By Kriesgberichter
Court says man brought racial taunt on himself
6/24/2009 2:00 PM
By Justin Anderson -Statehouse Bureau
CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Supreme Court has overturned a ruling by the state Human Rights Commission, which awarded a man money because a co-worker uttered a racial epithet at him.
In a unanimous opinion filed Monday, the court said Victor T. Peoples, who is black, incited a heated exchange between him and a white co-worker on a job site in 2004.
The court ruled that in order for Peoples to prove he was subjected to a hostile work environment through racial discrimination, he had to show that the discriminatory conduct was unwelcome.
The court also said that Peoples failed to show that his employers, Sue J. Erps and William G. Erps, doing business as Improvements Unlimited, fired him in retaliation for reporting the comment made by the co-worker.
In 2007, the commission awarded Peoples a total of $32,898 in damages, including lost wages, interest and incidental damages for humiliation.
Peoples was hired on at Improvements Unlimited on April 13, 2004, according to the opinion, written by Chief Justice Brent Benjamin.
On June 16, 2004, Peoples was part of a crew building a wall at a business college in Virginia.
During the work, Peoples taunted another worker, Wayne Bragg, by calling him “white trash” and a “honky.” Bragg later testified that this made him angry, as did when Peoples made fun of his speech impediment.
In building the wall, Bragg was digging holes and Peoples was pounding rebar into the holes with a sledgehammer, the opinion said. At one point, Peoples asked Bragg to dig the holes deeper to make it easier to pound in the rebar.
According to the opinion, Bragg told Peoples: “You say another word I’ll cut your f—ing head off with this shovel, n—-r.”
Both men approached their supervisor, David Yontz, about the situation. Yontz ordered the men back to work in separate locations.
But Peoples was not satisfied and demanded to know what Yontz was going to do about Bragg’s usage of the epithet.
Yontz told Peoples that the situation was over and to get back to work. When Peoples continued his demands, Yontz told him to get back to work or be fired.
Peoples told Yontz to send him home, Yontz again told him to get back to work. Peoples refused, handed Yontz the sledgehammer and told his supervisor “to do what he had to do.” Yontz then fired Peoples.
Peoples called William G. Erps and told him about what happened. Erps told him that Bragg shouldn’t have used that word and that he would handle the situation. The opinion says Erps called Bragg and told him not to use the word again, but didn’t discipline Bragg.
Peoples declined to personally speak to Erps about the situation. Erps made two attempts to meet with Peoples, but no more. The last attempt was when Peoples came to the business to pick up his final paycheck.
Peoples filed his complaint with the Human Rights Commission on July 2, 2004. Subsequently, Peoples complained that William Erps and his employees were following and chasing him.
He said another black employee of the business approached him and offered him money to drop the complaint. Peoples also said that workers for another company owned by Erps’ brother were intimidating him.
In overturning the commission ruling as to the hostile environment claim, the court said Peoples did not prove that Bragg’s comment was unwelcome.
“While we do not condone Mr. Bragg’s comments, we cannot ignore the significant role which Mr. Peoples had in creating the very situation of which he later complained,” the opinion said, “something Mr. Peoples appears to ignore and something which the commission appears to have minimized.”
As to the retaliatory discharge finding, the court said that Peoples was fired because he refused to return to work, not because he complained about Bragg’s comment.
While the commission found that Peoples refusal to go back to work was because the supervisor would not take action against Bragg, therefore the firing was in retaliation for complaining about the comment, the court said the facts don’t support the finding.
The court pointed to William Erps’ telling Peoples that he wasn’t fired — even after Yontz fired him at the job site — and urged him to return to work, but he didn’t.
By Kriesgberichter
German Jews Horrified by Britney Holocaust Role
The news that Britney Spears may hit the silver screen as the star of a Holocaust-era romantic tragedy has raised eyebrows in Germany. The plot calls for the pop-star to travel back in time to a concentration camp — and the Central Council of Jews in Germany says the idea is “reprehensible.”
After the 2002 cinematic flop “Crossroads,” few would have been surprised if teen-talent-turned-adult-disaster Britney Spears never again appeared on the silver screen. According to reports this week, though, Spears is weighing a return to acting — and it is a comeback that Jews in Germany are viewing with extreme distaste.
Spears, who is currently in the process of successfully resuscitating her recently languishing music career with her global “Circus” tour, is reportedly reviewing a script for a film tentatively titled “The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton.” The flick would see her playing a character named Sophia LaMont who travels back in time to fall in love with a Jewish concentration camp prisoner named Eton. In a tricky critique of ongoing anti-Semitism, the script concludes with the lovebirds traveling back to the present day before being killed by Nazis.
Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has said she is horrified at the prospect of Britney making a Holocaust film. “In films that deal with the Holocaust, the script should be carefully chosen and the cast picked with care,” Knobloch told the German tabloid Bild. “It is reprehensible to combine the issue of the Holocaust with Britney Spears in an attempt to secure financing for the film ‘The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton.’ Ethical considerations should have priority.”
Spears’ music career got off to an impressive start and she quickly became one of the most successful acts of all time, having sold more than 87 million albums. But the 27-year-old’s image has taken a hit in recent years with a seemingly unending series of scandals involving custody of her two boys, substance abuse problems and a number of salacious pictures circulating across the Internet.
Whether her presence on the cast of the new film would be enough to secure funding remains questionable. Her first film was universally panned and she won the Golden Raspberry award in 2002 for worst actress. The “Circus” tour is scheduled to make a stop in Berlin at the end of July.
By Kriesgberichter
Leeds synagogue bacon shock
Published Date: 23 June 2009
By Suzanne McTaggart
SENIOR members of the Jewish community have spoken of their horror after bacon rashers were draped over the door handles of a Leeds synagogue.
Police also found bacon stuffed through the keyhole of the Sinai Synagogue on Roman Avenue, Roundhay, when they were called to the incident.
Dan Cohen, chairman of the Leeds Jewish Orthodox Community Group, told the YEP that the discovery of the bacon – a meat banned to Jews – was “shocking”.
He said: “It is outrageous that in modern, multi-cultural Britain we are still seeing these types of anti-semitic activities.
“This is massively offensive. This is no different to daubing a swastika on the door. This is of that magnitude and it’s very worrying.
“We can only hope that this is not symptomatic of growing racism in the UK having just seen Andrew Brons elected as a BNP MEP.
“I sincerely hope there is no link between the rising success of the BNP and what seems to be a rise in anti-semitic incidents.”
The bacon was found at 9am on Saturday morning, 90 minutes before the synagogue’s weekly service.
Bacon and all types of pork are prohibited in the Jewish faith.
Trude Silman, chairman of the Leeds-based Holocaust Survivors Friendship Association (HSFA), said: “Obviously it’s purile, it’s stupid and it’s a hate crime.
“It comes down to anti-semitism. It’s racist. Things like this shouldn’t happen these days but obviously some people don’t know any better.”
The Sinai Synagogue refused to comment on the incident when approached by the YEP.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “We were called to reports of bacon being draped on door handles and in the key hole of a synagogue.
“West Yorkshire Police take such incidents very seriously and scenes of crime officers were sent to examine the door and dust for fingerprints.
“Officers also liaised closely with members of the synagogue and we would like to reassure members of the Jewish community that incidents such as this are rare.”
Any witnesses to the incident are asked to call West Yorkshire Police on 0845 606 0606.
By Kriesgberichter
FBI Arrests Blogger for Allegedly Threatening Judges
By Andrew M. Harris
June 24 (Bloomberg) — A New Jersey man described as an Internet radio talk show host and blogger was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill three U.S. Appeals Court judges in Chicago who earlier this month upheld a law banning handguns.
Hal Turner, 47, of North Bergen was arrested by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at his home today, according to a statement issued by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
In the days after the judges’ June 2 decision to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a National Rifle Association lawsuit challenging the ban, Turner posted on his Web site their names, photographs, phone numbers and work addresses, together with a picture of the courthouse delineating stanchions he called “anti-truck bomb barriers,” according to Fitzgerald.
“Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed,” Turner allegedly said in one Web site posting, according to Fitzgerald.
“We take threats to federal judges very seriously. Period.” the prosecutor said.
The judges who issued the ruling were 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer, as well as Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook.
Unanimous Decision
In their unanimous decision, written by Easterbrook, the judges had said that U.S. Supreme Court precedent, established last year in a high court ruling that struck down a similar ban enacted in Washington, precluded their invalidating the Chicago law.
“The Supreme Court has rebuffed requests to apply the Second Amendment to the states,” Easterbrook wrote, referencing the provision of the U.S. Constitution that the Supreme Court had recognized as conferring an individualized right to bear arms.
“These judges deserve to be made such an example of as to send a message to the entire judiciary: Obey the Constitution or die,” Turner reportedly wrote on his Internet site, according to a 10-page affidavit by FBI agent John Marsh, appended to the criminal complaint filed against Turner in Chicago federal court.
Double Murder
In 2005, the mother and husband of Chicago U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow were shot and killed in her home.
While her life previously had been threatened by since- jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale, who lost a case before her, the double-murder was later ascribed to another man unconnected with White, who whose medical malpractice lawsuit Lefkow had dismissed.
That man, Bart Ross, allegedly admitted to the killings in a note he penned before shooting himself in his car during a March 2005 traffic stop in a Milwaukee suburb.
Alluding to the Lefkow murders, Turner said in another posting, “Apparently the 7th U.S. Circuit Court didn’t get the hint after those killings. It appears another lesson is needed,” the Marsh affidavit said.
Turner is due to make an initial court appearance in Newark, New Jersey, federal court tomorrow, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shipp. Information about defense counsel for Turner wasn’t immediately available, Fitzgerald’s spokesman, Randall Samborn, said.
April Web Log
Two days ago, Turner was arraigned in a Hartford, Connecticut court on charges he had used his Web log to incite violence against state legislators there, the Associated Press reported on June 22. He didn’t enter a plea, AP said.
In April, Turner wrote on his Web log that 16 of the largest U.S. banks were “already technically insolvent,” failing the federal government’s so-called stress test.
The April 20 posting was cited by the Web site FlyOnTheWall.com, at 8:14 a.m. New York time, after which the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, an exchange-traded fund tracking banks, brokerages and insurers, fell from $10.75 to $10.62 in six minutes.
At 8:30 a.m., FlyOnTheWall advised readers to disregard the earlier posting and U.S. Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams later told Bloomberg News the posting was bogus, “particularly given we don’t have stress test results yet.”
Reached by phone that day, Turner declined to say who would have given him the government data. The results were made public in May.
Threatening to kill a federal judge is punishable by as many as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the prosecutor said.
By Kriesgberichter
Foul play? Claims of racism taint Delray’s Barbie hoopla
By JANE MUSGRAVE
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 21, 2009
DELRAY BEACH — If one exhibit showcasing the 50th birthday of the iconic doll Barbie is good, two must be better.
Well, not exactly.
Accusations of racism have been leveled at Delray Beach’s leading cultural institution and city officials. The charges became so heated that the city’s newly hired race relations coordinator decided to intervene.
While the first of the two shows will open this week amid fanfare fit for a busty blonde who has survived years of attack from the feminist front, the dispute shows no signs of abating.
At the center is Lori Durante, founder of the long-struggling Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History, and Old School Square, the venerable institution that is the city’s cultural core.
Although both museums are hosting Barbie exhibits, the dispute isn’t about who gets the better Barbies or attracts the biggest crowd. It’s about recognition.
More important, it’s about long-simmering feelings that blacks haven’t achieved equality in the town that insists it embraces diversity.
The dispute began in May when Durante made what seemed to her like a simple request.
As the originator and curator of Old School Square’s wildly successful 1999 exhibit, 40 Years of the Barbie Doll, she asked center officials to mention her decade-old contribution in materials promoting the Barbie exhibit that opens Thursday.
In an e-mail tagged “Congrats on your Barbie Doll exhibit at Old School Square,” she said that since the success of the 1999 exhibit spurred officials to organize this year’s redux, she should get some credit.
“I am sure you have already gone to print with your materials for the exhibit so I am also not asking you to stop-the-presses,” she wrote in the May 23 e-mail. “But for any future mention of the 1999 Barbie doll exhibit, whether those mentions be verbal, print, e-mail or your Web site, please provide name credit to Lori J. Durante.”
With center Director Joe Gillie out of town, board Chairman Brian Cheslack responded to the e-mail Durante sent to more than a dozen people, including city commissioners, city staff and other city leaders.
Unfortunately, Cheslack told Durante, her request wasn’t simple. It’s a policy issue, he said.
“Any change in the current policy, which based on my understanding does not include such recognition, will follow a careful and deliberative process,” wrote Cheslack, an attorney.
Cheslack’s response fueled Durante’s suspicions. Had she been white or a member of the city’s power elite, Durante said she wouldn’t have to seek recognition, it would be offered.
Durante not only came up with the idea for the 1999 exhibit that attracted 20,000 people, she also raised $10,000 to make it possible, got Mattel to donate dolls, organized the displays, printed the brochures and dusted the display cases during the show’s 12-month run. For her efforts, she received $1,000. The center got the $3-per-person admission fee.
“Had my name been, say, Lynch or Elmore or Bourque, my name wouldn’t have been excluded from any mention in the Barbie exhibit,” she said, referring to former Mayor Tom Lynch, city businessman George Elmore and Frances Bourque, the driving force behind the museum.
To Cheslack, she wrote: “This situation has really brought home a point about ‘hidden racism’ … with this case of OSS taking the hard work, ideas and labor of a young striving African American and using it for OSS’s own good and giving absolutely no credit to the African American for even thinking of the idea.”
As her e-mails became more vociferous and expanded to accuse city officials of perpetuating shoddy treatment of her, her museum and blacks in general, former City Commissioner Alberta McCarthy stepped in.
Having recently won an $85,000 contract to address race relations in the city, McCarthy met separately with Durante and Gillie. After hearing both sides, she said she found no evidence that race was a factor in the decision not to give Durante credit for the 1999 Barbie exhibit.
Museums, she said, don’t mention past curators of exhibits, just the exhibit itself. Further, she said Gillie pointed out that Durante doesn’t mention Old School Square when she touts her work to make the 1999 exhibit a success.
Not only would it set a precedent to give Durante credit but, McCarthy said, Durante herself established the precedent by not acknowledging that Old School Square hosted the 1999 show.
Gillie declined to talk about the dispute, saying he was letting McCarthy address the issue. He did, however, say that the center makes sure its exhibits are racially and culturally diverse and opens its doors to a wide variety of groups, from those who organize the Garlic Festival to the Roots Festival, an annual celebration of the city’s black history.
Durante said she wasn’t surprised by McCarthy’s findings. Nor was she satisfied with the result.
On Friday, she e-mailed a 40-page letter to Cheslack, detailing the mistreatment she said she has endured over the years. She copied it to dozens of people, from city and county commissioners to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, to the American Association of Museums to Mattel.
A Delray Beach native, she said she will continue to push for answers and for change in the community. She is a member of one of the last remaining study circles created several years back when the city made a push to improve race relations.
She said she feels used.
“I would like the political establishment to stop undermining me, stop undercutting me and stop presenting my ideas as their own.”
By Kriesgberichter
Homophobia and racism on rise in Northern Ireland, survey shows
Equality Commission finds increase in respondents expressing concern over gay people and Travellers
Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 June 2009 10.51 BST
Homophobia and racism are on the rise in Northern Ireland, a survey of public attitudes reveals today.
Anti-gay prejudice has almost doubled in three years, according to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. In 2005, 14% of people it surveyed said they would have a problem with a gay, lesbian or bisexual person. That figure rose to 23% in the 2008 poll published today.
The report comes after a series of statements by local politicians have been branded homophobic. Iris Robinson, a Democratic Unionist MP, faced widespread criticism after she said homosexuality repulsed her and could be “cured” by psychiatry.
The commission found that Irish Travellers faced more prejudice than foreign migrant workers. More than half (51%) of those questioned said they would mind having a Traveller living beside them – an increase of 10% on the last survey.
While views have hardened against Travellers, the gay community and immigrants, sectarian attitudes may be softening. The survey found 6% said they would mind living beside someone of a different religion.
Bob Collins, the commission’s chief executive, said: “The results of the survey highlight the breadth of work which remains to be done in order to effectively change perceptions and attitudes towards citizens in Northern Ireland.”
Three men were being questioned today over an attack on a south Belfast church that gave shelter to 20 ethnic Roma families last week.
Yesterday, Shane Murphy, a 21-year-old joiner from south Belfast, appeared in court charged with intimidating Romanians out of their homes. Two youths aged 15 and 16 have been charged in connection with alleged intimidation.
So far 25 Roma are known to have fled Northern Ireland, with a further 75 understood to be planning to leave via Budapest later this week.
By Kriesgberichter
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By Kriesgberichter
The rise of Hate 2.0
By Daniel Emery
Technology reporter, BBC News
The number of hate and terrorist websites has increased by a third in the past year, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights organisation put the figure at more than 8,000 in its 2008 report Hate 2.0. It said the presence of such sites "demeans and threatens African Americans, Jews, immigrants, gays and virtually every religious denomination".
And the number of so-called hate sites is growing fast, while the use of social networks to push controversial messages is also on the rise.
In May this year, Facebook became embroiled in a row after a number of Holocaust denial groups were set up on the site.
Critics said Facebook was propagating anti-Semitism, others said that free speech was a cornerstone of society and Facebook should keep its hands off.
At the time, Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for Facebook, said it should be "a place where controversial ideas can be discussed".
"The bottom line is that, of course, we abhor Nazi ideals and find Holocaust denial repulsive and ignorant," he said.
"However, we believe people have a right to discuss these ideas."
The Home Office says Don Black’s actions could “lead to inter-community violence in the UK”.
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A few days later, the site had closed two of the groups, Holocaust is a Holohoax and Based on the facts… there was no Holocaust. It said they had breached the firm’s terms of service.
But there are still plenty of other Holocaust denial groups on Facebook: Holocaust is a Myth, 6,000,000 for the TRUTH about the Holocaust, The problem of forged Holocaust photos, and Holocaust Deniers, to name just four.
Denial outlawed
In a visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp in June this year, President Barack Obama criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had called the Holocaust a "great deception".
"To this day we know there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened, a denial of a fact or truth that is baseless, ignorant and hateful," Mr Obama said in a brief address.
Holocaust denial is illegal in 13 countries, including France, Germany and Israel. It was also a crime in Slovakia, although this law was repealed in May 2005.
The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and the United Kingdom have all rejected Holocaust denial legislation.
In Europe, citizens are covered by the European Convention on Human Rights which states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression."
But it adds that governments can restrict free speech, among other reasons, in the interests of national security, to preserve public safety and for the prevention of disorder or crime.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the BBC that it was not a freedom of speech issue.
"Holocaust denial is a perfect example of how a hateful idea was incubated on the internet. It promotes hatred, it promotes violence and it’s a kind of precursor to genocide.
Some groups advocate direct action against Holocaust denial sites
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"It’s not the idea that needs to be scrubbed; it’s fact that the internet elevates crackpot theories to a level it doesn’t deserve.
"These sites aren’t about the discussion of ideas; they are about getting people to subscribe to the ideal of hate."
But speaking to the BBC, Douglas Murray, director of think tank The Centre for Social Cohesion, said that society should be able to accept any point of view, even if that view was proven to be false.
"You have to allow different opinions, even lies, as long as they don’t incite violence. Otherwise what is true becomes dogma and then becomes incapable of being defended," he said.
White power
In 1995 Don Black founded Stormfront – a white supremacist website seen by many as the internet’s first "major hate site", although it had existed as a bulletin board for a number of years prior to that.
In May he was one of 22 individuals excluded from the United Kingdom by the Home Office for "promoting serious criminal activity and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence".
He told the BBC that – in America – people could say and think whatever they liked.
"We believe anyone has the right to discuss the issue [of Holocaust denial] without being censored and, in many cases in Europe, prosecuted and sent to jail.
"It goes beyond censorship on Facebook. We’re moving into a new dark age with an orthodoxy in which individuals hold the wrong opinion are prosecuted and in some cases, sent to jail.
"My getting banned from Britain – even though I haven’t even tried to visit Britain – is an example," he said.
While the views espoused by Mr Black and others may be offensive to many, in most countries they are perfectly legal.
Mr Murray holds a view that they should remain legal because "in a free society it isn’t hard to prove that their point of view is wrong".
Rabbi Cooper disagrees, saying that while you will never keep any idea off the internet, there was no obligation for private companies – such as Facebook, MySpace etc – to carry so-called hate groups; failing that the centre advocates more "direct action".
"We’ve gone from one problem group back in 1995, Stormfront, to over 10,000," he said.
Direct action
One group that does carry out direct action on occasion is the Jewish Internet Defense Force, a group that claims it "leads the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism on the web". It is said that the JIDF has seized control of and deleted Facebook groups deemed to be anti-Semetic or anti-Israel.
In an e-mail exchange with the group’s spokesman, "David", the BBC asked why they took such issue with Holocaust denial.
"Holocaust denial is hate speech. It is an attempt by anti-Semites to make Jews appear to be liars and manipulators, those who accept the historical truth of the Holocaust to be dupes, absolve Nazis and their active and passive accomplices of guilt, and so rehabilitate anti-Semitic ideologies," he wrote.
Critics say the internet has enabled alleged anti-Semites to reach an audience of millions.
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"Facebook staff themselves seem very torn about these issues and wish to consider a lot of hateful ideologies as ‘legitimate political discourse’.
"However, if they are going to take down KKK (Ku Klux Klan) pages and pages which promote Islamic terrorism, then they should also take down hateful Holocaust denial pages and stop pushing the myth that they are for ‘free speech’."
He added the group would "do everything in our power" to convince Facebook to "do the right thing".
But Mr Murray said that the grounds for freedom of speech were already laid out.
"If someone thinks they are better because of the colour of their skin, their religion or where they were born, well it’s irrational and deeply hateful, but unless they say you should do violence, then I’m afraid we have to accept there are people who have unpleasant opinions."
By Kriesgberichter
Ghostbusters Breaks New Ground In… Jewish References?
By Stephen Totilo on June 23, 2009 at 7:00 AM
Video games arguably have not had their Citizen Kane. Less debatable is the absence of a video game Seinfeld or Mel Brooks movie. Enter Ghostbusters, the rare game with a Jewish joke.
A writer from the online magazine of Jewish news and culture, Tablet, reports delight at playing enough of the new Ghostbusters game to unlock an Achievement (or Trophy, it seems) called “Kosher.”
The Achievement is won by having your Ghostbuster use his or her proton pack on a honey-glazed ham that has been set up for a bar mitzvah in the hotel where Slimer is running amuck.
Tablet’s Liel Leibovitz writes: I froze in my tracks. It was time, I realised, to make a major decision about my identity. Was I a Jew first and a Ghostbuster second? Or was it the other way around? Do I catch the ghost? Or do I take care of the treyf? My heart beat fast. Then, suddenly, I knew just what I needed to do.
Leibovitz blasted that Ham and then got the Kosher Achievement.
The official text for that feat reads: “Remedy a dubious food choice to make the bar mitzvah as orthodox as it can be.” Honey-glaze ham, it should be known, is not kosher and therefore doesn’t belong at a bar mitzvah.
A Jewish joke would be unremarkable in other forms of entertainment. But in games, Jewishness is perhaps even more absent than homosexuality or Eskimos. Jewish people are seldom even mentioned in World War II games. Why that is is fodder for another post.
For now, put Ghostbusters in the same category as The Shivah, one of the few games that even mentions Jewish people or culture.
