NY sees a surge in hate
NY sees a surge in hate
ALBANY — Hate crimes across New York state jumped 14 percent in 2009, led by an increase in attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, state records released yesterday show.
There were 683 hate crimes reported to police authorities across the state in 2009 compared with 599 in 2008, according to a report released by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
In New York City, reported hate crimes rose 6 percent, from 259 to 275. The city accounted for 40 percent of all hate crimes in the state last year.
Brooklyn was the borough with the highest number of hate crimes, 92, followed by Manhattan, 70, Queens, 61, The Bronx, 33, and Staten Island, 19.
Nassau County had 82 reported incidents, down from 100 in 2008, Suffolk County had 80 incidents, up from 62, and Westchester County had 23 incidents, up from 16.
One of the most notorious hate crimes in recent years occurred in Suffolk, where Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was beaten and stabbed to death near the Patchogue train station by a slur-shouting mob.
Jeffrey Conroy, one of seven youths connected to the November 2008 attack, was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime last year and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The others are serving sentences ranging from five to seven years.
The report found that nearly a quarter of all attacks in 2009 were carried out by two or more people. More than 7 percent were carried out by four or more people.
Also, 31 percent of all known offenders were 24 or younger, and 12.2 percent of all known offenders were women.
Most of the hate crimes in the new state records involved assaults or intimidation, 45 percent, or damage and destruction to property, 44 percent. A total of 179 individuals were arrested on hate-crime charges in connection with the incidents.
Anti-Semitic incidents, which made up 37 percent of the reported hate crimes, were up 15 percent in one year, from 219 in 2008 to 251 in 2009.
The report found anti-black crimes, 21 percent of the total, were down slightly from 147 in 2008 to 144 in 2009. Anti-white hate crimes increased from 21 to 29.
Anti-gay hate crimes were up sharply, with those targeting male homosexuals jumping 32 percent, from 62 to 82, and those aimed at lesbians up by more than 200 percent, from eight to 25.
Crimes motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment rose from eight to 11.
“A hate crime is an offense not only against a specific individual, but against an entire community,” said Sean Byrne, acting commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
He called it a “form of domestic terrorism.”
The report also showed that nearly 30 percent of those convicted of a hate crime were sentenced to prison and 18 percent were given probation.
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Japan retailer to pull Nazi outfit
Japan retailer to pull Nazi outfit
TOKYO (AP) – A Japanese discount chain said Tuesday it will pull a Nazi costume from its shelves after receiving a complaint from an American Jewish organization.
The costume on sale at retailer Don Quijote Co. includes a black jacket with a red swastika armband in a package adorned with a sketch resembling Adolf Hitler and the phrase “Heil Hitler” in Japanese characters.
The outfit was on sale for about 5,000 yen ($60) in at least two Don Quijote outlets in Tokyo, including one in the upscale Ginza shopping district.
Aico, a Japanese party goods maker, has made the costume for seven years and never had a complaint, said spokesman Nobuyoshi Nasuzawa.
“This was meant purely as a joke, as something that would easily be recognizable.
If we have complaints we will certainly stop sales,”
Share on FacebookSkinheads assault Roma in Sofia
Skinheads assault Roma in Sofia
A Roma man was hospitalized with serious head injuries Friday after being attacked by skinheads on a public bus in Sofia, police said.
“Several skinheads beat two young Roma men in a public bus in downtown Sofia Thursday evening,” a police spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse.
“One of the men was hospitalized with a skull fracture and a concussion but there is no immediate threat to his life.”
The second man got away without serious injuries, the spokeswoman added.
She did not say if police had identified the attackers.
Members of Bulgaria’s 700,000 Roma minority suffer discrimination and often live in isolation and poverty with a high rate of illiteracy.
Share on FacebookSite calling for genocide of Jews, Canadians reappears
Site calling for genocide of Jews, Canadians reappears
The resurrection of a website advocating the genocide of Jews and Canadians, founded by a Toronto extremist who is wanted by police, highlights the difficulties of policing the Internet, where public postings can be generated and disseminated from almost anywhere.
The website was founded by Salman Hossain, 25, a Canadian extremist who fled Canada earlier this year during a police investigation into use of the Internet to promote terrorist violence in Canada.
Police subsequently charged him with five hate crimes — two counts of advocating genocide and three counts of promoting hatred — but have so far been unable to locate him.
The site was shut down after the charges were laid.
The National Post reported last month that the site had reemerged on a U.S. free-speech server but was again shut down. This month it found a new home, through Internet servers based in Switzerland.
“We are aware that he has a website up and running in various locations,” said Inspector Dave Ross of the Ontario Provincial Police. “We are monitoring it and are continuing to liaise with enforcement agencies around the world. We are actively seeking him. We haven’t forgotten about him. Our hope is that some day you will see him back in Canada in custody.”
The fact that the alleged crimes continue despite his fugitive status shows the difficulties of such cases.
“The Internet poses very unique challenges to law enforcement agencies around the world, not only for hate crimes but a vast number of offences. It has certainly opened the global marketplace to criminals of all types,” said Insp. Ross.
Mr. Hossain is wanted by the OPP for advocating genocide and is named in a worldwide Interpol fugitive list. He is believed to have returned to his native Bangladesh and appears to have had technological issues with accessing the Internet.
This month any obstacles were overcome and the website Filthy Jewish Terrorists renewed its stream of violent imagery, language and fierce anti-Jewish and anti-Western sentiments.
“He’s never had any concern for the warrant hanging over his head. He is thumbing his nose at Canadian police and at Interpol. The site is up and gotten even more vile,” said Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
“It speaks to the ineffectiveness of the law in terms of trying to deal with modern technology. A lot of the law dealing with hate crimes is based on the fact that people are living in Western countries where the law applies. But Salman Hossain left and is clearly living in a place where Western law and Western mores have no meaning and so he is basically free to post whatever he wants.
“I do believe the law will eventually catch up to him. ”
One article on the site, listed as having been written by Mr. Hossain and posted Dec. 17, again encourages the killing of Jews and Westerners and expresses hope his articles harm Western society.
“I encourage Iran to get assistance from others in committing a full scale genocide against the Jew run nations of the Western World (Australia, Europe and North America to be more precise). Killing them with bio-genetic weaponry would literally be the best option,” it says in part.
Another article, posted on Dec. 18, is entitled: “Learning How To Identify Jews During Roundup Time!”
Despite that type of content, the website offers a “legal disclaimer” that states: “Our web site does not advocate terrorism or genocide against any people. All information on this site is for informational purposes only.”
A phone call and email from the National Post to the contact information provided for the site’s domain registration in Lucerne, Switzerland, went unanswered yesterday.
Share on FacebookPolice: ‘Jena 6′ teen arrested after another school fight
Police: ‘Jena 6′ teen arrested after another school fight
(CNN) — A member of the group dubbed the “Jena 6″ is facing misdemeanor assault charges after a fight at his Texas high school Wednesday, police said Thursday.
Bryant Purvis was arrested after a fight Wednesday at his Texas high school, police said.
Bryant Purvis, 19, was arrested after the incident at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas. Carrollton police Sgt. John Singleton told CNN the altercation does not appear to be racially motivated.
School officials contacted police about the fight Wednesday morning. An 18-year-old student told authorities two males approached him and asked if he had flattened the tires of “their homeboy’s” car, according to an affidavit supporting the arrest warrant.
The student said he didn’t, but the two told him they didn’t believe him and walked away.
Purvis, he said, approached him from behind immediately afterward, then grabbed him with one hand and began to choke him.
“Purvis continued to choke [the student] and told him, ‘Don’t you ever mess with my car again,’” the affidavit said. “Purvis then pushed his head into the seating area of the bench,” causing the student to strike his left eye, then walked away.
The affidavit said that in a written statement, Purvis wrote, “I walked over to him and grabbed him by his neck, then told him not to mess with my car anymore, then I left.”
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Police reported the student had marks on his neck and bruising on his eye.
A municipal judge set Purvis’ bond at $1,000, and he was transferred to the Denton County Detention Facility, Singleton said.
Purvis is one of six former students in Jena, Louisiana, accused of being involved in the beating of a white student. He initially was charged with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy, but charges against him were reduced in November to second-degree aggravated battery. He is awaiting trial in that case.
Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton led more than 15,000 marchers to Jena — a town of about 3,000 — in September to protest how authorities handled the cases against Purvis and the five others accused in the December 2006 beating of fellow student Justin Barker.
After his arraignment in November, Purvis told reporters he had moved to another town to complete high school.
Share on FacebookHolocaust display criticized
Holocaust display criticized
The planned new Canadian Museum for Human Rights is under fire from an organization representing German Canadians, which objects to the museum’s plan to single out the Holocaust for a permanent display.
“We shouldn’t have a Holocaust exhibit as a permanent exhibit if no one else has one,” said Tony Bergmeier, national president of the German-Canadian Congress.
The organization objects to having permanent galleries devoted to the Holocaust and Canada’s aboriginal people when no other human-rights violation or human suffering is receiving a permanent exhibit, Bergmeier said.
“I thought it would be an equal opportunity for everybody,” Bergmeier said.
“The way it is, (it’s) one type of exhibit for the Holocaust and one for the native people, and separate types of exhibits for the rest of the world. … That’s not the proper way.”
The German-Canadian Congress is an umbrella organization of more than 90 German-Canadian clubs, churches and businesses across the country.
Bergmeier stressed the people his organization represents “certainly are not Holocaust deniers -we know they suffered,” but said the congress will be contacting the federal government with its concerns.
Museum spokeswoman Angela Cassie said the Holocaust is getting a permanent area because it was the event that forced the issue of genocide onto the world stage.
The issue of Canada’s treatment of aboriginal people is getting a permanent display because it is a Canadian human-rights issue, she said.
Share on FacebookKKK snowman gets frosty response from neighbors
KKK snowman gets frosty response from neighbors
A white separatist in Idaho has drawn the ire of neighbors and a visit from the law after building a snowman shaped like a noose-carrying KKK member on his front lawn, KXLY in Spokane, Wash., reports.
This undated photo provided by Amber Caldwell shows a snowman that depicts a white hooded figure associated with the Ku Klux Klan in the front yard of Mark Eliseuson’s home in Hayden, Idaho.
Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies, called by concerned parents at nearby Hayden Meadows Elementary School, told Mark Eliseuson that he could be charged with a public nuisance, KXLY says.
Eliseuson told KXLY he saw nothing wrong with the snowman, but he did remove the noose and knock off the pointy top.
“It’s such a message of hate,” said Amber Caldwell, who saw the snowman while visiting her cousin in the neighborhood.
Eliseuson has angered neighbors in the past by flying Aryan Nations flags at his home. At Halloween he passed out bullet casings after he said he ran out of candy.
Share on FacebookYeshiva Students “Praise KKK” While Harassing Bus Driver
Yeshiva Students “Praise KKK” While Harassing Bus Driver
A group of four Lakewood, New Jersey Yeshiva students were arrested earlier this week and have been charged with bias intimidation for harassing their black school bus driver. The four teenage boys allegedly stood behind the driver after she objected to their conversation, and used racial slurs and “praised the Ku Klux Klan.” And in case you were wondering, yeah, the KKK probably aren’t huge fans of Yeshiva students either.
Michael Inzelbuch, the school district attorney, said, “We find these to be very serious allegations. They will need to be reviewed to the full extent of the law.” However, Yeshiva has also filed a complaint against the driver, saying she acted inappropriately. Private school officials say there have been complaints about driver Sharon Peters’s job performance in the past two years, but public school officials say they had never heard of these complaints before the four boys were arrested.
One resident told CBS 2 that he was surprised, but wanted to hear the boys’ story. “I’m extremely surprised. It’s totally out of character for the boys in this school, and until we hear what their side of the story is, it’s difficult to comment,” he said. But local NAACP chapter President James Waters said, “I’m outraged and I would be outraged if the situation was reversed. This situation is wrong, and she did not need to treated like that.” Peters has been moved to a different route, and school officials are considering installing cameras on her bus.
Share on FacebookConcentration Camp Game Canceled Due to Backlash
Concentration Camp Game Canceled Due to Backlash
After severe backlash from Jewish groups, indie devs stop production on their in-development Auschwitz game.
The game Sonderkommando Revolt, a Wolfenstein 3D mod based on the real, failed uprising of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz, was to feature a lone prisoner gunning his way through countless Nazi guards, featuring “Crematoriums, Block 11, Gas Chambers, execution, interrogation and torture areas … most of which are ripped/based off real pic [sic] from the real site,” according to one of the developers, Doomjedi.
The Anti-Defamation League immediately took offense to the game, telling Kotaku that the Holocaust is off-limits for videogames, and that Sonderkommando Revolt is a “crude effort to depict Jewish resistance during this painful period which should never be trivialized.”
Attempting to assuage the ADL, the creators Team Raycast and Maxim Genis said that the game was just “blast the Nazis fun” and “very realistic, moody, challenging and detailed.”
But the ADL kept pushing, and now Sonderkommando Revolt will never see the light of day. Genis, who claims to have lost family members in the Holocaust, has stated, “I did a lot of research for the game. I wanted to show the Jews really did fight back against the Nazis. I wanted to honor them. My intentions were pure and pro-Jewish in every way.”
While most do not mourn the loss of yet another mindless Nazi shooter (particularly if it’s just a mod for a game that came out in 1992), the fact that the ADL believes that the Holocaust is entirely off-limits for videogames has some gamers rather upset with them, particularly the “games as art” crowd.
Share on FacebookGermany donating $80 million to maintain Auschwitz
Germany donating $80 million to maintain Auschwitz
BERLIN (JTA) — Germany has committed to a donation of $80 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, for the preservation and restoration of the memorial at the site of the Nazi concentration camp.
Germany’s contribution will be split between the federal government and the states, and will be disbursed in five annual installments, according to the German Foreign Ministry.
The contribution is by far the largest to the foundation, which was established in 2009 with the aim of securing long-term financing for the upkeep of the memorial.
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement Wednesday that the commitment underscored Germany’s “historical responsibility to keep the remembrance of the Holocaust alive, and to convey [this remembrance] to future generations.”
More than 1 million people, most of them Jews from across Europe, were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, starting in 1942. The camp was liberated by Red Army soldiers on Jan. 27, 1945.
According to reports, many original structures are badly in need of repair.
The foundation aims to establish a $160 million capital stock fund. The United States is contributing $15 million, and several European countries have pledged to contribute as well.
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