Judge Dismisses Racial Discrimination Case Against Merrill
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A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a group of black financial advisers who claimed Bank of America Corp.’s (BAC) brokerage Merrill Lynch discriminated against them on compensation.
The brokers said the design of the retention-bonus system in place at the time of Merrill’s merger with Bank of America in 2009 was intentionally discriminatory, but a federal court judge disagreed in a decision on Wednesday.
Retention bonuses are commonly used by companies going through acquisitions to stem defections. Merrill’s bonuses favored advisers with higher levels of production, which are the fees and commissions an adviser earns on the assets he or she manages.
The advisers in the complaint said Merrill had engaged in a nationwide pattern of race and gender discrimination, and as a result women and African Americans had lower production levels than white men.
However, Judge Robert Gettleman of the U.S. District Court for the Nothern District of Illinois wrote Wednesday that “knowledge of past and even present discrimination alone does not make it plausible that defendants actually adopted” its retention bonus system with discriminatory intent.
Merrill spokesman Bill Halldin said the company is pleased with the judge’s ruling, but declined to comment further.
The plaintiffs on this case are also involved in a separate racial discrimination lawsuit filed in 2005 against Merrill. That case, which is still pending, claims there’s systemic discrimination at Merrill.
Nothing about Wednesday’s decision bars the plaintiffs from recovering the “lost bonuses” through the pending discrimination case, which is also before Gettleman, said the advisers’ lawyer, Linda Friedman, a partner at Stowell & Friedman in Chicago.
“They will be fighting on against the systemic discrimination at Merrill Lynch and to level the playing field for African Americans,” she said.
Related articles
- UPDATE 2-BofA wins dismissal of two lawsuits over Merrill (reuters.com)
- FINRA panel awards former Merrill CFO $1.2 mln (reuters.com)
- UPDATE 1-FINRA panel awards former Merrill CFO $1.2 mln (reuters.com)
- Merrill’s Fakahany Has Most of $70 Million Claim for Pay Denied (businessweek.com)
Gay Man Beaten In West Village Hate Crime
The NYPD is on the hunt for two men who gave a 28-year-old gay man a beating outside a McDonald’s in the West Village early Sunday morning.
The assault is being investigated as a hate crime.
A Facebook photo of Damian Furtch shows the man with two black eyes and a cut to his nose. He needed stitches after the assault.
Furtch and his friend had just left their jobs at the nearby Pink Tea Cup restaurant when they were targeted.
Police say two men confronted Furtch and a co-worker inside the McDonald’s on West 3rd Street and Sixth Avenue at around 4:30 a.m.. They two left the restaurant, but the men followed them outside.
The assailants allegedly insulted Furtch with anti-gay epithets and punched him, said police. His friend was not hit.
Furtch then walked to Roosevelt Hospital where he was treated and released.
On his Facebook page, Furtch posted a message that read: “I thought I was safe in the city I loved but apparently wearing fluorescent colored clothing and pink shoelaces really bother some (expletives omitted) to blind side me and hit me.”
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is circulating flyers in the West Village on Wednesday regarding the alleged hate crime.
Police describe the attackers as Hispanic men about 18-20 years old. One of the attackers reportedly has a huge tattoo of a gothic cross under his left eye.
Furtch will review mug shots and the police have subpoenaed the video surveillance tape from McDonald’s.
Related articles
- Gay man brutally beaten at McDonald’s (nydailynews.com)
- Damian Furtch Pummeled By Gay Bashers Outside NYC McDonald’s (queerty.com)
- Man Beaten in Anti-Gay Assault in NYC’s West Village (towleroad.com)
- BEATEN; BECAUSE HE IS GAY (via WATTS UP WITH THIS???) (releasedorothy.wordpress.com)
- Anthony Collao Beaten to Death by Men shouting Gay Slurs (releasedorothy.wordpress.com)
Racism in European football again? The same old lines.
Are campaigns just for show for European footballers?
Soraya Soemadiredja, writing from Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Dear European Footballers,
If you, your colleagues or your clubs are going to have numerous campaigns being all pedantic about how fans shouldn’t be racist to footballers, how football is fighting to stamp out racism in football and in Europe, then it would be good to try not to undermine those causes and campaigns by being racist yourself.
Small statements that you make whether in interviews or on a public forum like twitter not only become big news in minutes, but also make yourself to be ignorant, and by association, embarrass the club and country you work for. Especially when fellow, non-footballing, athletes from your own country have had to contend with racist scandals. Yes, scandals ultimately die down because, “it’s so common”, but, no, that is not an excuse and doesn’t make it acceptable, and doesn’t make it better for all associated with you.
Being portrayed as an idiot just because you’re a footballer with too much time on your hands between training and football matches doesn’t make it better. I think we can all see that when coaches make bans on social media sites for footballers, it’s either probably for the best so their consumers don’t see how terrible they are, or it’s not so good because we need to not have whitewashed (haha, too soon?) images of our “heroes”. It’s clear you have intelligent fans who won’t accept this, from all social and racial backgrounds, and while, maybe it will never reach a point where everybody cares, eventually it will reach a point where many fans (also known as consumers) will be able to access your public comments and start to point out how unacceptable it is.
Secondly, if your club are trying to capitalise on the massive Asian market, try not to make obvious your inability to separate racial stereotypes and gross generalisations from your mind such as all, “Asians look the same”. If you are supposedly one of the educated ones, rarity or not, with your “psychology degree”, that doesn’t make it better, it sort of makes it even more ridiculous. While that market you may have insulted with may not be your home market or your target market, your club, and by extension, your nation as a footballing nation, and yourself, still benefit from the revenue they bring in through jersey sales, marketing and television broadcast rights alone, not to mention indirect revenue from football tourism.
“Listen to us about how amazing we are for fighting racism in football, because you, fans, need to be educated—possibly, because you don’t know any better and you love us. But when we are racist ourselves, it is alright, because look how much money we make, and it’s not our fault everything we say gets on the front page of newspapers and become misconstrued,” should not be European football’s motto.
Related articles
- Racism in Russian football: Zenit fans let side down (dokmz.wordpress.com)
- At the stadium, be who you really are (osocio.org)
- Why aren’t there more black football managers? (guardian.co.uk)
- Bananagate: Brazilian Neymar says he was racially abused by Scotland fans (101greatgoals.com)
- Football Resistance : Split personality, Grandma [Image] (scaryideas.com)
Bad To The Bonehead – We Have A Chance… (Compilation)
Kyborg & Rossiya:
White Working Class
Repulse!
By The Common Way
Keep On The Struggle
An Unusual Antifa Fighter
The Act
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Have Paid – Sleep Well
Crime
In Memory Of The Middle Class
Guerillas XXl
I Am Russian!
Chance
Bonus: We H8 H8core! (Demo – 2009)
Zero Tolerance
Vote Or Die!
There Is No Justice
The World Without Boundaries
White International
Our Country!
Bonus #2: Street Songs (mini 2009):
Ar-Ma-Tu-Re!
Young Hearts
War All Will Hide
Bonus track (In memory of Roma “Radio”):
Asphalt (09.08.08.)
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01. Wurzner Jungs (2:31)
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03. Warriors Of The Street (2:58)
04. Fahnenträger (2:07)
05. Junkies 2 (3:02)
06. Hail The Blood (3:12)
07. Wo Ist All Der Stolz (4:49)
08. Mulentaler Lied (3:19)
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10. Green Terror (1:45)
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Schutzstaffel SS 2″ Round Patch (2 Inches)
Police: Papers seized from Klan leader accused of murder
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Authorities say they confiscated documents related to the Ku Klux Klan from the Louisiana home of a man accused of killing a woman who tried to join the group.
The documents were seized from the home of Chuck Foster, who authorities say is the leader of a local KKK group. Among the seized items were applications, titles and a chain of command for group members, said Fred Oswold, chief of criminal investigations for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff‘s Office.
“So far, we have learned that they were a small group, but they were fairly organized,” Oswold said, adding that his agency is working with the FBI to learn more about the group.
Cynthia Lynch, 43, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was fatally shot Sunday during an initiation ceremony in the woods of Louisiana, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities say the suspects recruited Lynch over the Internet to join the Klan. They say she traveled from Oklahoma to Louisiana for the ceremony and was taken to a campsite near Sun, Louisiana, about 60 miles north of New Orleans.
On Sunday, the woman asked to be taken from the camp to a nearby town, and an argument ensued, culminating with Foster fatally shooting Lynch, the sheriff’s department said.
Some of the suspects then tried to conceal the killing by burning the woman’s personal items, authorities said. Police received a tip about the killing and found the woman’s body hidden under loose brush alongside a road, authorities said.
The suspects, most of whom were still in the woods near the campsite several miles from where the body was found, were taken into custody without incident, he said.
Foster, 44, was charged with second-degree murder. The others were charged with lesser crimes related to trying to conceal the killing.
Oswold said that the Klan group in Sun was very small and that most of the members were arrested.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were seven active Klan organizations in Louisiana in 2007, the last time the civil rights law firm tracked hate groups.
None of those organizations was in the Sun area.
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- MP defends Ku Klux Klan comment (bbc.co.uk)
- What’s Not Funny? A Judge “Joking” About the Ku Klux Klan. (laist.com)
- OTT Oona’s Ku Klux Klan Cock Up (order-order.com)
- Huckabee criticizes Obama for growing up near madrassas, which is funny since Huck grew up in a Klan state (americablog.com)
Amy Winehouse apologises for racist video
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Amy Winehouse apologised today (June 9) for singing a racist slur-filled song, which was captured on video by her husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
The singer reportedly told paparazzi outside her London home today that she was sorry, reports the Associated Press. She also denied that her singing of the song made her a racist.
“I don’t want to play anything down, but I’m the least racist person going,” Winehouse said.
The video, which appears to have been filmed quite some time ago, appeared on The News Of The World this weekend. It also shows the singer in a drug den surrounded by drug-taking paraphernalia.
Meanwhile, the troubled singer’s husband admitted committing assault and perverting the course of justice in London today (June 9), as previously reported.
Obama Signs Hate Crimes Law
President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill, which extends the definition of federal hate crimes to include attacks against people based on gender identity, disability and sexual orientation.
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Melissa Block at NPR West in California.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I’m Robert Siegel in Washington, where at the White House today, President Obama signed a new hate crimes bill into law.
President BARACK OBAMA: After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are.
SIEGEL: This law adds protections for people attacked on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
NPR’s Ari Shapiro has this snapshot of hate crimes in America since the first hate crimes bill passed in 1968.
ARI SHAPIRO: This snapshot has some problems: It’s out of focus, half exposed and someone’s thumb is over part of the image. The government did not even start tracking hate crimes until 22 years after it first passed a federal hate crimes law. And even today reporting is spotty.
Mr. MICHAEL LIEBERMAN (Washington Counsel, Anti-Defamation League): It’s disturbing that almost 4,000 police agencies across the country are not participating in the Hate Crimes Statistics Act effort at all.
SHAPIRO: Michael Lieberman of the Anti-Defamation League says police voluntarily report hate crimes to the FBI. If they don’t participate, that’s a gap in the government’s knowledge.
Mr. LIEBERMAN: And almost 80 percent of those that do participate affirmatively report that they have zero hate crimes.
SHAPIRO: You find that hard to believe that there are actually zero hate crimes in those places.
Mr. LIEBERMAN: When one of the largest cities in America affirmatively reports to the FBI that they had zero hate crimes, that’s very hard to believe.
SHAPIRO: Because similarly sized cities are reporting many more hate crimes.
Mr. LIEBERMAN: Exactly right.
SHAPIRO: Indianapolis, for example, is the 13th largest city in America. It regularly tells the FBI it had zero hate crimes. The entire state of Mississippi filed reports with the FBI for the last three years, saying there were no hate crimes in the state. In contrast, states like Georgia and Louisiana report hate crime figures in the double digits every year.
Then there are whole categories of crimes that the government is about to start documenting, like violence against transgender people.
Mara Keisling is with the National Center for Transgender Equality. She says her community documents an average of a murder every month. And her group recently did a national survey that found 3 percent of transgender people had been attacked in hospital emergency rooms.
Ms. MARA KEISLING (Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality): That’s happening in emergency rooms. And believe me, it is. It’s happening, you know, on the street. It’s happening in the workplace. You know, trans people get slapped, hit, things thrown at all the time.
SHAPIRO: Now the government will track that, along with attacks on people based on gender or disability. The FBI already counts crimes based on sexual orientation, but this new law allows federal prosecution of anti-gay crimes for the first time.
Even with the statistical shortcomings, the FBI says crimes based on sexual orientation are the third most common type of hate crime in the government’s annual survey.
Kevin Cathcart of the gay group Lambda Legal says he hopes this law provides a fuller picture of anti-gay violence in the United States.
Mr. KEVIN CATHCART (Executive Director, Lambda Legal): I think that we will get a better number and I think that that’s important.
SHAPIRO: The government’s statistics on hate crimes do show some clear trends. For example, crimes motivated by race are the most common, with African-Americans victimized more than any other race. Religion based crimes come in second; Jews are the most frequent victims there.
These numbers demonstrate short-term trends, too. For example, right after 9/11, hate crimes against Muslims skyrocketed. More recently, as the debate over immigration has intensified, attacks against Latinos have risen steadily.
Hate crimes cases are overwhelmingly prosecuted by state and local rather than federal authorities. And even with today’s law, experts expect that to remain true.
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- Hate Crimes bill S.1105 or H.R. 1592 (aaronshaw127.wordpress.com)
- Sheriff Says Tye Murder Probably Isn’t a Hate Crime (bilerico.com)
- 2 Cars, Home in Santa Clarita Vandalized in Apparent Hate Crime (laist.com)
- Hate crime bill would strengthen protections against transgender people (pinkbananaworld.com)
- Stop Hate Crime Awarness UK (femaleimagination.wordpress.com)
