prosecutor has promised to retry the case. The trial is scheduled for October 2009.37
Next Section: Hate Crimes Against Asian Pacific Americans

Hate Crimes Against Asian Pacific Americans

Ignorance, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment cause hate violence targeting of Asian Pacific Americans of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese descent, and other heritages. In 2007, 2.5 percent of all reported hate crimes (188 out of 7,624) were committed against Asian Pacific Americans, a ratio that has declined slightly relative to other groups over the past decade.

This decline obscures an extremely disturbing fact: many of these hate crimes are perpetrated against Asian Pacific American children, often by other children. In a troubling article titled "Asian Youth Persistently Harassed By U.S. Peers," the Associated Press chronicled these hate crimes committed against Asian Pacific American youth:

In 2005, while waiting on a subway platform in Brooklyn, New York, 18 year-old Chen Tsu was accosted by four high school classmates who demanded his money. After Tsu showed his classmates his pockets were empty, they assaulted him, taking turns beating his face. Tsu was scared and injured — bruised and swollen for several days — but hardly surprised. At his school, Lafayette High in Brooklyn, Chinese immigrant students like him are harassed and bullied so routinely that school officials in June agreed to a Department of Justice consent decree to curb alleged "severe and pervasive harassment directed at Asian-American students by their classmates." Said Tsu after his beating, "Those guys looked like they could kill somebody. ... I was scared to go back to school."

In South Boston, 16 year-old Vietnamese student Bang Mai was killed on July 11, 2004 in a massive brawl between white and Vietnamese youths. The basketball court brawl was the result of weeks of tension between the two groups. Mai was fatally stabbed as he attempted to walk away from the brawl. Sixteen year-old Keith E. Gillespie was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison.38

In Fresno, California at Edison High School, Hmong students had been taunted and had food thrown at them during lunch. On February 25, 2005, the taunts escalated into fights involving at least 30 students, resulting in numerous injuries, suspensions, and expulsions. Eight students were convicted of misdemeanor assault.39

Across the nation, the Associated Press found that Asian students say they are often beaten, threatened, and called ethnic slurs by other young people, and school safety data suggest that the problem may be worsening. Youth advocates say these Asian teens, stereotyped as high-achieving students who rarely fight back, have for years borne the brunt of ethnic tension as Asian communities expand and neighborhoods become more racially diverse. "We suspect that in areas that have rapidly growing populations of Asian Americans, there often times is a sort of culture clashing," said Aimee Baldillo of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (now the Asian American Justice Center). Youth harassment is "something we see everywhere in different pockets of the U.S. where there's a large influx of (Asian) people."40

Other examples of hate crimes committed against Asian Pacific Americans include:

In August 2006, four New Yorkers of Chinese descent were attacked in Douglaston, Queens, New York by two white men shouting racial epithets. The white men beat two of the Chinese Americans with a steering wheel locking bar. Kevin M. Brown, 19, of Auburndale, and Paul A. Heavey, 20, of Little Neck, were charged with assault and hate crimes. Douglaston and other nearby communities are now almost one-third Asian, and tensions have escalated. "There's an undercurrent of suspicion of the new immigrant — what are they doing, what are they building, what are they putting in that store?" said Susan Seinfeld, the district manager of Community Board 11, which includes Douglaston. A local City Councilman has introduced legislation to require store owners to include English translations on signs.41

"It definitely doesn't shock me," said one white resident of the area about the attack. "The entire strip of Northern Boulevard in the past four or five years went from German and Italian to Korean."42

In Chicago in September 2007, Du Doan, a 62 year-old Vietnamese man, was pushed off a fishing pier into the icy waters of Lake Michigan, where he drowned. John Haley, 31, a self-described "skinhead,"43 was charged with first degree murder after he told police how he "pushed our victim in the water — that being taking both hands, shoving them in the back, and literally catapulting him into the water." Earlier, Haley reportedly pushed a second Asian man into Lake Michigan who was able to swim safely to shore and also tried to shove a third Asian man off the pier who fought him off. Despite these reports, police did not charge Haley with a hate crime and have not classified the murder as a hate crime incident.44

Next Section: Hate Crimes Against Arab Americans, Muslims, and Sikhs


Hate Crimes Against Asian Pacific Americans

Ignorance, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment cause hate violence targeting of Asian Pacific Americans of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese descent, and other heritages. In 2007, 2.5 percent of all reported hate crimes (188 out of 7,624) were committed against Asian Pacific Americans, a ratio that has declined slightly relative to other groups over the past decade.

This decline obscures an extremely disturbing fact: many of these hate crimes are perpetrated against Asian Pacific American children, often by other children. In a troubling article titled "Asian Youth Persistently Harassed By U.S. Peers," the Associated Press chronicled these hate crimes committed against Asian Pacific American youth:

In 2005, while waiting on a subway platform in Brooklyn, New York, 18 year-old Chen Tsu was accosted by four high school classmates who demanded his money. After Tsu showed his classmates his pockets were empty, they assaulted him, taking turns beating his face. Tsu was scared and injured — bruised and swollen for several days — but hardly surprised. At his school, Lafayette High in Brooklyn, Chinese immigrant students like him are harassed and bullied so routinely that school officials in June agreed to a Department of Justice consent decree to curb alleged "severe and pervasive harassment directed at Asian-American students by their classmates." Said Tsu after his beating, "Those guys looked like they could kill somebody. ... I was scared to go back to school."

In South Boston, 16 year-old Vietnamese student Bang Mai was killed on July 11, 2004 in a massive brawl between white and Vietnamese youths. The basketball court brawl was the result of weeks of tension between the two groups. Mai was fatally stabbed as he attempted to walk away from the brawl. Sixteen year-old Keith E. Gillespie was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison.38

In Fresno, California at Edison High School, Hmong students had been taunted and had food thrown at them during lunch. On February 25, 2005, the taunts escalated into fights involving at least 30 students, resulting in numerous injuries, suspensions, and expulsions. Eight students were convicted of misdemeanor assault.39

Across the nation, the Associated Press found that Asian students say they are often beaten, threatened, and called ethnic slurs by other young people, and school safety data suggest that the problem may be worsening. Youth advocates say these Asian teens, stereotyped as high-achieving students who rarely fight back, have for years borne the brunt of ethnic tension as Asian communities expand and neighborhoods become more racially diverse. "We suspect that in areas that have rapidly growing populations of Asian Americans, there often times is a sort of culture clashing," said Aimee Baldillo of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (now the Asian American Justice Center). Youth harassment is "something we see everywhere in different pockets of the U.S. where there's a large influx of (Asian) people."40

Other examples of hate crimes committed against Asian Pacific Americans include:

In August 2006, four New Yorkers of Chinese descent were attacked in Douglaston, Queens, New York by two white men shouting racial epithets. The white men beat two of the Chinese Americans with a steering wheel locking bar. Kevin M. Brown, 19, of Auburndale, and Paul A. Heavey, 20, of Little Neck, were charged with assault and hate crimes. Douglaston and other nearby communities are now almost one-third Asian, and tensions have escalated. "There's an undercurrent of suspicion of the new immigrant — what are they doing, what are they building, what are they putting in that store?" said Susan Seinfeld, the district manager of Community Board 11, which includes Douglaston. A local City Councilman has introduced legislation to require store owners to include English translations on signs.41

"It definitely doesn't shock me," said one white resident of the area about the attack. "The entire strip of Northern Boulevard in the past four or five years went from German and Italian to Korean."42

In Chicago in September 2007, Du Doan, a 62 year-old Vietnamese man, was pushed off a fishing pier into the icy waters of Lake Michigan, where he drowned. John Haley, 31, a self-described "skinhead,"43 was charged with first degree murder after he told police how he "pushed our victim in the water — that being taking both hands, shoving them in the back, and literally catapulting him into the water." Earlier, Haley reportedly pushed a second Asian man into Lake Michigan who was able to swim safely to shore and also tried to shove a third Asian man off the pier who fought him off. Despite these reports, police did not charge Haley with a hate crime and have not classified the murder as a hate crime incident.44

Next Section: Hate Crimes Against Arab Americans, Muslims, and Sikhs


Hate Crimes Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Individuals

. . . .
Examples of high profile hate crimes committed against LGBT individuals that have heightened fear and insecurity and perpetuated hate against them include:

In Richmond, California on December 13, 2008, an openly gay 28 year-old woman was attacked and gang raped by four men, including two juveniles, on a street outside her parked car. The perpetrators took her to a second location and assaulted her again, all the while making slurs about her sexual orientation. As Shawna Virago noted, "The only way we know about (the Richmond) case is because of the bravery of the survivor coming out. Hatred and bias are a routine occurrence for many LGBT people." Two men and a teenager were charged on January 6, 2009. Thirty-one year-old Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 21 year-old Josue Gonzalez, and 16 year-old Darrell Hodges were charged with kidnapping, carjacking and gang rape. A 15 year-old boy was also arrested in connection with the attack.54 Hate crime enhancements were added to charges against Salvador.55

"What you get is this kind of immature desire to display power," said Jose Feito, a psychology professor at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. "And so they go looking for easy victims, or suitable victims." "Suitable" in the Richmond case, according to Feito, meant a victim who the perpetrators could marginalize in their minds due to her sexual orientation and gender nonconformity. "That all ties into blaming the victim, who's seen as flaunting their homosexuality."56

In Oxnard, California on February 12, 2008, 15 year-old Lawrence King was sitting in a computer lab at his junior high school when Brandon McInerney, 14, shot him twice in the head as their fellow students watched in horror. "Even before his death, Larry King was notorious," according to press reports. "He was the sassy gay kid who bragged about his flashy attire and laughed off bullying, which for him included everything from name-calling to wet paper towels hurled in his direction. King was an easy target — he stood 5 foot 4 and was all of 100 pounds."57 In McInerney's bedroom, investigators discovered a "trove" of white supremacist literature and drawings, depicting a "racist skinhead philosophy of the variety espoused by Tom Metzger, David Lane and others," according to a prosecution filing with the court. McInerney is being tried as an adult on a murder count, plus a hate crime allegation.58

In Greeley, Colorado on July 16, 2008, Angie Zapata, 20, was fatally beaten by her date after he discovered she was transgender. Zapata's killer, Allen Andrade, told police that after he discovered Zapata had male genitalia, he hit her twice in the head with a fire extinguisher thinking he had, in his words, "killed it." Andrade was reportedly a member of a Colorado gang that is reputed to have a zero-tolerance policy on homosexuality. He was charged with first degree murder and a hate crime.59 Andrade was found guilty of these crimes on April 22, 2009.

In Greenville, South Carolina on May 21, 2007, Sean Kennedy, a gay man, died of injuries sustained after he was attacked outside a bar. While making derogatory comments regarding Kennedy's sexual orientation, the assailant fatally beat and punched him until he fell, hitting his head on the pavement. The killer was originally charged with murder, but his charge was reduced to involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to five years in prison, which was suspended to three years with credit for the seven months he had already served. He was also ordered to attend both anger management and drug/alcohol management classes. No hate crime was charged as South Carolina is one of only five states (along with Arkansas, Georgia, Wyoming, and Indiana) that do not have a penalty-enhancement hate crime law.60

Next Section: Hate Crimes Against Individuals With Disabilities


Hate Crimes Against Individuals with Disabilities

In 2007, 79 hate crimes were reported against individuals with disabilities, one percent of the total reported. This represents a significant increase from the 44 hate crimes (0.44 percent of the total) reported in 2003.

Through much of our country's history and well into the twentieth century, people with disabilities — including those with developmental delays, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and other physical and mental impairments — were seen as useless and dependent, hidden and excluded from society, either in their own homes or in institutions. Now, this history of isolation is gradually giving way to inclusion in all aspects of society, and people with disabilities everywhere are living and working in communities alongside family and friends. But this has not been a painless process. People with disabilities often seem "different" in the eyes of people without disabilities. They may look different or speak differently. They may require the assistance of a wheelchair, a cane, or other assistive technologies. They may have seizures or difficulty understanding seemingly simple directions. These perceived differences evoke a range of emotions in others, from misunderstanding and apprehension to feelings of superiority and hatred.

Bias against people with disabilities takes many forms, often resulting in discriminatory actions in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Disability bias can also manifest itself in the form of violence — and it is imperative that a message be sent to our country that these acts of bias motivated hatred are not acceptable in our society.

Numerous disability and criminology studies, over many years, indicate a high crime rate against people with disabilities. However, the U.S. Office on Crime Statistics reported in 2002 that in many cases, crime victims with disabilities have never participated in the criminal justice process, "even if they have been repeatedly and brutally victimized." There are a number of challenges for disability-based hate crime reporting. For instance, hate crimes against people with disabilities are often never reported to law enforcement agencies. The victim may be ashamed, afraid of retaliation, or afraid of not being believed. The victim may be reliant on a caregiver or other third party to report the crime, who fails to do so. Or, the crime may be reported, but there may be no reporting of the victim's disability, especially in cases where the victim has an invisible disability that they themselves do not divulge.

Perhaps the biggest reason for underreporting of disability-based hate crimes is that disability-based bias crimes are all too frequently mislabeled as "abuse" and never directed from the social service or education systems to the criminal justice system. Even very serious crimes — including rape, assault, and vandalism — are too-frequently labeled "abuse."

In one of the few disability-bias cases successfully prosecuted, in 1999, Eric Krochmaluk, a man with cognitive disabilities from Middletown, N.J., was kidnapped, choked, beaten, burned with cigarettes, taped to a chair, his eyebrows shaved, and ultimately abandoned in a forest. Eight people were subsequently indicted for this hate crime — making this one of the first prosecutions of a disability-based hate crime in America.

The special problems associated with investigating and prosecuting hate violence against someone with a disability makes the availability of federal resources for state and local authorities all that much more important to ensure that justice prevails. To address this need, the pending Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act (LLEHCPA), discussed below, will expand existing federal criminal civil rights protections to include disability-based hate crimes.

It is critical that people with disabilities are covered in the federal hate crimes statute in order to bring the full protection of the law to those targeted for violent, bias-motivated crimes simply because they have a disability.

Next Section: Hate Crimes Against Women


Hate Crimes Against Women

The number of hate crimes committed against women, as well as the rate of increase or decrease, is unknown. The reason is that the Hate Crime Statistics Act was passed, signed into law, and reauthorized without including hate crimes against women as a class. Other federal laws and many state hate crime statutes also exclude bias crimes targeting women.

In recent years, many women's advocates have spoken out about the alarming rate of violent physical and sexual assaults against women. Although the most common forms of violence against women have traditionally been viewed as "personal attacks," or even the victim's "own fault," there is growing recognition that many assaults against women are not "random" acts of violence but are actually bias-related crimes. As one advocate testified before Congress "women and girls.... are exposed to terror, brutality, serious injury, and even death because of their sex."

One of the most horrific examples of a gender-based hate crime is the 2006 shooting of 10 young Amish girls at the Georgetown Amish School in Bart Township, Pa., about 60 miles west of Philadelphia. Armed with three guns, two knives, and 600 rounds of ammunition, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, burst into the one-room schoolhouse and shot the girls at close range in the back of the head. Five were killed: Lena Miller, 7, and Mary Liz Miller, 8; Naomi Ebersol, 7; Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; and Marian Fisher, 13. Five others were seriously wounded. Although Roberts lived in the area, he was not Amish, and reportedly did not know his victims personally. After Roberts arrived at the school, he separated the boys, ages 6 to 13, from the girls, and allowed the boys to leave. He then lined the girls against a blackboard and bound their feet with wire ties and plastic handcuffs before shooting them. Local authorities reported that "[A]pparently there was some sort of an issue in his past that he, for some reason, wanted to exact revenge against female victims."61

Existing federal law authorizes involvement in federal crimes in which the defendant "intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person." . . . .


Hate Crimes Against Juveniles

There is little published information about juvenile hate crime offenders. The FBI's annual Hate Crime Statistics Act report does not provide specific information about either juvenile hate crime offenders or victims. However, it does document that schools and colleges were the third most frequent locations for hate crimes in 2007 — as they have been in every year since 2000.

In addition, according to the annual U.S. Department of Justice/Department of Education report Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007, 11 percent of students ages 12-18 reported that someone at school had used hate-related words against them, and more than one-third (38 percent) reported seeing hate-related graffiti at school in 2005.63

An October 2001 report by the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics provided disturbing information about the too-frequent involvement of juveniles in hate crimes. Analyzing nearly 3,000 of the 24,000 hate crimes to the FBI from 1997 to 1999, the report found that a disproportionately high percentage of both the victims and the perpetrators of hate violence were young people under 18 years of age:

Thirty-three percent of all known hate crime offenders were under 18; those under 18 constituted 31 percent of all violent crime offenders and 46 percent of the property offenders.
Another 29 percent of all hate crime offenders were 18-24.
Thirty percent of all victims of bias-motivated aggravated assaults and 34 percent of the victims of simple assault were under 18.64
Next Section: Pending Federal Legislation


Pending Federal Legislation

In those states without hate crime statutes, and in others with limited coverage, local prosecutors are not able to pursue hate crime convictions. The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act (LLEHCPA) would establish a new federal criminal code provision to complement and expand existing law and to provide additional tools for the federal government to combat bias-motivated violence. The LLEHCPA is designed to eliminate gaps in federal authority to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated crimes. This bill would provide a necessary backstop to state and local law enforcement by permitting federal authorities to provide assistance in these investigations — and by allowing federal prosecutions when necessary to achieve a just result.

Over the past eight years, this legislation has been approved on several occasions by bipartisan majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, but has been stymied by opposition and a veto threat from the Bush administration. The legislation has attracted the support of more than 300 religious, civil rights, education, professional, and civic groups — as well as every major law enforcement organization in America.

Public support for this legislation continues to grow. According to a May 2007 Gallup Poll, 68 percent of Americans support strengthening hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity and giving local law enforcement the tools they need to prosecute these violent acts of bigotry.65

For more information about the LLEHCPA, visit http://www.civilrights.org/hatecrimes/.

Next Section: Recommendations


Recommendations

Hate crimes merit a priority response because of their special impact on the victim and the victim's community. Failure to address this unique type of crime could cause an isolated incident to explode into widespread community tension. The damage done by hate crimes cannot be measured solely in terms of physical injury or dollars and cents. Hate crimes may effectively intimidate other members of the victim's community, leaving them feeling isolated, vulnerable, and unprotected by the law. Moreover, the demonization of immigrants has led to an increased sense of vulnerability and fear in communities around the country and created a toxic environment in which hateful rhetoric targeting immigrants has become routine — and bias-motivated violence all too common.

Every sector of society has an important role to play in helping to ensure that no person is targeted for violence on the basis of his or her personal characteristics. We offer the following recommendations for action:

Set The Tone For A Civil National Discourse On Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Civil rights organizations have become increasingly concerned about the virulent anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric employed by a handful of groups and coalitions that have positioned themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America. Leaders from every sector — including government, media, business, labor, religion, and education — have an essential role in shaping attitudes in opposition to all forms of bigotry. These leaders must moderate the rhetoric in the immigration debate. It is vital that civic leaders and law enforcement officials speak out against efforts to demonize immigrants — and use their bully pulpits to promote better intergroup relations. They must use their power of persuasion and political clout to condemn scapegoating, bias crimes, racism, and other hate speech and hate crimes, and to press for fair and workable immigration reform.

Ensure A Strong Law Enforcement Response To Confront Violent Bigotry

Although bigotry cannot be legislated out of existence, a forceful, moral response to hate violence is required of us all. Enactment of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act will give local law enforcement officials important tools to combat violent, bias-motivated crimes, and facilitate federal investigations and prosecutions when local authorities are unwilling or unable to achieve a just result. Importantly, the LLEHCPA would also amend the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 to mandate additional Justice Department hate crime data collection reporting requirements for bias-motivated violence directed at individuals on the basis of their gender and gender identity, and for crimes committed by and against juveniles.

Complement Tough Laws And Vigorous Enforcement With Education And Training Initiatives Designed To Reduce Prejudice

The federal government has a central role to play in funding anti-bias education and hate crime prevention initiatives, as well as promoting awareness of effective anti-bias education initiatives. The Justice Department, the Department of Education, and other involved federal agencies should institutionalize and coordinate their response to prejudice-motivated violence and fund programs and initiatives developed for schools and for youth violence prevention programs. The federal government should make information available regarding effective hate crime prevention programs and resources, successful anti-bias training initiatives, and best practices. The FBI should receive funding to update and expand training and outreach to ensure the most comprehensive implementation of the Hate Crime Statistics Act.

Next Section: Selected Resources on Hate Crime Response and Counteraction


Selected Resources on Hate Crime Response and Counteraction

These websites include outstanding resources on hate crimes laws, anti-bias and prevention programs, and links to other related sites:

American Psychological Association
Report of the American Psychological Association Commission on Violence and Youth (pdf)
Anti-Defamation League
ADL Anti-Bullying/Cyberbullying Prevention Resources
How to Combat Bias and Hate Crimes: An ADL Blueprint for Action
Hate Crime Laws
FBI
Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines (pdf)
Hate Crime Statistics, 2007
Training Guide for Hate Crime Data Collection (pdf)
Department of Education
Preventing Youth Hate Crime
Department of Education/National Association of Attorneys General
Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime (pdf)
Department of Justice
Addressing Hate Crimes: Six Initiatives That Are Enhancing the Efforts of Criminal Justice Practitioner (pdf)
Hate Crime Training: Core Curriculum for Patrol Officers, Detectives, and Command Officers (pdf)
A Policymaker's Guide to Hate Crimes (pdf)
Human Rights First
2008 Hate Crime Survey (pdf)
2007 Hate Crime Report Card (pdf)
Everyday Fears: A Survey of Violent Hate Crimes in Europe and North America (pdf)
International Association of Chiefs of Police
Hate Crime in America Summit Recommendations
Responding to Hate Crimes: A Police Officer's Guide to Investigation and Prevention
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Cause for Concern: Hate Crimes in America, 2004
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Hate Crime Publications
National District Attorneys Association
A Local Prosecutor's Guide for Responding to Hate Crimes
Organization of Chinese Americans
Responding to Hate Crimes: A Community Action Guide, 2nd Edition (pdf)
Partners Against Hate
Building Community and Combating Hate: Lessons for the Middle School Classroom (pdf)
Hate on the Internet: A Response Guide for Educators and Families (pdf)
Investigating Hate Crimes on the Internet (pdf)
Peer Leadership: Helping Youth Become Change Agents in Their Schools and Communities (pdf)
Program Activity Guide: Helping Children Resist Bias and Hate, Elementary School Edition (pdf)
Program Activity Guide: Helping Youth Resist Bias and Hate, Middle School Edition (pdf)
Professor Jim Nolan/West Virginia University
NIBRS Hate Crimes 1995-2000: Juvenile Victims and Offenders
Next Section: Selected Resources on Hate Groups and Extremism


Selected Resources on Hate Groups and Extremism

Anti-Defamation League
American Muslim Extremists: A Growing Threat to Jews
Ecoterrorism: Extremism in the Animal Rights and Environmentalist Movements
Extremists Declare “Open Season” on Immigrants; Hispanics Target of Incitement and Violence
Extremism in America
Hate On Display: A Visual Database of Extremist Symbols, Logos and Tattoos
Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves into the Mainstream
International Terrorist Symbols Database
Public Enemy Number 1 (PENI)
Racist Skinhead Project
Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment (pdf)
The Re-Emerging Threat of Right-Wing Violence
Department of Homeland Security
Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment (pdf) - temporarily withdrawn for updates and additions
Southern Poverty Law Center
Close to Slavery - A report that documents widespread abuses in the nation’s guestworker program
Getting Immigration Facts Straight
Nativist Conspiracy Theories Explored
Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Groups Map
Terror from the Right: 60 Domestic Terrorist Plots from 1995 to 2005
The Nativist Lobby
Under Siege - A report that documents discrimination against Latino immigrants in the South