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Thread: THAT'S RACIST! Part 2: discussing racial tension in the US/abroad

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    Quote Originally Posted by Non_Saepe View Post
    Yeah! Let the pres grab your daughters by the pussy because we making money money money y'all! Who cares what he says! Words have never invited violence! Or waged war! Words don't fuel incels! Words have never have the power to foster supremacy! Words are for lazy mother fuckers who don't know how to make money!
    Word!

    Finished the day down -79 pts. We need some more words.

    Never allow others to dictate how you feel, they're just words, they are harmless to many, for the ones whos world revolves around spoken words.....well, they will always suffer.

    Yes, grab'em by the pussy, you can pretty much do what you want, if they allow you!

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    https://patch.com/georgia/marietta/l...jive-pd-report

    COBB COUNTY, GA — Surveillance video has been released of the weekend confrontation between a black metro Atlanta lawmaker and a white man, an argument that has sparked another chapter in the nation's never-ending racial dialogue. The video shows the brief argument between Eric Sparkes and state Rep. Erica Thomas, a confrontation that led Thomas to record a tearful, Facebook Live video in which she said Sparkes told her to "go back where she came from," charges that Sparkes denies.

    The confrontation took place last Friday at a Cobb County Publix when Sparkes saw Thomas in an express checkout line with too many items in her cart. After leaving the store with his items, Sparkes returned to express his anger at Thomas, who was still in line. Thomas said Sparkes called her a "a lazy son of a [expletive]" and told her to "go back where she came from."

    On Saturday, Thomas was being interviewed by a local TV station outside the Publix when Sparkes showed up. Thomas and Sparkes got into another argument in front of the TV crew, with Sparkes denying he said Thomas should "go back where she came from." Sparkes did admit cursing at Thomas for having too many items in her cart, and "called her a lazy (expletive)." Sparkes, who said he's of Cuban descent and a Democrat, said Thomas is just trying to further her political career.

    On Monday, Thomas and her supporters held a news conference, during which she said she was "embarrassed, and I was scared for my life" during the alleged incident. Sparkes then released a statement, in which he said "Ms. Thomas has taken an innocuous situation that began on my part to be about being inconsiderate and turned into a national case about race overnight. Ms. Thomas accuses me of telling her to go back to whereever. Those words were never spoken. She backtracked slightly and now is changing her story. I am in the process of exploring with attorneys a defamation lawsuit against her."

    On Tuesday, police said no charges will be filed in the incident. On Wednesday, Thomas' attorney, Gerald Griggs, released a copy of the police report online. Despite the fact that two witnesses were unable to corroborate Thomas' version of events, Griggs said the report validates his client's original Facebook Live video.

    And: Confrontation Between Black Female Lawmaker, White Man Goes Viral

    The police report cited two Publix employees who said they did not remember or witness the argument between Thomas and Sparkes.


    Gerald A. Griggs
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    Here the full police report. The two Publix employees didn’t hear the intital argument. @itsericathomas statement is consistent with her livestream statement. #IStandWithErica Not a #HateHoax @ajc @bluestein #Gapol.

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    Sparkes told police he saw Thomas using the express lane, left the store to put his items in his car, and then came back in to confront her about it. "He points at the entrance of the express lane, possibly at the sign and they clearly begin arguing," the police report said. The responding officer said he witnessed a surveillance video, without audio, in which Sparkes did not appear to be irate. "Nor did I see him with clenched hands," as Thomas claimed to police.

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    https://patch.com/mississippi/across...-investigation

    By Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting (via ProPublica)

    This article was produced in partnership with the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.

    This story is part of an ongoing investigation into Mississippi's corrections system. Sign up for the Locked Down newsletter to receive updates in this series as soon as they publish.


    OXFORD, Miss. — Three University of Mississippi students have been suspended from their fraternity house and face possible investigation by the Department of Justice after posing with guns in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till.

    One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing the trio in front of a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Till's body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. The 14-year-old black youth was tortured and murdered in August 1955. An all-white, all-male jury acquitted two white men accused of the slaying.

    The photo, which was obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica, shows an Ole Miss student named Ben LeClere holding a shotgun while standing in front of the bullet-pocked sign. His Kappa Alpha fraternity brother, John Lowe, stands on the other side with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. A third fraternity member squats below them. The photo appears to have been taken at night, the scene illuminated by lights from a vehicle.

    LeClere posted the picture on Lowe's birthday on March 1 with the message "one of Memphis's finest and the worst influence I've ever met."

    Neither LeClere nor Lowe responded to repeated attempts to contact them.

    It is not clear whether the fraternity students shot the sign or are simply posing before it. The sign is part of a memorial effort by a Mississippi civil rights group and has been repeatedly vandalized, most recently in August 2018. Till's death helped propelled the modern civil rights movement in America.

    Five days after LeClere posted the photo, a person who saw it filed a bias report to the university's Office of Student Conduct. The complaint pointed out there may have been a fourth person present, who took the picture.

    "The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of 'likes,' and no one said a thing," said the complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. "I cannot tell Ole Miss what to do, I just thought it should be brought to your attention."

    The photo was removed from LeClere's Instagram account after the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica began contacting fraternity members and friends. It had received 274 likes.

    Kappa Alpha suspended the trio on Wednesday, after the news organizations provided a copy of the photo to fraternity officials at Ole Miss. The fraternity, which honors Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as its "spiritual founder" on its website, has a history of racial controversy, including an incident in which students wore blackface at a Kappa Alpha sponsored Halloween party at the University of Virginia in 2002.

    "The photo is inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. It does not represent our chapter," Taylor Anderson, president of Ole Miss' Kappa Alpha Order, wrote in an email. "We have and will continue to be in communication with our national organization and the University."

    After viewing the photo, U.S. Attorney Chad Lamar of the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford said the information has been referred to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for further investigation.

    "We will be working with them closely," he said Thursday.

    University officials called the photo "offensive and hurtful."

    University spokesman Rod Guajardo acknowledged that an Ole Miss official had received a copy of the Instagram picture in March. The university referred the matter to the university police department, which in turn gave it to the FBI.

    Guajardo said the FBI told police it would not further investigate the incident because the photo did not pose a specific threat.

    Guajardo said that while the university considered the picture "offensive," the image did not present a violation of the university's code of conduct. He noted the incident depicted in the photo occurred off campus and was not part of a university-affiliated event.

    "We stand ready to assist the fraternity with educational opportunities for those members and the chapter," Guajardo said.

    Read More: Trump Hailed This State's Prison Reforms as a National Model — but the Numbers Reflect a Grim Reality
    He said the university will continue to build programs to engage students in "deliberate, honest and candid conversations while making clear that we unequivocally reject attitudes that do not respect the dignity of each individual in our community."

    Since the first sign was erected in 2008, it has been the object of repeated animosity.

    Vandals threw the first sign in the river. The second sign was blasted with 317 bullets or shotgun pellets before the Emmett Till Memorial Commission officials removed it. The third sign, featured in the Instagram photo, was damaged by 10 bullet holes before officials took it down last week. A fourth sign, designed to better withstand attacks, is expected to be installed soon.

    News of the suspensions and referral to the Justice Department came as Till's cousin, Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, was already planning a moment of silence Thursday to honor her cousin with a gathering of supporters and friends dressed in black and white in "a silent yet powerful protest against racism, hatred and violence." Thursday is Till's birthday. Had he lived, he would have been 78 years old.

    This is not the first time Ole Miss fraternity students have been caught up in an incident involving an icon from the civil rights movement.

    In 2014, three students from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house placed a noose around the neck of a statue on campus of James Meredith, the first known black student to attend Ole Miss. They also placed a Georgia flag of the past that contains the Confederate battle emblem.

    According to federal prosecutors, the freshmen students hatched the plan during a drinking fest at the house, where one student disparaged African Americans, saying this act would create a sensation: "It's James Meredith. People will go crazy."

    One pleaded guilty and received six months in prison for using a threat of force to intimidate African American students and employees because of their race or color. Another student also pleaded guilty. He received probation and community service after he cooperated with the FBI. A third man wasn't charged.

    All three students withdrew from Ole Miss, and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity's national headquarters shuttered its chapter on the Ole Miss campus after its own investigation, blaming the closing on behavior that included "hazing, underage drinking, alcohol abuse and failure to comply with the university and fraternity's codes of conduct."

    Shirley L. Smith and Debbie Skipper of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and Thalia Beaty, Benjamin Hardy and Claire Perlman of ProPublica contributed to this report.

    Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter for the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that seeks to hold public officials accountable and empower citizens in their communities.

    Email him at Jerry.Mitchell.MCIR@gmail.com and follow him on Facebook at @JerryMitchellReporter and on Twitter at* *@jmitchellnews.

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    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/07/27/u...rnd/index.html


    Black rag dolls intended to be abused were pulled from shelves after they were called racist

    By Taylor Romine and Michelle Lou, CNN
    Updated 1:27 PM EDT, Sat July 27, 2019



    One Dollar Zone said it immediately pulled controversial black rag dolls from store shelves after customers voiced concerns about them.

    (CNN) Black rag dolls that instruct someone to abuse them were removed from the shelves of multiple One Dollar Zone stores after they drew criticism for being racist.

    The "Feel Better Doll" comes with a label that tells people to "slam the doll" against a wall "whenever things don't go well."

    New Jersey legislator Angela McKnight said she visited a One Dollar Zone store in Bayonne and found the toy "offensive and disturbing on so many levels."


    "It is clearly made in an inappropriate representation of a black person and instructs people to 'slam' and 'whack' her," McKnight said in a Monday statement.

    "Racism has no place in the world and I will not tolerate it, especially not in this district. When I saw the doll in person, I cringed and was truly disheartened by the thought of a black child being beaten by another child or an adult for pure pleasure. To have a product depict or teach children that it is OK to hit another child, regardless of race, in order to feel good is sick."

    One Dollar Zone President Ricky Shah said the company immediately pulled the dolls from store shelves after customers voiced concerns about them.

    "One Dollar Zone deeply apologizes for this incident," Shah said.

    One Dollar Zone said the controversial dolls were part of an assorted 35,000 unit purchase. The company said it tries to vet all the items but aren't able to catch everything.

    The dolls came in two other colors, green and yellow, the company added.

    The manufacturer of the dolls is Harvey Hutter Co. The company's phone numbers have been disconnected and its website no longer exists.

    One Dollar Zone operates about 30 stores in the Northeast, including in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

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    Quote Originally Posted by blighted star View Post
    So the yellow ones are supposed to be the japs? Who are the green ones?, aliens?
    Wait. I think they have green people in Ecuador lol

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    https://wreg.com/2019/08/01/white-su...arkansas-jail/

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The leader of a white supremacist gang that has been accused of a string of brutal tactics escaped a local Arkansas jail Wednesday along with another inmate, and authorities searching for the men said they’re considered armed and dangerous.

    The U.S. Marshals Service said authorities were searching for Wesley Gullett and Christopher Sanderson after the pair escaped from the Jefferson County jail in Pine Bluff, which is about 38 miles (60 kilometers) south of Little Rock. Marshals said they were notified about the pair’s escape at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, but did not know exactly when they escaped.

    Gullett, 30, is among 54 members of the New Aryan Empire who have been indicted on federal charges and is listed in court documents as the gang’s “outside” president who oversaw all gang activities by members who weren’t in prison. Prosecutors say the gang has about 5,000 members.

    Sanderson, 34, was being held in the jail on federal gun and drug charges.

    Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Kevin Sanders said authorities have no reason to believe the pair left the state and that multiple agencies across Arkansas are looking for them. Sanders declined to say how the two escaped.

    “We were made aware this morning of the inmates’ escape and are working with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to secure their return into custody,” Cody Hiland, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas, said in a statement.

    A spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to an email Wednesday afternoon.

    Prosecutors say New Aryan Empire began as a prison gang in the 1990s but now engages in narcotics trafficking, witness intimidation and acts of violence, including attempted murder, kidnapping and assault. Indictments were originally returned in 2017 accusing 44 members of the gang with drug and gun crimes, but additional members were named in February for alleged involvement in violent crimes committed by the group.

    Gullett’s attorney on Wednesday declined to comment.

    Gullett is accused in the indictment of attempting to kill Bruce Wayne Hurley, of Atkins, who told law enforcement about an associate of the gang’s drug dealing. Hurley was shot dead at his home in May 2016, but the indictment never says who authorities believe killed him.

    A magistrate judge in March rejected Gullett’s request for a temporary release to attend his father’s funeral after prosecutors said he posed a “serious danger to the community” and was a flight risk.

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    https://apnews.com/3fb9a27499604deebb022aebc7249927

    PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AP) — A jail breakout ended without violence as authorities scooped up a white supremacist gang leader and another fugitive more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from their Arkansas lockup .

    Wesley Gullett, 30, surrendered while walking alone down a highway in Dover, northwest of the Jefferson County jail in Pine Bluff from which he escaped, authorities said. He was taken to the Pope County jail.

    “Through the diligent efforts of our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, Wesley Gullett has been apprehended,” Cody Hiland, U.S attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas, said in a statement. “He will remain in federal custody and ultimately will have his day in court.”

    Hours later, Christopher Sanderson, 34, surrendered to federal marshals and Arkansas State Police troopers in the Ozark National Forest near Pelsor, about 120 miles (193.11 kilometers) northwest of Pine Bluff, said U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Kevin Sanders said. Sanderson was severely dehydrated and was taken to a hospital for treatment, Sanders said.

    Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the men were last seen at the county jail in Pine Bluff at around 8:30 p.m. Monday. But it wasn’t until 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday that officials noticed they were missing, even though Woods told the Pine Bluff Commercial that several other inmates tried to escape Tuesday but were quickly captured after a drone spotted them on the roof.

    Authorities in Arkansas on Thursday captured two fugitives, including a white supremacist gang leader, who escaped from jail and whose disappearance may have gone unnoticed for more than a day. A second escapee was also caught. (Aug. 2)
    Woods didn’t immediately reply to Associated Press phone messages left Thursday seeking comment.

    Maj. Randy Dolphin, the sheriff’s office operations commander, told The Associated Press on Thursday that investigators still don’t know whether the two were gone all day Tuesday from the roughly 300-inmate jail in Pine Bluff, which is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Little Rock.

    Dolphin said jailers are supposed to conduct the checks three times every 12-hour shift.

    Gullett and Sanderson put padding in their bunks to make it look as if they were asleep, then climbed onto the jail’s roof and over a fence to escape, the Democrat-Gazette reported. Jailers doing head counts are supposed to physically confirm that inmates are in their bunks if they don’t see movement, but they didn’t do so, Woods said.

    “I’m going to be honest with you, it comes back down to complacency, comes down to just being lazy and not paying attention to what we’re doing. And so at this point, we’re handling that internally with our staff,” Woods told Little Rock television station KATV.

    Gullett is among 54 members of the New Aryan Empire who have been indicted on federal charges and is listed in court documents as the gang’s “outside” president who oversaw all gang activities by members who weren’t in prison. Prosecutors say the gang has about 5,000 members.

    Sanderson, 34, was being held on federal gun and drug charges.

    Prosecutors say the New Aryan Empire began as a prison gang in the 1990s but now engages in drug trafficking, witness intimidation and acts of violence, including attempted murder, kidnapping and assault. Indictments were originally returned in 2017 accusing 44 members of the gang with drug and gun crimes, but additional members were named in February for alleged involvement in violent crimes committed by the group.


    Gullett’s attorney declined to comment on Thursday.

    Gullett is accused of attempting to kill Bruce Wayne Hurley, of Atkins, who told law enforcement about an associate of the gang’s drug dealing. Hurley was shot dead at his home in May 2016, but the indictment doesn’t say who authorities believe killed him.

    A magistrate judge in March rejected Gullett’s request for a temporary release to attend his father’s funeral after prosecutors argued that he posed a serious danger to the community and was a flight risk.

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    https://truthout.org/articles/mass-s...ame-manifesto/

    This weekend, after two mass shooters killed and injured dozens of people in Texas and Ohio, Rep. Steve Cohen tweeted, “You want to shoot an assault weapon? Go to Afghanistan or Iraq. Enlist!”

    Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, apparently did not take issue with the El Paso shooter’s desire to slaughter people of color — he merely wanted to redirect his bullets toward people of color outside of the United States. His tweet was a chilling reminder of how the United States’ militarism against other countries and its domestic manifestations of white supremacy replicate and reinforce each other. 

    White people attack Brown and Black Muslims in the United States precisely because of the country’s wars abroad. The United States’ destructive trade agreements and military intervention in Central and South America drive North American refugee border crossings, and armed white militia groups patrol the desert to catch or kill refugees seeking help. Many local police departments are trained in “community policing,” which police scholar Kristian Williams explains, is stylized after military patrols with locals during war. In Ferguson, Missouri, white militiamen (mostly former military and police officers called “the Oathkeepers”) openly carried assault rifles alongside the police to assist in monitoring the protestors during rallies in 2014. They were not turned away, arrested, or discouraged from escalating violence.

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    These acts of violence and recent senseless mass shootings start making sense when evidence emerges showing that the actors have been inspired by a president who has called countries in Africa “shit-holes” and recently told four progressive congresswomen of color to go back to the countries that they “came from” (despite the fact that three of them were born in this country and they are all U.S. citizens). Ironically enough, the United States and European countries have exploited, colonized and pillaged African and Asian peoples for centuries, suppressed their resistance movements, and denied them entry into countries whose wealth comes from the cycle of violence against them.

    Actually, the United States government, which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” commits the most routine violence against people of color on Earth, and has 800 military bases in 70 countries. So when white supremacists attack people of color within the U.S., they are simply implementing on a local level the bloody work that their own government carries out day in and day out across the globe.

    In truth, if anyone wanted to get paid to play around with military equipment, they do not have to leave the country, or even be a white supremacist. They could just join one of the 18,000 local law enforcement agencies in the United States. The military’s leftover, gently used equipment is cycled and recycled through police departments, used in S.W.A.T raids against people of color, and to violate the rights of protesters. In fact, U.S. soldiers cannot legally use tear gas in war, but police officers are granted free rein to use it against protesters.

    The militarization of racist policing within the U.S., the use of military force against people of color throughout the world, and white nationalists’ vigilante attacks against people of color on U.S. soil are different chapters of the same manifesto.

    The United States’s militarism against other countries and its domestic manifestations of white supremacy replicate and reinforce each other.
    Given that reality, why would a congressman like Cohen, who brags about being anti-Trump, make a call for would-be vigilantes to merely shift their violence to another place, rather than to stop it?

    Musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron said it best: “If we only work for peace, if everyone believed in peace the way they say they do, we’d have peace. The only thing wrong with peace, is that you can’t make no money from it.”

    Mass shootings and the wars abroad are both profitable to companies in the military- and prison-industrial complexes. For example, powerful companies and lobbyists cannot make money from removing guns from the streets or from the police, but they can make money from selling cameras to cities to surveil their streets and to put on officers’ bodies and dashboards. It is no accident that Republicans argue that the only thing to stop a “bad guy with a gun” is a “good guy with a gun”; violence sells. Saving human lives interferes too much with capitalism.

    These shooters have been indoctrinated with white supremacist ideologies found not only in each other’s manifestos, but also in the United States constitution, in writings from the Supreme Court, on news channels, in movies and on social media. Some of them believe they are under attack and that there is an invasion of nonwhite people threatening the supremacy of white people. To them, any form of resistance to white supremacy also feels like an attack on white people and society, and they are on high alert against the mainstreaming of civil rights, Black power, LGBTQ rights and women’s rights movements.

    But activists and organizers must continue to combat the violent tools and violent logics of white supremacists and the intertwined military- and prison-industrial complexes. Social movements, education and progressive policy change can point us in the right direction; policing, militarism and the industries that profit from or perpetuate violence cannot. Since white supremacy, militarism and capitalism are in solidarity, so must be the movements against all three.  

    Doing so means divesting from the institutions, people and mindsets that perpetuate white supremacy, xenophobia and violence. Washington, D.C.’s, chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, for example, has a campaign to stop the program that trains U.S. police officers alongside Israel Defense Forces who occupy and oppress Palestinians. In North Carolina, Working to Extend Anti-Racism Education (“we are”) is an organization that runs anti-racism summer camps for kids, which works with families and schools to dismantle systemic racism. We need both types of intervention. We need robust educational, economic and environmental investments in human beings, communities and countries, and crucial divestment from the institutions, people and practices that perpetuate white supremacy, xenophobia and violence.

    Since white supremacy, militarism and capitalism are in solidarity, so must be the movements against all three.  
    Similarly, we must also push to ensure that national conversations around immigration, policing, women’s rights and climate change are influenced less by our white nationalist president than by all the people who are demanding bodily autonomy for women, environmental justice, open borders, abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and prisons, democratic socialism, the mattering and value of Black life, free health care and reparations. 

    This is no small feat, but it is possible, and the pursuit is worthy. Gil Scott–Heron reminds us that the preservation of human life requires a struggle for peace: “Peace is not the absence of war. It is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war and the preparation for war. Peace is not the absence of war. It is a time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other, closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves because we have finally come to peace within ourselves.”

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    https://nypost.com/2019/08/10/abolis...-side-highway/

    All lanes of the West Side Highway were shut down after protesters stormed the roadway in Chelsea, officials said.

    Cars traveling in both directions came to a halt shortly after 1 p.m., when demonstrators protesting the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency marched onto the highway at West 26th Street, according to social media.

    Video posted to Twitter by user Victor Amos shows dozens of people standing in the middle of the intersection, chanting as authorities can be heard over a loudspeaker urging them to move onto the sidewalk.

    A photograph posted by user @GabrielleShatan shows the protestors sitting on the side of the street, lining 12th Avenue in front of a sign that reads: “ABOLISH ICE.”

    Dozens of arrests were made, according to multiple reports.

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    Quote Originally Posted by KambingSociety View Post

    Why is this in here? You posted the El Paso thread yourself & you've updated it MULTIPLE TIMES, so it's not like you didn't know it already had it's own thread????



    I swear to fucking god you're using a board game spinner to decide where to post stuff
    Last edited by blighted star; 08-10-2019 at 10:27 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by blighted star View Post
    Why is this in here? You posted the El Paso thread yourself & you've updated it MULTIPLE TIMES, so it's not like you didn't know it already had it's own thread????



    I swear to fucking god you're using a board game spinner to decide where to post stuff
    Lmfaoooooo. The answer to your question is very simple, It's here bcz you people allow it. That's why!

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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    Lmfaoooooo. The answer to your question is very simple, It's here bcz you people allow it. That's why!
    Nah, not anymore, we've got active mods again now 😁

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    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/l...6o61ZPhh6RIfJo




    Las Vegas Man Arrested In Anti-Semitic Plots Said To Be Affiliated With Neo-Nazi Group





    By Joe Sexton ProPublica
    August 15, 2019 9:58 am


    The federal authorities confront a Neo-Nazi group that ProPublica and Frontline have been covering for years.


    For two years, the basic description had appeared in reporting by ProPublica and Frontline: Atomwaffen Division is a neo-Nazi organization eager for a race war and committed to terrorist attacks against Jews, immigrants and other targets in the U.S. ? power grids, nuclear facilities ? that would foment fear.

    The description ran in stories describing how the group had been connected to five murders in recent years, including one involving a gay, Jewish college student in California. It appeared in a Frontline film raising questions about the federal response to domestic terrorism threats just weeks after 11 Jewish worshipers were allegedly killed by a racist gunman in Pittsburgh.

    So it was striking, then, when late last week those very words turned up a formal complaint filed by federal prosecutors as they announced the arrest of a 23-year-old man in Las Vegas for plotting to firebomb one or more Jewish sites in the city.

    ?AWD is a white supremacist extremist organization,? the complaint read. ?AWD membership consists of mostly white males between the ages of approximately 16 to 30 years of age who all believe in the superiority of the white race. AWD utilizes a ?leaderless resistance? strategy in which small independent groups, or individuals called ?lone wolves,? try to achieve a common goal of challenging the established laws, social order, and government via terrorism and other violent acts. AWD encourages attacks on the federal government, including critical infrastructure, minorities, homosexuals, and Jews. AWD works to recruit like-minded members to the organization, train them in military tactics, hand to hand combat, bomb making, and other techniques in preparation for an ?ultimate and uncompromising victory? in a race war.?

    The man arrested in Las Vegas, Conor Climo, was affiliated with AWD, shared its ideology and violent aims, communicated with its members in secret online chats and once had joined one of its offshoot groups, the authorities charged.


    ?I am more interested in action than online shit,? Climo said according to the complaint.

    The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas lays out a disturbing array of action Climo was allegedly willing to undertake:

    Attacking a synagogue, maybe with a firebomb, maybe with a group of gunmen;

    A similar attack on an office of the Anti-Defamation League;

    Another against a gay bar;

    A trial-run assault on a homeless encampment.


    In reporting on Atomwaffen, ProPublica and Frontline obtained the group?s secret chat logs in which members openly talked about their hatred and violent ambitions; uncovered training sites where the group conducted weapons instruction; met with the group?s spiritual founder; and confronted both current and former members.

    Hanging over that reporting was a question, one asked by us and by current and former law enforcement officials worried about the threat of white supremacist terror: Where was the FBI? It seemed hard to imagine that an organization of extremist Islamists vowing to kill people and destabilize the government would not face federal scrutiny. Of course, part of the answer is that law enforcement is constrained in certain ways about how aggressively it can investigate and prosecute potential domestic terrorism threats.

    But in looking at the criminal complaint filed in Las Vegas last week, it appears that FBI agents conducted the sort of sting operation against Atomwaffen that they used to infiltrate and arrest suspected Islamic terrorist groups.

    Climo, according to the complaint, first became a subject of the bureau?s interest when he was featured in a local news segment about his plans for keeping Las Vegas secure. He publicly carried an automatic weapon and wore a tactical vest. Agents later became aware that Climo was allegedly affiliated with Atomwaffen, and they soon lined up a confidential informant to contact him. Climo, according to the complaint, eagerly shared his ideas for targeting Jewish sites, and in time, the FBI had an agent posing as a white supremacist ally begin dealing with Climo.

    A subsequent search of Climo?s residence turned up guns and bomb-making materials. Climo, who prosecutors say talked freely with the authorities even after his arrest, has been charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, which carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison. Climo does not yet appear to have entered a plea in the case.

    ?Threats of violence motivated by hate and intended to intimidate or coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ communities have no place in this country,? U.S. attorney for Nevada Nicholas Trutanich said in a news release last week. ?Law enforcement in Nevada remains determined to use the full weight of our investigative resources to prevent bias-motivated violence before it happens.?

    At its peak, in early 2018, Atomwaffen had about 80 members across the country, as well as a handful of followers in Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries. Since then, the group had been riven by internal conflict and lost many of its communications platforms, as internet companies have moved to shut down its websites and suspend the social media accounts of its members. It?s not clear how large or cohesive the organization currently is.

    Prosecutors alleged in the complaint that Climo had also associated with an Atomwaffen spinoff group called the Feuerkrieg Division.


  14. #2414
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    HAHA The Unknown Hinson just lost his career.
    Gooble goble gooble goble one of us one of us. t(-_-)t

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    https://www.kxan.com/news/crime/man-...ts-police-say/

    AUSTIN (KXAN) — A man was arrested after he reportedly confronted three men with a “Rambo-style” hunting knife because he thought they might be illegal immigrants, according to an affidavit.

    The Austin Police Department responded to the incident at a mechanic shop on Aldridge Drive in northeast Austin at about 6 p.m. on Friday.

    When they arrived at the scene, officers located the victim who told them the suspect, later identified as 39-year-old Odis Richardson Jr., was still inside the shop.

    The victim told police that the man entered the shop with a large knife in his hand. He walked to within five or six feet of the victim and lunged the knife towards him, the man said.

    “The suspect was making a jabbing motion with the knife and still cursing at me and telling me to come to him as I moved backwards away from him,” he told police.

    The victim said he hid behind a vehicle but could see Richardson walking around the shop as if looking for him.

    At one point, the man told police he heard glass breaking and air escaping. Later, he realized that a Chevrolet Silverado truck had two flat tires and a broken window.

    Two other men who managed to run away from the scene also claimed that Richardson was yelling at them while holding the weapon.

    Police found a hunting knife described as “Rambo-style” in the arrest affidavit and took Richardson for questioning.

    Richardson told police that he confronted “two or three Mexicans” at the mechanic shop because he thought they were possibly illegal immigrants who should not be here, the affidavit states.

    He also admitted the victim did nothing to him. Police said Richardson agreed the victim appeared to be in fear for his life and said he would have felt the same way if someone did that to him.

    Richardson was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, making a terroristic threat, criminal mischief and possession of a controlled substance. He remains in the Travis County Jail on a total bond of $28,500.

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    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/wh...-black-people/

    DISCOVERY BAY, Calif. (KRON) — A California family is speaking out after a neighbor told them to “stop acting Black” in a “white neighborhood.”

    Gerritt Jones said his 13-year-old son was playing outside their home Monday afternoon with their 2-year-old pit bull named Dice when a neighbor, who is white, approached and questioned the family about the dog.

    “The conversation began escalating,” Gerritt said. “She told me she was going to report my dog and call the police on me, and that’s when the racial slurs began to come out.”

    The encounter was captured on the family’s home surveillance and then on their cell phones.

    “You know what, you are a Black person in a white neighborhood and you’re acting like one. Why don’t you act like a white person in a white neighborhood?” said the neighbor, whom the family identified as Adana Dean.

    The Jones family has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years and say they never had a problem before Monday’s interaction. Several neighbors dropped by their home on Tuesday to offer support.

    “Unfortunately, this is just what comes with being an African American in this country,” Gerritt Jones said.

    Dean did not want to speak on camera about the incident and claims that she didn’t have a stun gun or taser on her, as the Jones have said, but an ultrasonic dog chaser.

    Dean also said she didn’t do anything wrong and she’s not a racist.

    However, the Jones appear to feel differently. They say they haven’t spoken to Dean since the incident or received an apology.

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    https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...-about-asians/

    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – When Autumn Tillman recorded herself confronting her neighbor, David Rosner, she says she had had enough.

    “Do you ever shut the (expletive) up? Ever shut the (expletive) up, in front of my door with your racist (expletive)?” she said in the video.

    She says Rosner has been going on racist rants in the hallway of their mid-Market building for years, and recently started going after Asians.


    In one video she shared with KPIX 5, he can be heard saying “Go live in Asia. Funny how it’s a white country – 200 years of white supremacy.”

    At another point, Rosner says, “If you thought Asian lives matter, they don’t matter to us one bit.”

    Tillman says Rosner paces up and down the hallway on a daily basis, while spewing racist commentary. She says most of her neighbors, especially children, are afraid of him, and try to stay out of his way.

    “Nobody should ever have to hear that they have to go back to their own country or anything like that, I’m sorry,” said Tillman. “My building is like 70 percent Asian families.”

    That’s why Tillman, who is also a singer, said she decided to speak up and posted the video to her Instagram. She also grew up in San Francisco.

    “Asian people have been there for the black community. They’re always on the frontline with their signs, demanding justice for my community. They’re always on social media, when you go to a lot of Asian people – like you go to their social media – you see the Black Lives Matter hashtags,” said Tillman. “They’re just as angry as the black community is.”

    The video has since racked up more than 120,000 views.

    Tillman says she has received an outpouring of gratitude from the Asian community, thanking her for taking a stand on their behalf.

    “I thank her for it, I mean no one really talks to him, but to always come out the side of his neck and saying comments like that, I don’t know if he’s wanting to pick a fight,” said neighbor Edwin Gutierrez.

    KPIX 5’s Betty Yu met Rosner in the hallway of the building.

    While much of what he said was nonsensical, Yu asked him whether he was a white supremacist.

    “I would prefer everybody being white,” he said. “I would prefer using Aryan genetics to make every person a white person and a male. We don’t really see a need at this point for people of color.”

    The property manager, Zenaida Saenz says police have been called on a few occasions, but his behavior has not been cause for arrest.

    “Physically he’s not really a threat, but the way he talks sometimes, it’s really no sense,” she said.

    As for Tillman, she’s working on a website called Blacks for Asian Lives Matter to unite the communities.

    “If someone’s talking about someone’s ethnicity, making fun of it, whatever, please stick up for them, because all it takes is just a voice,” she said.

    Meanwhile, Tillman is hoping to save enough money to move out of the building and has set up an online fundraiser to help gather enough to put a down payment on a house.

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    https://www.koin.com/news/national/b...ger-reckoning/

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) ? They threw her new cellphone on the roof of the station house and placed nails under the wheels of her pickup truck. As she prepared to answer a call, someone poured tobacco juice in her boots. It was too much for Timika Ingram to bear.

    ?It caused me pain, sleepless nights, suffering, anxiety,? said Ingram, whose four years as a firefighter in North Carolina amounted to a collection of indignities.

    Other Black firefighters who endured similar treatment in the Winston-Salem Fire Department recently brought their complaints before the city. The grievance they filed in October calls for Chief William ?Trey? Mayo to be fired for failing to discipline white firefighters who, the group said, have created a hostile work environment through comments in person and on social media.

    ?It?s a festering problem that has become even more disease-ridden and even more detrimental to the life of the individuals who work here because of the current chief,? said 28-year veteran firefighter Thomas Penn, a leader of the group that calls itself Omnibus.

    Across the country, firefighters are confronting incidents of racism and discrimination as part of a burgeoning movement to call out and address racial injustice in America.

    Two Black women sued the city of Denver in September, saying its fire department discriminated against them because of their gender and race. One alleged a captain overseeing her training said she should ?keep her head down and act like a slave? to graduate from the program.

    Last year, a Black firefighter sued city officials in Lansing, Michigan, saying they did nothing to stop racial discrimination within the fire department after he received hostile comments and found a banana on his assigned firetruck?s windshield. He filed another lawsuit this summer.

    A white Delaware firefighter was charged in July with hate crimes and harassment after allegedly sending threatening messages to a Black paramedic and two part-time workers, one who is Black and the other white who has Black family members, the News Journal reported.

    The Winston-Salem group alleged two white captains talked about running over demonstrators protesting the police killing of George Floyd, and that a firefighter made a noose during a rope and knots class in November 2017.

    City Manager Lee Garrity cited the state?s personnel privacy law in declining to comment. He said the city has launched a so-called ?climate assessment? through a Charlotte-based firm, which will evaluate the entire fire department regarding diversity, race, gender and sexual orientation. A report is due by year?s end, he said.

    ?We?d had very few grievances or complaints in the last couple of years,? Garrity said. ?But I am sure there are opportunities for improvement.?

    Mayo didn?t return multiple phone calls seeking comment.

    In early November, Penn said the climate assessment hadn?t begun and added in an email that department administrators, including Mayo, ?has attempted to intimidate and bully our members? by walking in during interviews.

    Ingram said of her treatment throughout rookie school, ?You develop alligator skin so that you can get on through the process. And then, hopefully, once you get in, you?ll be able to be an advocate or be able to be heard if anything goes on, because a lot went on with me.?

    She officially joined the department in July 2006. Almost right away, she said, other firefighters stole her food and took her uniforms out of her personal space.

    The cellphone incident was a significant factor in Ingram?s eventual departure because, without it, her three children had no way to reach her. She said her white counterparts asked if she?d actually left her phone where it was last seen and even pretended to search for it.

    ?My daughter was a latchkey kid at the age of 9. My kids had no other way to get in touch. They didn?t know how. Something went wrong with my kids, and I couldn?t get to them and they couldn?t get to me,? she said. ?That right there just set it off.?

    Ingram was transferred and expressed concerns over her treatment to a superior who didn?t address them, she said.

    ?I was like, ?I?m fighting a losing battle.? You can talk all you want, say what you got to say,? she said.

    In July 2010, Ingram quit. Her life spiraled downward for a time. She said she married someone ?to mask the pain,? but that ended in divorce. Her car was repossessed and she was homeless. She missed work for four months, and doctors told her she developed lupus as a result of the stress she?d undergone as a firefighter.

    Retired Winston-Salem firefighter Gary Waddell experienced discrimination on a different plane in 1989 because of his marriage to a white woman who visited him at the station shortly after he was assigned there.

    ?I didn?t think anything of it, but when my wife came inside of this fire station, I was told by my supervisor, who was a captain, that my wife could no longer come to the station to visit me,? Waddell said. ?But the other members of my crew that I was working with, their wives could come by. But mine couldn?t. So that?s how I started my career.?

    Today, Ingram works in medical services in Charlotte, the same job she took after leaving the fire department. She worked out a deal to get her car back, and she?s pursuing a degree in psychology. But she still thinks about the career she had to abandon.

    ?I just wished I could have stayed,? she said. ?I really do, because I worked hard to get there. I trained to get there.?

    https://www.koin.com/news/protests/k...t-journalists/

    ORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) ? Investigators are now getting involved after a wave of racist and threatening letters were mailed to people in the Portland metro area, one of which contained a ?kill list? with more than 20 names of community leaders, activists and people of color.
    Candace Avalos, a Portland activist and former candidate for Portland City Council, received a threatening letter with her name on a ?kill list,? November 20, 2020 (KOIN)

    The letters are disturbing, disparage the Black Lives Matter movement and threaten violence and death upon those involved in it ? and the threats appear to be escalating.

    The list, which was originally reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.com, was sent to Candace Avalos, a Portland activist and former candidate for Portland City Council. Avalos posted the note on Twitter this week, and said it was the second racist note she had received in a week.

    ?Within a week I have 2 hateful letters in my mailbox,? said Avalos, the chair of the Citizen Review Committee, a civic leader and an educator. ?The goal was to tell me that Black lives don?t matter, that N lives don?t matter.?
    A threatening letter with a ?kill list? was sent to a number of Portland activists and journalists, November 20, 2020 (Courtesy: Candace Avalos)

    Among other things, the letter said:

    ?If you try anymore action in Vancouver your El Sickos will pay?
    ?I got hollow tips?
    ?We want total war?
    ?Don?t worry about checking this for prints. I wore gloves?

    Related Content

    In his own words: Ken Boddie reacts to racist letter

    ?It?s upsetting and makes me angry and it makes me hurt for not only myself as someone dealing with this, but the many people who have to deal with this and continue to deal with this as they work to make change in the community. Nobody that is striving for progress deserves that.?

    Gregory McKelvey, most recently the campaign manager for mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone, was also on the list.
    Gregory McKelvey, a Portland activist who was the campaign manager for mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone, November 20, 2020 (KOIN)

    ?Certainly death threats are not new to me, which is the sad reality of just trying to stand up for stuff. But they certainly feel different than they did in 2016 when I didn?t have kids,? McKelvey said. ?It doesn?t take a brave person to send the letters that have been sent. That takes a cowardly person to try and hide their identity to try and cover their tracks.?

    McKelvey, now the father of two kids, said the common thread of those listed is their involvement in the BLM movement.

    ?I think the individuals on the list are brave individuals, have both fought for justice or covered those that fight for justice, and the person who sent the letter is not,? McKelvey said.

    In a statement to KOIN 6 News, Mayor Ted Wheeler said: ?I have consistently and loudly condemned violence and intimidation of all kinds. I have assigned a staff member to follow up on these outrageous and disturbing threats. My team and I are working hard to provide resources and protection to anyone who desires it. I have reached out and my team has reached out. I respect everyone?s right to peacefully protest and to decide for themselves whether or not to report threats.?

    Avalos said Wheeler?s office did reach out, but McKelvey said he has not heard from Wheeler?s office.

    Follow KOIN 6 for the latest news and weather

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    https://clarksvillenow.com/local/dea...nnessee-naacp/

    CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The NAACP has come out strongly against a Clarksville legislator’s bill that would allow the use of deadly force in defense of property.


    On Tuesday, the Tennessee State Conference NAACP issued a letter detailing its objections, including that the measure could have unintended consequences, such as the shooting of delivery drivers, construction workers, joggers and even police.

    Rep. Jay Reedy, R-Erin, whose District 74 includes the western side of Montgomery County, told Clarksville Now his bill is largely influenced by gun laws in Texas, which are more permissive on the use of deadly force. However, Reedy said the bill remains in the early stages of development and he believes that questions and concerns will be answered as the bill is refined to better fit the needs of Tennesseans.

    Here is the text of the NAACP’s response to the proposal:


    “In November, Representative Jay Reedy of Houston County filed HB 0011 in the Tennessee General Assembly. The bill permits the use of “deadly” force in order “to protect real or tangible, movable property,” including specific language allowing property owners to kill persons suspected of theft during night-time hours. The proposed legislation—nothing more than a backlash response to recent protests against police and vigilante killings—attempts to give legal standing to unjustifiable and racially-based, vigilante killings.

    “In addition to allowing gun owners to self-deputize, HB 0011 gives them the leeway to be judge, jury, and executioner in incidences of real or perceived theft. In doing so, the bill suffers from constitutional ambiguities and legalizes murders over common-sense and gray area interactions among neighbors, family members, and bystanders.

    “What happens if a person is placing a delivery package on someone’s door and their action is misinterpreted by the property owner? What happens if a person makes a food delivery to the wrong address and it is assumed by the property owner as an action of theft? Does the law apply to someone’s residence or can it be extended to a rally in which one protester is taking a sign from another protestor? What happens, as in the case of 25-year old Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, when a person is jogging in the “wrong” neighborhood or visits an unfinished house to inspect the interior design? What about a person who is mistakenly suspected of theft, yet is wearing suspicious attire or a hoodie such as what happened to Trayvon Martin? What about non-White construction workers installing a roof in a mostly White neighborhood after the sun goes down and are mistakenly targeted? What happens to law enforcement officials who confront armed property owners during night-time investigations? In all these examples, HB 0011 would give property owners who perceive themselves as victims of theft a license to kill the alleged offenders.


    “Even in cases of real theft, Reedy’s bill makes no distinction between a person who may steal a newspaper or other Class A property, a lawnmower, or a car. The proposed legislation deputizes property owners regardless of the value of the stolen property and irrespective of whether the alleged offenders have a weapon.

    “Reedy’s legislation will also legalize racially-based vigilantism. Martin, Arbery, and countless other Blacks walking, jogging, and working in the “wrong” neighborhood have previously been targets of revenge confrontations.

    “In addition, HB 0011 will have the protective cover of an unfair and racially-biased, legal safety net specifically benefitting Whites who use deadly force against Blacks. An Urban Institute study of 2,631 “justifiable” homicides that were similar to the George Zimmerman killing of Trayvon Martin found that Whites who killed Blacks were overwhelmingly more likely to be exonerated. The racial disparity for justifiable homicides—meaning the exoneration of Whites who kill Blacks—was much greater in Stand Your Ground states. The study confirms that the deck is stacked in favor of Whites who “justifiably” kill Blacks compared to intra-racial homicides.


    “The Tennessee NAACP urges all Tennesseans to stand up and against Reedy’s bill. HB 0011provides legal cover for racial vigilantism—or legalized lynching—and fails to pass the constitutional litmus test. We also call on our state lawmakers and officials, including Governor Bill Lee and Attorney General Herbert Slatery, to stand against it.”

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    https://www.radio.com/knx1070/news/n...mosque-bombing

    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A jury on Wednesday convicted the leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group of several civil rights and hate crime charges in the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque.

    Prosecutors outlined 49-year-old Michael Hari's hatred for Muslims as his motivation for the bombing during the trial, citing anti-Islam excerpts from Hari's manifesto known as The White Rabbit Handbook, named after his militia group. Prosecutors presented evidence to jurors that included phone records and testimony of federal investigators who tracked Hari down to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Chicago where Hari and two co-defendants lived after a seven-month investigation.

    The bombing took place on Aug. 5, 2017, when the pipe bomb exploded in the imam’s office as worshippers gathered for early morning prayers. No one was hurt in the explosion, though community members where shaken by the incident and the mosque’s executive director testified last month that it has led to diminished attendance due to fear.


    Local faith leaders gathered in front of the federal courthouse building in St. Paul and thanked prosecutors and the jury during a press conference after the verdict was delivered. Abdulahi Farah, a program director at Dar Al-Farooq, said the mosque's sense of community was “shattered” after the attack, but the guilty verdict sends a “strong message” to their congregants and other Muslim communities across the state.

    “Our community members definitely have been sharing messages of hope instead of fear and isolation,” Farah said. “Many more members are slowly coming back and feeling like this is the place where we belong, this is our home and we're not going anywhere.”

    Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said during the press conference that while justice has been served in this individual case, the threat of violence toward Muslim communities by white supremacist groups still exists. Hussein said these groups have been galvanized by the Trump administration and that he is concerned the groups will take out their frustration with the president's loss in November's election on Muslim communities across the nation.

    We urge, as we celebrate today's verdict, that law enforcement and particularly state and federal leadership do not ignore ... the potential for more severe crimes like this happening moving forward,” he said.

    U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald said in a release Wednesday that Hari's goal was to undermine the Dar Al-Farooq congregation's right to practice their religion with violence “driven by hatred and ignorance.”

    “Today’s guilty verdicts represent a condemnation of that hatred and uphold our fundamental right to live and worship free from the threat of violence and discrimination,” she said.
    Hari was found guilty on all five counts, which include using explosives, damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs. A sentencing hearing for Hari, who faces a mandatory minimum of 35 years in prison, has yet to be scheduled, according to MacDonald.

    The Star Tribune reported that Hari called the newspaper from jail a few hours after his conviction to say he was beginning a hunger strike.

    “I am protesting my sham trial by submitting to a trial by ordeal in the form of a hunger strike to prove my innocence and my sincerity,” Hari said, according to the newspaper. Hari also said he was embarking on the strike for people wrongly convicted of drug-related crimes, the newspaper reported.


    The testimony by Hari's co-defendants, Joe Morris and Michael McWhorter, described how Morris viewed Hari as a father figure, and how Hari instructed them to throw the pipe bomb into the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center as Hari waited in the car after driving up from Illinois in a truck rented by Hari. Morris, who along with McWhorter pleaded guilty in January 2019 to their role in the attack, testified that Hari said the mosque trained ISIS fighters.

    Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors failed to produce forensic evidence putting Hari at the suburban Minneapolis mosque on the day of the attack and attempted to discredit Morris and McWhorter with what they said were inconsistencies in their testimony. Hari refused to testify in his own defense.

    Prosecutors refuted the defense's claims, citing Hari's past as a former sheriff's deputy that investigated crimes as how he knew not to leave forensic evidence behind.

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    https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/ne...ite-supremacy/

    FRESNO, California (KSEE) — Over 100 people allegedly connected to white supremacy gangs now face charges of murder kidnapping, and drug trafficking.

    The Fresno Sheriff’s Office said the gang leaders were ordering several violent crimes from state prisons.

    “Since the beginning of the investigation we have 102 arrests, 46 firearms seized, 89 pounds of meth, 5.7 lbs. of heroin seized, and $136,000 in cash,” said Sheriff Margaret Mims.

    The sheriff’s office, FBI, California Highway Patrol, and numerous other agencies made the arrest throughout the year. Those people face charges of illegal gun and drug trafficking, kidnapping, murder, and robberies.

    The Sheriff said the gangs were trafficking guns and drugs across the state and into Montana and Idaho. Mims said the gang is connected to white supremacy.

    “Their philosophy is white supremacy and to further that gang activity and that gang philosophy,” said Mims.

    Investigators are still trying to figure out how the inmates got the phones but Mims said some of the suspects were caught trying to smuggle phones and drugs into the prison by throwing a football over a fence.

    “The way it worked is that they cut open these sports balls and put contraband inside. They used gorilla glue and then were going to throw it into the property of the state prison,” said Mims.

    Investigators believe the arrest has disrupted the gang’s activity but are still looking for 10 others who are also allegedly connected to the crimes.

    “Anyone who conducts themselves this way should expect law enforcement to vigorously protect the public from their crimes,” said Fresno District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp.

    The suspects face federal and state charges.

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    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/ch...o-parking-lot/

    Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg released a statement on Twitter regarding the incident at Mad Butcher Meat Company.

    In his statement, the mayor confirmed Sacramento police are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.

    I am appalled by the growing number of incidents of bias and crimes targeting members of our Asian-Pacific Islander community. We cannot tolerate such mindless hatred. Thank you to @SacPolice for investigating the recent incident outside a butcher shop as a potential hate crime.

    SACRAMENTO MAYOR DARRELL STEINBERG

    Original story below:

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) – The owner of a Sacramento butcher shop is looking for help identifying a man who left a dead cat in their parking lot Monday night.

    Mad Butcher Meat Company has been in business for more than 30 years in Sacramento, with the last five on Florin Perkins Road.

    “We’re trying to make a living. That’s all we’re trying to do here. We’re just trying to sell meat. That’s it,” owner Kelly Shum told FOX40 Tuesday.

    Shum now runs the business her parents founded, and she said the past year has been difficult because of an increase in anti-Asian sentiment directed at the business.

    “Yeah, and it’s always something about like, ‘You guys are dirty or you’re diseased.’ And we get calls all the time like, ‘Oh, do you guys sell bat soup?’” Shum said. “I feel like I have to work, like 40 times as hard to be seen as on the same level as the other butcher shops in the area. So, we increased our social media presence, we hired a security guard who you see out front now. Like, that’s why. Most butcher shops, when you go in, you don’t see a security guard at the very front.”

    Monday night, even with the security guard on duty, somebody left a disturbing delivery in the parking lot of the business.

    Shum said the man first made a cash purchase inside the store.

    “That’s him right there,” Shum said identifying a gray-haired man standing at the counter in her shop’s surveillance video.

    From an exterior camera, video shows the man pull a box out of the bed of a pick-up truck and dump it in the parking lot.

    Shum said inside that box was a dead, mutilated cat.

    “The box was open. Everyone could see it,” she recalled.

    Shum said that in the past she’s been reluctant to go public about incidents of discrimination.

    “You know, you just try to keep your head down. You try to keep working through it. And it’s a year later. It’s literally a year later and someone’s dropping off dead cats in my parking lot,” she said.

    With this incident, she posted the video on social media along with a description of what happened.

    “Find him please. Please help me find this guy because I can’t take it anymore,” she said.

    FOX40 reached out to Shum after seeing the social media posts.

    “And I like kind of looked at your phone number for a little bit, and I didn’t really want to call you back,” she said.

    But ultimately, she decided it was time to speak out.

    “I don’t think I can keep doing what I’ve been doing for the last year, which is keep my head down and try not to be public that we’re Chinese,” Shum explained. “And I don’t want to feel not proud of my culture, and I don’t want to not feel proud of the work that we do here because I am proud of the work that we do here. I’m proud of everyone that works here and I’m proud of the staff that we have and I’m proud of everything that we have here.”

    Shum said she filled out an online report Tuesday with Sacramento police and attached links to the surveillance video.

    Sacramento police did not have any additional information to release on the case.

    Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang released a statement Thursday regarding the incident:

    Attacks on Asian Americans are on the rise across the nation and, unfortunately, Sacramento must also confront this xenophobia. The crime committed against the owners of the Mad Butcher Meat Company on Monday night was horrific and this reprehensible act must be strongly condemned.

    Not only was an animal violently abused, but it was used to threaten and provoke fear at an Asian American owned business in Sacramento. Our city has committed to racial equity and justice – which means confronting the perpetrators of hate and acknowledging the trauma and suffering experienced by victims.

    As a city and as a community, we must work collectively to recognize the humanity of all people and stand united against all acts of hatred and bigotry. Our residents must not live in fear for their safety. I look forward to working on community-led solutions to keep us safe.

  23. #2423
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    https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/bi...-rights-order/

    A new executive order from President Joe Biden directs federal agencies to take a series of steps to promote voting access, a move that comes as congressional Democrats press for a sweeping voting and elections bill to counter efforts to restrict voting access.

    His plan was announced during a recorded address on the 56th commemoration of “Bloody Sunday,” the 1965 incident in which some 600 civil rights activists were viciously beaten by state troopers as they tried to march for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.

    “Every eligible voter should be able to vote and have it counted,” Biden said in his remarks to Sunday’s Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast before signing the order. “If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.”

    Biden’s order includes several modest provisions. It directs federal agencies to expand access to voter registration and election information, calls on the heads of agencies to come up with plans to give federal employees time off to vote or volunteer as nonpartisan poll workers, and pushes an overhaul of the government’s Vote.gov website.

    Democrats are attempting to solidify support for House Resolution 1, which touches on virtually every aspect of the electoral process. It was approved Wednesday on a near party-line vote, 220-210.

    The voting rights bill includes provisions to restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, strike down hurdles to voting and bring transparency to a murky campaign finance system that allows wealthy donors to anonymously bankroll political causes.

    Democrats say the bill will help stifle voter suppression attempts, while Republicans have cast the bill as unwanted federal interference in states’ authority to conduct their own elections.

    The bill’s fate is far from certain in the closely divided Senate. Conservative groups have undertaken a $5 million campaign to try persuade moderate Senate Democrats to oppose rule changes needed to pass the measure.

    With his executive order, Biden is looking to turn the spotlight on the issue and is using the somber commemoration of Bloody Sunday to make the case that much is at stake.

    Bloody Sunday proved to be a turning point in the civil rights movement that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Similarly, Biden is hoping the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Donald Trump mob will prove to be a clarion call for Congress to take action to improve voter protections.

    “In 2020 — with our very democracy on the line — even in the midst of a pandemic – more Americans voted than ever before,” Biden said. “Yet instead of celebrating this powerful demonstration of voting — we saw an unprecedented insurrection on our Capitol and a brutal attack on our democracy on January 6th. A never-before-seen effort to ignore, undermine and undo the will of the people.”

    Biden’s also paid tribute to the late civil rights giants Rev. C.T. Vivian, Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rep. John Lewis. All played critical roles in the 1965 organizing efforts in Selma and all died in within the past year.

  24. #2424
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    https://ktla.com/news/south-l-a-play...-1991-dispute/

    . A playground in the Vermont Vista neighborhood of South Los Angeles will be renamed after Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old Black girl who was fatally shot during a dispute in 1991.

    The playground at Algin Sutton Recreation Center, where the teenager spent much of her time, will officially be named the Latasha Harlins Playground next month.
    During an unveiling of a mockup of the new sign Tuesday, marking the 30th anniversary of the killing, activists and family members called Latasha?s death an injustice.

    She was shot and killed by a liquor store owner who alleged she was stealing a bottle of orange juice. Soon Ja Du, the Korean-born store owner, did not receive jail time in connection with the incident.

    The shooting, along with the caught-on-camera beating of Rodney King by four white Los Angeles police officers just days before, struck a chord in the Black community, contributing to protests and civil unrest.

    Decades later, the community is still fighting.

    ?Before there was George Floyd, before there was Breonna Taylor, there was Latasha Harlins,? community activist Najee Ali said during the unveiling. ?Her murder still is painful 30 years later. It was one of the most darkest days in the history of Black Los Angeles. But today is not a day a sadness, nor a day of mourning, today?s a celebration, it?s a day we remember Latasha. Say her name.?

    The unveiling comes just one day after a Netflix documentary short about the teenager?s life and death called ?A Love Song to Latasha? was nominated for an Academy Award.

    And a mural at the playground featuring a poem written by Latasha was unveiled earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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    https://news.yahoo.com/evanston-illi...171850902.html

    On Monday night, Evanston, Ill., became the first city in the country to approve reparations for Black residents who suffered from practices of racial discrimination stemming from slavery and an era of segregation.

    “Right now the whole world is looking at Evanston,” Ron Daniels, president of the National African American Reparations Commission, said Monday. “This is a moment like none other that we’ve ever seen, and it’s a good moment.”

    By an 8-1 vote, the Evanston City Council approved the first phase of a 10-year, $10 million commitment toward restitution for Black residents who suffered from discriminatory housing practices in the city between 1919 and 1969.

    Under the first phase of the Restorative Housing Reparations program, the first installment of $400,000 will be dispersed in $25,000 allotments for residents to use toward home improvements or mortgage assistance. The money for the plan will be generated by the implementation of a 3 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales.

    To qualify, residents either must have lived in Evanston during the years specified in the plan or must be descended from someone who did. The recipients will be randomly selected if there are more applicants than available funds in the program. Evanston has a population just over 75,000, and about 12,000, or 16 percent, are Black, according to Data USA.

    “It is the start,” Alderman Robin Simmons, who presented the initial reparations plan in February 2019, said Monday. “It is the reckoning. We’re really proud as a city to be leading the nation toward repair and justice.”

    But not everyone was pleased with the passing of Monday’s plan.

    Alderman Cicely Fleming, the one dissenting vote on the council, slammed the program as not going far enough, calling it “a housing plan dressed up as reparations.”

    We must understand the definition of true reparations and its main goal: to do that, the People dictate its terms to Power, not the other way around,” Fleming said in a statement provided to Yahoo News. “Rather, this resolution is dictating to Black residents what they need and how they will receive what they need.”

    Numerous other cities and towns across the country are considering similar ordinances. Evanston’s program is expected to serve as a model.

    A Reuters/Ipsos poll from June 2020 found that only 1 in 5 Americans supported reparations in the form of “taxpayer money to pay damages to descendants of enslaved people in the United States.” Of that number, nearly 80 percent of Republicans said they did not support reparations, while one-third of Democrats did.

    Evanston, home to Northwestern University, a private research institution founded in 1851, has a complicated history with its Black residents.

    The city was once home to a thriving African American population. Evanston’s first Black residents arrived in the 1850s, and by 1910 Black citizens surpassed 1,000 in population. The number grew to more than 6,000 by 1940 and exceeded 9,000 by 1960, according to Morris Robinson, a historian and founder and executive director of the Shorefront Legacy Center.

    But as the Black population continued to swell, real estate brokers began to informally zone those residents into the less developed and less desired neighborhood of West Evanston and exclude them from purchasing property in other parts of town, historian Andrew Wiese noted in an article published in the Journal of Social History in 1999.

    Banks in Evanston also discriminated against Black residents, refusing to give them loans to buy homes in favorable parts of the city. The few Black residents who owned lots were also refused loans to build on their land and were eventually compelled to sell.

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