UCLA Project for the Psychological Study of Hate Violence and Pathological Bias

FBI TALLIES HATE CRIMES OFFENCES IN 2005

By Charles Montaldo

There were 7,163 criminal incidents involving 8,380 offenses labeled as hate crimes in the U.S. in 2005, according to statistics reported by the FBI.

FBI statistics are compiled from data submitted by city, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. According to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program in 2005.

An analysis of the 7,160 single-bias incidents by bias motivation revealed that 54.7 percent were motivated by a racial bias.

17.1 percent were triggered by a religious bias.

14.2 percent were motivated by a sexual-orientation bias, and 13.2 percent of the incidents were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias.

Nearly 1 percent (0.7) involved bias against a disability.

POLICE WILL NOT PURSUE HATE CRIME

BY ANDREW STRICKLER

One of the suspects in a "cruel and sadistic" crime against a 21-year-old developmentally disabled man in the bathroom of a bowling alley in Shirley may have had a history of bullying the victim, police said.

Steven Rodriguez, 19, of Shirley, approached the victim outside the bowling alley Sunday evening and began picking on him, police said. The victim entered the AMF Shirley Lanes on the Green, off William Floyd Parkway, and was following by Rodriguez and another man, Michael Lunsford, 17, of Shirley.

Police said Lundsford held the victim down while Rodriguez sexually assaulted the victim with a metal toilet cleaning tool known as a plumbing snake.

Rodriguez was arrested Monday and arraigned Tuesday in First District Court, Central Islip. He was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail, or $200,000 bond, at the Riverhead jail. Lunsford was arrested yesterday and was being held at the Seventh Precinct for arraignment today in First District Court in Central Islip.

Both men faces charges of first-degree aggravated sexual abuse, a Class B felony, punishable upon conviction by up to 25 years' imprisonment, police said

Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said that the pair were not being charged with a hate crime.

TODAY IN SERBIA HATE CRIME TRIALS CONTINUE

In total, 17 suspects stand accused before the Novi Sad District Court. The suspects are members of the neo-Nazi organization “Nacionalni Stroj,” which disrupted an anti-fascist conference taking place at a Novi Sad university about one year ago.

According to reports, the suspects “abused and endangered the safety of those in attendance by promoting national and racial hatred.”

If the suspects are convicted, they could face in between one and eight years of prison time.

FBI RELEASE STATISTICS ON HATE CRIMES

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

New statistics show that hate crimes against gays and lesbians accounted for the third largest number of bias crimes in the country last year sparking a new push from LGBT rights groups for federal hate laws.

Overall the number of reported hate crimes was down by six percent. Crimes against people based on their race accounted for more than half of the incidents. Crimes based on religious bias were reported in 17 percent of the cases and attacks on members of the LGBT community came in third at 14.2 percent according to the FBI statistics.

The numbers are considered by many LGBT rights groups as low because not all gay victims report attacks on them for fearing of being outed publicly and because not all areas of the country track LGBT bias crimes.

The Human Rights Campaign called the new numbers ample proof of the need for passage of the bill and warned many local police departments do not take crimes against gays seriously.

Legislation that would have included crimes against gays and lesbians in federal hate crime laws passed the House but was dropped in the Senate in May.

FBI INFORMATION ON HATE CRIMES

Of the 6,804 known offenders reported in 2005,

60.5 percent were white, and 19.9 percent were black.

The race was unknown for 12.3 percent, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders.

The majority (30.0 percent) of hate crime incidents in 2005 occurred in or near residences or homes;

18.3 percent of hate crimes were committed on highways, roads, alleys, or streets.

13.5 percent of hate crimes happened on or at colleges or schools; 6.6 percent in parking lots or garages; and 4.3 percent at churches, synagogues, or temples.

The remaining 27.3 percent of hate crime incidents occurred at other specified locations, multiple locations, or other/unknown locations.

EXPOSE BY RUSSIAN JOURNALIST ON ETHNIC MURDERS PROMPTS DEATH AS HER BYLINE.

Politkovskaya, 48, was a journalist with few equals in Russia. She was a special correspondent for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta and had become one of the country’s most prominent human-rights advocates, The NYT wrote.

In a recent radio interview, Politkovskaya said she was a witness in a criminal case against Kadyrov concerning his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of two civilians — an ethnic Russian and a Chechen — who were tortured and killed.

All leading organizations, politicians and writers have condemned her death. Only the Kremlin remained pronouncedly silent.

Russia has seen several high-profile murders of outspoken journalists over the past decade. Paul Klebnikov, the U.S.-born editor of the Russian edition of Forbes who had been investigating the murky business world in Russia, was gunned down on July 9, 2004 as he was leaving his Moscow office. Two ethnic Chechens accused of carrying out the murder were acquitted earlier this year.

Hundreds meanwhile rallied in Moscow’s Pushkin Square to protest her murder as well as the Russian crackdown on Georgians since a spy row erupted last week.

But her death, it appears, has had a sobering effect on the Russians. For several years now, blinded by growing economy and improving living standards, we grew to believed that Russia was becoming — albeit slowly — a more civilized, safer place to live in where disputes are taken to court rather than solved through violence.

SHE WAS 18 AND HE WAS 83

By JOHN VALENTI

In their two-year relationship, Natasha Marks, now 20, bilked Louis Bruno, now 85, out of almost $1 million, said Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown. The Flushing woman was arraigned in a Queens courtroom Thursday on fraud and theft charges, including a hate crime charge related to age-bias

The Queens DA said Marks was arrested earlier this week after she allegedly tried to dupe another elderly man, whom she had met at a Staples store in Queens, out of money.

In typical sweetheart swindler fashion, the defendent is accused of befriending elderly men and preying on their loneliness and vulnerability to scam them out of their life savings," Brown said. "Crimes involving the financial exploitation of the elderly, particularly those involving so-called sweetheart scams, are among the most devastating forms of elder abuse."

The lawyer representing Marks has denied all charges.

"Sandy" told Bruno she needed to pay medical bills, persuaded him to grant her power of attorney and used that to take out an estimated $550,000 mortgage on his house, prosecutors said.

A retired toll booth clerk and lifelong bachelor, Bruno said he had planned to give Marks an engagement ring.

CLAPING IS AN ANTI-AMISH SLUR

By RIC ROUTLEDGE

A Ball State University professor who has done studies of hate crimes against the Amish said Monday he was "shocked" by news of the shooting of Amish schoolgirls by a milk truck driver in Lancaster County, Pa.

What adds to the shock of this situation is that it happened in a rural one-room school house in an Amish area," said Bryan Byers, a former prosecutor's investigator in South Bend, now a professor of criminal justice and criminology at Ball State.

Byers has made a study of the behavior and the circumstances and the rationalizations used for anti-Amish hate crimes by offenders, which has happened so much over the years there is a specific term to describe it -- claping (pronounced klay-ping).

Why people commit such crimes, he said, "is the $64,000 question." His research suggests that people who commit hated crimes against the Amish don't believe that what they are doing is harmful to the Amish.

"They believed that the Amish were not the type of people who most people make them out to be. The individuals we studied who harassed the Amish profess to have a special knowledge about the Amish that other people wouldn't have.

AMISH NOT IMMUNE TO CRIMES OF HATE

By John Holusha

A lone gunman walked into a one-room schoolhouse in a largely Amish community in southeastern Pennsylvania today and shot as many as 10 girls.

The man, identified as Charles Carl Roberts, 32, lived in the area, and was evidently nursing a long-held grievance expressed in notes left for his wife and children, said Jeffrey Miller, commissioner of the Pennsylvania state police.

“He split them up, males and females," Commissioner Miller said. "He let the males go, some of the adults go. He bound the females at the blackboard, and apparently executed them."

Police officers said Roberts had walked his own children to a nearby bus stop before borrowing a relative's pickup truck and heading for the Amish school.

John Fisher, who owns a fencing company nearby, stood by the scene of the hostage situation, and also seemed stunned by the incongruity of the day’s events in this peaceful community.

WIKIPEDIA: THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA THAT ANYONE CAN EDIT.

Stereotypes of Central and Western Asians

Kazakhstan, once a generally unknown country in the West, has come under recent stereotyping, most notably, that of which has come from British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's Da Ali G Show character Borat. Borat is shown to be a crude, backward, misogynist racial Third-Worlder that hates Jews, Gypsies, and Homosexuals. Borat is often portrayed to be speaking Kazakh, while in reality, he is often speaking Hebrew or Polish. The Kazakhstani government has done everything it could to disassociate itself from Borat, even deleting his .Kz page

Turks are often portrayed in media, such as the movie Midnight Express (film) as violent oppressive, nationalists that hate and discriminate against Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks. This may have to do with Turkey's dismal Human Rights record. Many Kurds are calling for the creation of an independent Kurdistan and Armenians are now calling for reparations[

Mongolians are often portrayed as violent, barbarian nomads living in Yurts and living off of thier plunder and spoils of war. however, it is now true that Mongolia has had considerable impact on China, most notably in it's civil institutions

Kike is "most widespread" of the pejorative words for Jew and "has never lost its bite, and is not considered funny by contemporary Jews."[

Ching Chong is an ethnic slur directed at people of Chinese nationality or ancestry. It is most frequently encountered in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

IRAN AND WOMAN'S RIGHTS.

There are at least seven women currently awaiting death in Iran, all tried in circumstances which would be unheard of in a secular court.

When in Islamic law, the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man, as it is in cases under the Hudood Ordinances in Pakistan, there is no fairness, and there is no equality.

Article 76: The testimony of women alone or in conjunction with the testimony of only one just man shall not prove adultery but it shall constitute false accusation which is a punishable act.

Parisa Akbari kept in Adelabad prison in Shiraz, southern Iran was arrested in April 2004, while working as a prostitute. She confessed to the charge of adultery during interrogation. She claimed that had been forced into prostitution by her husband due to the family's poverty. During her trial in June 2004, she retracted her confession. On 21 June 2004, Branch 5 of the Fars province Criminal Court sentenced her to be stoned to death for adultery.

Kobra Rahmanpour was forced into marriage against her will by her parents, and had been the victim of domestic violence since her marriage. Kobra allegedly acted in self-defence after her mother-in-law tried to attack her with a kitchen knife. At an unknown date, she was tried by Branch 1608 of Tehran's Criminal Court, where she was sentenced to death. Her lawyer has reportedly complained that the court did not consider, nor conduct any investigation into, her claim that the murder was in self-defence. Her lawyer is believed to have alleged that wounds on Kobra Rahmanpour's right hand had been sustained due to pulling the knife from the hands of her mother-in-law.

Kobra Najjar is detained in Tabriz prison in northwestern Iran. She is at imminent risk of execution. She was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for being an accomplice to the murder of her husband, and execution by stoning for adultery. She was scheduled to be executed after serving her prison sentence, which was finished two years ago. She has reportedly written to the Judicial Commission for Amnesty to ask for her sentence of execution by stoning to be commuted, and is awaiting a reply.

BE ON YOUR GUARD

By: Lisa Backus

Police arrested a Berlin, Conneticutt, man Wednesday for allegedly committing more than a dozen hate crimes directed against the local Jewish community while on the job as a security guard.

Police said Eric K. Milne, 30, of 246 Berlin Turnpike, Berlin, was arrested by warrant without incident at his home after police discovered he was writing slurs aimed at the Jewish community nightly as he made his security rounds

He was employed by a security firm to check a building that housed several Jewish businesses at 9 p.m. every night," said Sgt. Thomas Trzaskos.

Milne was arrested on charges of 17 counts of intimidation based on bigotry or bias, 17 counts of desecration of property, 17 counts of breach of peace and criminal mischief. The arrest comes a few months after leaders of the Jewish community and state and local law enforcement and government officials decried several acts of desecration to a Holocaust memorial in West Hartford.

Milne was released on $10,000 non-surety bond and was scheduled to appear in Hartford Superior Court Sept. 28.

HATE CRIMES AGAINST ARMENIANS MAY BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY IN RUSSIA

By Karine Kalantarian

Russian law-enforcement authorities have stepped up their efforts to combat and avert racist attacks on Armenians and other non-Slavic immigrants, Russia’s Prosecutor-General Yuri Chayka said during a visit to Yerevan on Friday.

Seeking to allay growing concerns in Armenia about ethnic violence in Russia, he said his office now directly oversees criminal investigations into racially motivated murders of Armenians, which are regularly reported from various parts of the vast country.

The agency also formed recently a special unit tasked with monitoring the enforcement of Russian laws on “federal security and inter-ethnic relations,” he said.

The Russian law-enforcement bodies have been under fire in recent months for their failure to stop the increasingly endemic violence against darker-skinned immigrants from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Africa.

Unlike Chayka, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev was more dismissive of the Armenian concerns as he visited Yerevan in late June. He claimed that the reported number of Armenians killed for racist motives in recent month is grossly exaggerated.

RAGE INCREASES AGAINST MUSLIMS IN NINE STATES AND WASHINGTON D.C.

By Associated Press

A national Islamic civil rights group says bias incidents against Muslims rose nearly one-third last year to a 12 year high, fueled by growing rhetoric against the group.

A study by the Council on American-Islamic Relations says civil rights complaints made by Muslims increased 29.6 percent. Those complaints include harassment, violence and discrimination.

Hate crimes rose 8.6 nationwide, nine states and Washington DC accounted for nearly 79 percent of all bias incidents reported to the group for 2005. Virginia accounted for seven percent of all incidents

The group's legal director blamed the jump on the growth of negative Islamic discussion on the Internet and talk radio after the Nine-Eleven terrorist attacks.

LIVING IN FEAR IN SCOTLAND

By Liam McDougall

Homophobic prejudice is deep-seated and widespread in Scotland, according to a major new report examining the scale of anti-gay sentiment in the housing sector.

The ground-breaking research, which looked at abuse in and around the home, found that gay, bisexual and transgender people had been the victims of hate campaigns at the hands of their neighbours for years

It also revealed disturbing evidence that, despite pleas to be moved out of an area or calls for action to be taken against perpetrators, homophobic abuse and intimidation was dismissed or downplayed by housing associations and other landlords

Those interviewed as part of the research – undertaken in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Highlands over the past three months – reported “living in fear”, being “harassed by late-night phone calls” and “becoming a prisoner in your own home, having to sneak in and out”.

Irving said that “historically” harassment on the basis of sexual orientation has been seen as less important than racist incidents.

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD

Press Trust of India

Hindus living in the US capital were the least affected by the spate of hate crimes inflicted on South Asians following the September 11 attacks.

While Sikhs and Pakistani Muslims were among the worst affected groups, a new study in the Washington D.C areas shows.

In the aftermath of the attacks, only 15 per cent Indian Hindus say they were afraid of their physical safety compared to 41 per cent Pakistani Muslims and 64 per cent Sikh respondents.

But as many as 83 per cent Sikhs respondents say they or someone they knew personally had experienced a hate crime or incident and 35 per cent Pakistani Muslims say they considered leaving the United States because of hostile atmosphere created in the aftermath of the terrorists attacks.

The study was done by the Discrimination and National Security Initiative (DNSI), an affiliate of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

EASY TO PROVE ATTACKS BUT HARDER TO PROVE WHY

Norway's top legal official wants to usher in tougher penalties for those convicted of what he calls "hate crimes." A rise in violence against homosexuals and ethnic minorities is behind Knut Storberget's concern.

Justice Minister Storberget is promising more funding to battle hate crimes and a change in the law that he hopes would also tackle the problem.

Storberget proposes a so-called "hate paragraph" in Norway's criminal code that would allow judges to hand out tougher punishment to people convicted of "crimes that are grounded in others' religious beliefs, skin color, nationality or ethnic origins, homosexuality, lifestyle or orientation."

"It's extremely important that we fight this kind of crime," he told newspaper Aftenposten. "Some types of crime are on the wane in Norway, but this is still hanging around. and I fear it will occur more often and get more brutal."

As the government minister in charge of the courts and the police, Storberget will ask local police districts to chart crimes believed to be rooted in racism, homophobia or other forms of discrimination.

Gay activists were among those quick to applaud Storberget's initiative. "I think this is unconditionally positive, and about time," said Jon Reidar Øyan, leader of a national association for gays and lesbians (LLH).

THE MEANING OF HATE CRIMES HAS BECOME A JOKE

By John Burtis

CBC News reported Saturday that a masked individual, caught on a security camera, walked up to the doors of an Orthodox Jewish school in Montreal, and tossed a Molotov cocktail. The damage, as reported, was minimal. The article states that "the police have been unwilling to declare the attack a hate crime." It has been, however, declared an "unexplained" case of arson.

A few things were given. Hate was practiced by whites on a regular basis, just as it was continually practiced against gays. Hate was everywhere. It had to be reined in. Detestable oppressors were at large in the land. Hate would provide feathers in many caps.

So hate crimes became a joke. And cops, like those who sat around after the recent shooting spree in Seattle and took quite awhile to decide that it was a indeed hate crime, were viewed as slow on the uptake by a public who saw one plain as day and got a black eye for their efforts.

As a cop you see many senseless crimes. The whippings of children, the beatings of the elderly, and many times the excessive violence used would indicate to a reasonable person that hate must be involved. But no, there is no hate, because hate is a special crime, reserved for the destruction of certain individuals, who appear to be guilty of their special crimes from the get go.

Ah, hate crimes. - another liberal joke, floated with the idea that some crimes are more dreadful than others - fail to recognize the simple fact that all violent crimes, from assault to murder, represent some level of hate.

And the old police ways of determining which crimes to tackle and in which order ­ the flipping of coins, picking of cards, mental telepathy, telekinesis, stone/scissors/paper, leg or thumb wrestling, looking at the actual incident number ­ fly out the window because hate crime determination is now being made by the top brass in secret cabals due the political ramifications attached to the determination.

AMERICAN MUSLIMS FEEL INCREASINGLY ISOLATED

From Deutsche Presse Agentur

Washington- When Arab suicide hijackers slammed planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon five years ago, they also plunged Muslim Americans into a storm of suspicion that has yet to blow over.

Reports of assaults, harassment and other abuses against Arab Americans and US Muslims, while below the soaring levels right after the September 11, 2001 attacks, have risen again in the past two years, in part because of the US-led war on Iraq.

The active resentment is part of a climate of lingering distrust toward a slice of the US population, otherwise widely seen as much more assimilated into mainstream society than Muslims in Western Europe

Studies also found that Arab Americans are more than twice as prone to depression than average Americans and that their wages have fallen since 2001, especially in areas with high levels of hate crimes.

However, a recent investigation by the Washington Post came up with a different portrayal. It concluded that, while generally not radicalized, US Muslims "are becoming a people apart" who are increasingly seeking comfort in Islam rather than the American dream.

POLICE DENY ANY SERIOUS DISTURBANCES BY RUSSIAN RIGHT WING NATIONALISTS

By Mike Eckel

Moscow - Right-wing nationalists and residents in a northern Russian town clashed with riot police and destroyed a restaurant, activists and witnesses said Saturday

Thousands of people gathered in the center of Kondopoga, about 600 miles north of Moscow, and demanded police expel Chechens and people from Russia's Northern Caucasus or investigate them for criminal ties.

Russia has seen a marked rise in xenophobia and racism in recent years, with a series of attacks on foreigners, Jews and dark-skinned migrants from the impoverished Caucasus region and ex-Soviet Central Asia.(see Noteable Hate Crimes 2006)

Vekhorovsky, head of human rights center in Moscow, said dozens of residents and right-wing nationalists descended on Kondopoga over the course of the week. Late Friday, he said, groups attacked the restaurant with metal bars and firebombs and fought with riot police.

Police denied that any serious disturbances occurred in the past week.

NATIVE AMERICANS FACE SWELLING TIDE OF HATE CRIMES

By Evelyn Nieves

Once again, violent, racially charged incidents between whites and Navajos in Farmington, on the eastern edge of the sprawling Navajo reservation, have outraged Indian country. Once again, a city trying to shake its nickname as "the Selma, Ala., of the Southwest" is on the defensive.

This all started with a beating in Farmington in June. A 47-year-old Navajo man who was offered a ride by three white teenagers in Farmington was driven to the outskirts of town, beaten with a stick and punched and kicked. He said they used racial slurs as they pummeled him

The beating reminded everyone of the 1970s, the heyday of "Injun rollin'," where white youths in the border towns beat up Navajos (usually sleeping alcoholics they could easily "roll" around) as a rite of passage. In April 1974, when three white Farmington youths tortured, mutilated and bludgeoned three Navajo men, tossing their burned and broken bodies into a canyon, the Navajo Nation organized weeks of peaceful protests in Farmington. When marchers were denied a permit the day after the murderers were sentenced to reform school, clashes with police led to dozens of arrests.

The June beating could hardly compare to the torture murders of years ago. But six days after the beating, a 21-year-old Navajo man was killed by a police officer responding to a call about a domestic dispute at a Wal-Mart parking lot. When Farmington police declared the shooting a justifiable homicide and the FBI declined to investigate -- the agency is now reconsidering its decision -- Navajo leaders announced they would set aside $300,000 for the man's family to file a wrongful death suit against Farmington, and for an investigation of border-town racism.

With the spotlight back on hate crimes, tribal members from all over Indian country have been calling the Navajo, offering to join a boycott of border towns or join marches. Discrimination against Native Americans in towns bordering the large reservations in the country is a longstanding concern among the largest tribes in the country, including the Navajo and the Lakota, in Pine Ridge, S.D.

ARKANSAS HAS NO HATE CRIMES BECAUSE IN EVERY CRIME THEIR IS AN ELEMENT OF HATE

A northeast Arkansas man is accused of beating a teenager with a baseball bat. And police are calling it a racially motivated crime.

Some say the charges do not fit the crime. Because the state of Arkansas does not have any criminal codes that can be directly called a hate crime

It's a matter of perspective according to prosecuting attorney Larry Jegley, whose been able to prosecute hate crimes despite no uniformed law.

Arkansas is one of only a handful of states without definable criminal code. The issue's been addressed in the state legislature. It’s consistently passing in the State Senate and failing in the House.

There were 93 bias motivated incidents reported in 2004 for Arkansas, that’s according to the partners against hate.

Some, in the Arkansas legilature and judical system argue hate elements can be found in all crimes.

TEN PEOPLE KILLED BY HATE CRIME BOMB IN MOSCOW

The Russian capital’s top prosecutor today said that a bomb blast at a Moscow market that killed 10 people was most likely a hate crime, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Monday morning blast hit the Cherkizovsky market, where a large number of traders gather from Asia or the Caucasus regions – both ethnic groups have been victims of a growing wave of hate crimes in Russia.

Two suspects have been detained and reports say they are believed to be members of extremist organisations.

The dead have not been identified, but Russian news agencies reported that preliminary information showed five were Chinese and one was Vietnamese.

Moscow Prosecutor Yuri Syomin said belief the attack was motivated by hatred for ethnic minorities “is one of the theories and now is the dominant one”, Interfax reported.

HATE CRIME CON DISRESPECTS ELDERS

By Stephen Stirling

A South Ozone Park man who posed as a city worker in order to rob a string of elderly victims was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday, the Queens district attorney said.

A spokesman for the DA said that because Delmaro specifically targeted the elderly, his actions became eligible to be prosecuted as hate crimes.

The DA said that much like it does with other crimes, being convicted of burglary as a hate crime carries a higher sentence, in this case tacking on an extra three years to the initial prison term.

Police arrested Delmaro in his home after he was positively identified by security cameras and fingerprints left at the home of one of his victims.

OFFICIALLY TWO ATTACKS OCCURED IN RUSSIAN MARKET PLACE, HOWEVER, UNOFFICIALLY...

Over the course of the summer, several attacks on market traders from the Caucasus have taken place in the city of Yoshkar-Ola, Russia (Republic of Mari-El), but local authorities are allegedly trying to hush them up, according to an August 14, 2006 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center.

Police admit to two attacks on market traders, but unofficial sources of information assert that the attacks this summer number around four dozen.

These sources also tell Sova that racist graffiti appeared near the market shortly before the attacks, including death threats against “khachi” (a pejorative for people form the Caucasus) and swastikas.

However, the local press is allegedly covering the violence as if it were the result of consumers' anger over shabby products rather than hate crimes.

Officials are allegedly pressuring victims to refute that racist violence has taken place at the market.

CANADIANS DRAGGING FEET OVER GAY INTOLERANT WEB SITES

(Edmonton, Alberta) An Edmonton gay man says government agencies are not moving quickly enough to shut down a series of Web sites that he believes promote hatred of gays.

Both the Canadian and the Alberta human rights commissions have investigated the sites, operated by Craig Chandler, and found that some of the content is likely to expose gays and lesbians to hatred.

The commissions say they are taking further steps but have not said what that might be.

Under Canadian law it is illegal to promote hatred against minorities, including gays.

"Sometimes the truth hurts," Chandler told the broadcaster's Edmonton station.

In one program the Rev. Stephen Boisson says: "The homosexual lifestyle specifically is a deadly, deadly lifestyle and that is scientific fact. I hate the practice of homosexuality. It is lethal."

DEFENSE ATTORNEY LINKS GAY PRIDE EVENT TO CAUSING NON-HATE CRIME.

The defense attorney for a 15-year-old boy accused of participating in attacks on gay men said the incidents may not be hate crimes at all.

The juvenile has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and hate-crime allegations.

Friday's developments came on the same day that activists planned to hold a rally in Hillcrest to denounce the attacks.

In all, four people have been charged in the case, including the 15-year-old. He has not been identified because he is a minor.

At this point, based on some of the publicity I've seen, I have questions whether it's organized gang participation, and, secondly, unfortunately, it happened on gay pride day or pride weekend, and I think that had a definite effect on filing a hate crime allegation," Bourne said.

"They started yelling anti-gay comments to victims and running after them, and started beating them savagely with a baseball bat, and one victim ended up being stabbed, so he was clearly part of the attack on the victims."

HOME SWEET - RACIALLY CLEAN - HOME BRINGS LIFE IN PRISON.

Four members of a Highland Park gang, in Los Angeles, were convicted Tuesday of committing deadly hate crimes in a campaign to drive African Americans out of a heavily Latino neighborhood.

A federal jury deliberated for about two days before finding Gilbert "Lucky" Saldana, 27, Alejandro "Bird" Martinez, 28, Fernando "Sneaky" Cazares, 26, and Porfirio "Dreamer" Avila, 31, guilty of conspiring to interfere with the housing rights of black residents through threats and violence.

In addition to the housing rights count, Saldana, Martinez and Cazares were convicted of violating the federal hate crimes statute when they killed Wilson because of his race, and because he was using a public street. The three were also convicted of an additional count for the use of firearms during Wilson's murder.

Defense attorneys had accused two fellow Avenues members, who testified they were present during Wilson's murder, of fabricating their stories. The defense also disputed whether the crimes were actually committed for racial reasons

FROM THE MIDDLE EAST TO THE NORTHWEST OF SEATTLE

The gunman who forced his way into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on Friday afternoon put a gun at the back of a 13-year-old girl to gain entry to the building, police said this afternoon.

The man who described himself as a Muslim American angry with Israel then opened fire with two handguns, killing one woman and wounding five others before surrendering to police.

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said he waited for someone to come in to gain access into the office. When the 13-year-old girl walked up, he put a gun to her head and forced her to take him inside.

He rattled off anti-Israel slurs and commanded people not to dial 911.

Suspect Naveed Afzal Haq had recently lived in Everett. A law-enforcement source said Haq apparently has a history of mental illness. Haq, described as a studious loner, was raised in the Tri-Cities area and his family has close ties to the local Muslim community center. Court records show Haq has a charge of lewd conduct pending against him in Benton County."He said he hates Israel," said the source, who is part of the Seattle Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was called in to help investigate the shootings.

The shooting came a day after the FBI had warned Jewish organizations nationwide to be on alert after Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and al-Qaida's second in command urged that the war raging in the Middle East be carried to the U.S

PROSECUTIONS RARE AS HOMOPHOBIC ATTACKS DOUBLE IN SWEDEN

The number of hate-crimes against gay people recorded in Sweden in recent years has increased, but only a few prosecutions have been brought, according to a new study.

It also says that the cases that do get to court are often considered by judges not to be hate-crimes.

In 2004, 614 homophobic hate crimes were reported to the police in Sweden, more than double the amount recorded the year before.

Reseachers say only 10 per cent of claims of assault, unlawlful threats and sexual assault led to prosecutions.

Most attacks are said to happen in the street, with the majority of both the victims and offenders being men.

NO PROOF HATE CRIME MOTIVATED AGGRAVATED BATTERY AND ROBBERY

By Gary Wisby

Prosecutors on Wednesday stood by their contention that the three teens who allegedly beat and robbed a 14-year-old Beverly boy won't be charged with a hate crime -- even though one of the trio told police they picked the boy because he was "a goofy-looking white boy."

They instead charged the three black teens with aggravated battery and robbery, both felonies. Bond was set Wednesday at $300,000 for Micha Eatman, 17, and two 16-year-olds were in juvenile detention

Still, at Eatman's bond hearing Wednesday, Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said Ryan's race "appears not to be the motivating factor" in the attack at Beverly Park, 103rd and Campbell. They said they went there to take a bike," Scaduto said.

If I thought it was a hate crime, I would have filed it. They could have said 'a goofy girl.' What they said doesn't necessarily mean they were out to assault or rob a white person."

Police will continue to investigate the incident as a hate crime, which is a lesser felony than aggravated battery or robbery, spokesman Pat Camden said. If investigators conclude it was, a judge could consider that finding at sentencing.

COSTA MESA LOOKING FOR UNITY OF INTOLERANCE

By Matt Coker

On July 7, around 2:20 in the morning, a white man walked out of a Costa Mesa convenience store and punched a black man in a wheelchair.

The Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review (IHR) has been based in Costa Mesa for years. In October 2004, IHR director Mark Weber introduced infamous British historian David Irving to a crowd of about 70 in a Costa Mesa hotel. In February, 67-year-old Irving was found guilty in Vienna of denying the Holocaust of European Jewry and was sentenced to three years in prison.

In July 2002, Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons traced an Aryan Baby Drive to a Costa Mesa post office box. Turns out that white babies with Hitler mustaches were not being given away. This was a one-woman baby-clothing drive for poor, racist honkys.

Thanks in part to the efforts of the Costa Mesa chapter of Women for Aryan Unity, word spread in 2001 about a Labor Day weekend concert featuring a slate of neo-Nazi bands at the old Shack in Anaheim.

“There is no question Costa Mesa is a microcosm of the worst that’s going on with immigration in this country,” said Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence.

FAITH VS. LGBT

By Michael Howie

HOMOPHOBIC crime is rising in many parts of Scotland, according to alarming figures which show that attacks on gays and lesbians have increased by as much as 100 per cent in the past year.

The figures obtained by The Scotsman have triggered fresh criticism of the Executive's decision last month not to extend the definition of hate crimes to include homophobia.

Over the past three years, recorded homophobic crimes and incidents have soared by about 150 per cent.

They also warned that laws protecting the expression of religious beliefs were being used as a cover to espouse homophobic views.

Chief Inspector George Denholm, of Lothian and Borders Police, who is responsible for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues at the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, said: "There is a huge level of under-reporting. The figures look like the problem is running out of control, but I think at least part of the reason for the increase is because the police are building more trust with the gay community."

David Lyle, Scottish co-ordinator for the Gay Police Association, said human rights legislation that allowed people to express religious views freely was being used to perpetrate attacks on gay people.

POLICE are investigating the Gay Police Association (GPA) after an advert it placed in a newspaper claimed a rise in homophobic attacks was due to religious belief. An advert, showing a Bible next to a pool of blood under the heading "in the name of the father", appeared in a national newspaper's supplement.

The Metropolitan Police said the inquiry "centres on whether the advert constitutes a faith crime".

TELEPHONE NUMBER FOR HATE CRIMES ONLY

By James Slack

Police are setting up a 24-hour hotline for victims of so-called 'hate' crimes only.

The free phoneline will deal primarily with racist crime, but will also cover homophobic offences or those targeted against the disabled.

Victims of crimes such as robbery, burglary or criminal damage will not be able to call - despite concerns members of the public can not get through to an officer to report these offences.

Critics last night said the Home Office should be improving the service given to all callers, not just those with a racist element.

The racist crime hotline will initially be piloted for six months in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, at a cost of £55,000.

STUDY SHOWS PUBLIC MORE AGGRESIVE ON HATE CRIME PERPS THAN JUSTICE

By Ted Siefer

A new study by Northeastern University’s Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict suggests that when it comes to prosecuting juveniles for hate crimes, the general public may be more willing to throw the book at offenders than prosecutors and detectives.

The findings of the study, which are being presented this week at a political psychology conference in Barcelona, run counter to the conventional wisdom that juveniles accused of hate crimes are only given “a slap on the wrist.”

When evidence indicates that a perpetrator was motivated by racial, ethnic or religious intolerance, “teenagers are treated not with tenderness but with toughness, not with kid gloves but with brass knuckles,” the study states.

The study looked at the outcomes of 110 hate crime cases around the country between 2002 and 2005 and found that 72 percent of juveniles – versus 63 percent of adults – ended up being found guilty of hate crimes.

The study also found that college students, in a separate component of the study, did not take into account a perpetrator’s age – whether adult or juvenile – in weighing whether a given attack constituted a hate crime.

For professor Jack Levin, the director of the Brudnick Center, the results were surprising and should send a message to law enforcement officials who might be reluctant to bring hate crime charges.

“From the point of view of prosecuting attorneys who think it’s not worthwhile to aggressively pursue hate crimes, they are wrong,” Levin said. “So many prosecutors say that taking hate crime charges to court is too burdensome, that they are unenforceable. But the study shows that most juveniles were not just convicted of hate offenses – many received prison sentences.”

GAYS INTOLERANT TO HETROSEXUALS

By Adrienne P. Samuels

Town leaders, from Provencetown, Massachusetts, a gay-friendly town, here are holding a public meeting today to air concerns about slurs and bigoted behavior. And this time, they say, it's gay people who are displaying intolerance.

Police say they logged numerous complaints of straight people being called "breeders" by gays over the July Fourth holiday weekend.

The town, which prizes its reputation for openness and tolerance, is taking the concerns seriously, though police say they do not consider the incidents hate crimes.

Gays have coexisted fairly peacefully alongside other residents in this community on Cape Cod's tip, home to a long-established Portuguese fishing colony.

On same-sex marriage, the clashes have occurred as the state Legislature grapples with whether the electorate should vote on a measure to limit marriage to heterosexuals.

HOMOPHOBIC ATTACK LEADS TO SUICIDE

A Blackpool man who suffered depression after a vicious homophobic attack that left him disfigured has plunged to his death from a railway bridge.

Stuart Windsor was said to have been left with deep mental and physical scars after he was slashed across the face by a former neighbour in a drug-fuelled homophobic attack.

The victim lost two pints of blood and needed 114 stitches in his face

Thomas Bampton, 47, formerly of Ashworth Court, Queens Park, was jailed for five years in April after pleading guilty to wounding with intent.

Preston Crown Court was told previous disagreements between Bampton and Mr Windsor led up to the attack. Bampton had been drinking and smoking crack cocaine prior to the incident.

WRITINGS ON AXE MADE VANDALISM A HATE CRIME.

By Lisa Gentes

Two of the three Southborough teens who allegedly smashed up the Police Department's radar board this weekend are being charged with a hate crime, according to police.

The boys took an ax to the $13,000 solar-powered radar board, which displays passing motorists' speeds, Police Chief William Webber said yesterday. The two are facing charges of malicious destruction of property over $250 and a hate crime, Webber said.

The hate crime charge stems from writing on the ax that the teens used to destroy the radar board, he said.

The ax had some writing on it, directing it at certain people," the chief said. The writing was "of a racial and gender (specific) nature."

The trio is known to police and is suspected in a string of vandalism incidents at the Mary Finn School on Richards Road, and of vandalizing mailboxes, according to the chief.

HATE LIFE STYLE DOESN'T MEAN HATE CRIMES WERE COMMITTED.

By Andrew Murr

Kenneth Wilson was murdered looking for a parking spot in Latino gang territory.

Driving in the working-class Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park in 1999, the African-American man passed a stolen van filled with members of the feared Avenues street gang.

Seeing Wilson, one of the Latino gangsters asked: "You wanna kill a n----r?" according to one gang member who has become an informant for federal prosecutors. "F--- it!" the others agreed, as three of them barreled out of the van and gunned down the 38-year-old.

Was Wilson killed because he was black? That's what federal prosecutors in L.A. contend, and they're taking the unusual approach of prosecuting four of the Avenues gang-bangers under a civil-rights-era statute and a hate-crime law based on the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

The informants will attempt to connect the defendants to a series of two dozen assaults, threats and intimidations between 1995 and 2001—including the murders of two local black men, Chris Bowser and Anthony Prudhomme.

Defense attorneys acknowledge that their clients were members of the Avenues, a gang with roots reaching back four generations. But they maintain that the violence was part of gang life, not a vendetta against blacks. "It wasn't racially based," said attorney Mike Shannon,

Meanwhile, two of the defendants are already serving life sentences. If prosecutors have their way, all four will be behind bars for life—making the streets of Highland Park safer not only for blacks but for everyone.

SWEDEN CONVICTS EXTREMISTS

Four right wing extremists have been convicted under Sweden’s hate crime laws for handing out anti-gay pamphlets outside a school.

The case had been taken to the supreme court after the four men’s convictions at district court level had been overturned at the court of appeal.

The four were however given lower sentences than in the district court.

The men handed out leaflets with three others outside a school in Söderhamn, which is 250 kilometers north of Stockholm.

The leaflets claimed, among other things, that ”HIV and AIDS appeared early in homosexuals, and their promiscuous lifestyles have been one of the main reasons for this modern plague gaining a foothold.”

CROSS BURNING MAY NOT BE HATE CRIME BECAUSE VICTIM IS GAY

The Meigs County Sheriff's Department is investigating a possible hate crime after someone burned a cross at the home of a gay man.

The cross, between 6 and 8 feet tall, was discovered by Brandon Waters, along with a derogatory message late Thursday at his home.

"There are a lot of people that don't approve of it," the 23-year-old Waters told The Daily Post-Athenian, referring to being gay. "They are always bashing us. It makes me fearful of what could happen. I just want to live my life."

State fire officials were expected to arrive Monday to assist the sheriff's department in the investigation

Sheriff Walter Hickman said if the burning is determined to be a hate crime, it could warrant federal charges.

As far as he can recall, Hickman said the incident is the first of its kind in the county's history

ON INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND

By Thomas Lueck

Three 17-year-old Brooklyn residents were charged with hate crimes yesterday in an assault Monday night of two black teenagers who were riding their bikes in Gerritsen Beach, the police said.

The victims — boys who are 16 and 17 years old but whose identities were not disclosed — told investigators that they were threatened with racial epithets by three white assailants who got out of a brown car and attacked them.

The hate crime charges, including assault and aggravated harassment, were filed against Alessandro Cerciello, Christopher Rapuzzi and Joseph Desimone, all of Gerritsen Beach, the police said.

SHE TREATS EVERYBODY THE SAME

By Josh Richman

A Fresno, Calif., high school teacher has been charged with a hate crime more than a year after she allegedly pushed a Jewish woman to the ground, pulled her hair, kicked her and told her, "You should have burned in the oven with the rest of the Jews."

Donna Jean Hubbard, 45, was arrested on a weapons charge with a gang-affiliation allegation June 1 in front of students at Duncan Polytechnic High School. About a week later, assault and hate crime counts were filed against her.

She is free on $10,000 bail, pending her July 5 return to Madera County Superior Court.

The April 2005 incident in an Oakhurst, Calif., bank parking lot apparently stemmed from an encounter between Hubbard's daughter and the Jewish woman's daughter several days earlier at the girls' school.

Hubbard's daughter is reported to have verbally assailed the woman's daughter for wearing a Star of David.

Police served a search warrant on Hubbard at the rural Coarsegold, Calif., home she shares with her husband, Bobby Dean Hubbard, and their two children on Friday, May 26, as the family prepared to host Aryan Unity Fest '06 that weekend on their five-acre property. About 70 people attended the gathering.

The Fresno Bee newspaper reported that her students were shocked and that some were in tears; one told the newspaper that Hubbard "loves everyone and treats everyone the same."

NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS IN SCOTLAND BEGIN ANTI SECTARIANISM CAMPAIGN

Attending the National Union of Students' anti-sectarianism campaign launch today in Glasgow, Greens' Co-convener Robin Harper MSP has appealed for the Executive to not lose sight of the need to protect all minorities from hate crimes.

Today (Mon) Melanie Ward, NUS Scotland President, and the First Minister Jack McConnell will formally launch NUS Scotland's high-profile campaign aimed at tackling sectarianism in Scotland.

Greens welcome the initiative and call for all minority groups as recognized under European law, such as the LGBT community, older people and the disabled, to be given protection similar to those who are victims of sectarian crimes.

Today Mr. Harper, Rector of Aberdeen University, said, "I congratulate NUS Scotland for taking a stand on sectarianism. It still sets community against community, is dangerous and corrosive. The hate crimes against people on the grounds of their religion are now identified as such in Scots Law - yet we still await similar protection for other minority groups, in particular those suffering from disabilities and members of the LGBT community.

NUS Scotland is to use a range of publicity materials, training events and workshops to advertise the campaign and encourage activism on the issue.

RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLEMENTED TO FIGHT RACIST AND RELIGIOUS CRIME IN ENGLAND

A report recommending steps to improve the handling of racist and religious crimes right across the criminal justice system was published by the Attorney General this week.

The report of the Race for Justice Taskforce was commissioned by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, to analyse how the Criminal Justice System deals with racist and religious crime.

The Taskforce was set up in response to recommendation eight points detailed in the 2003 Gus John Partnership report which examined the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) decision making for possible racial bias at each stage of the prosecution process.

Professor Gus John said that he was “very glad” the Taskforce report had been published and said he felt that it was thorough in its findings.

Quite often even though prosecutors were willing to bring racially aggravated cases forward, judges sometimes trivialised the matter.

The Government will be establishing a Delivery Board to drive forward the recommendations made by the Taskforce including improved training on hate crime issues for staff across the Criminal Justice system.

SOMETIMES PRIDE KEEPS YOU ALIVE

By Penny Weaver

The levity of Atlanta Pride and the gravity of the fight against anti-gay hate crimes may not seem to mesh.

But Judy Shepard said it’s important that the two emotions do meet, and that Pride includes more than partying.

“For a long time we didn’t do Pride — I did one and I felt like I was such a downer,” said Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in October 1998 in Laramie, Wyo., in what became one of the most famous anti-gay hate crimes in America.

“It’s been almost eight years now, so I don’t think it’s as much on everyone’s mind,” Shepard said. “Yes, it’s a serious issue, but you don’t learn from only things that are serious.

“My mission is not just to memorialize Matt but to celebrate his life,” she said. “I want to try to activate the people. Be involved. Care. Not just party. Notoriously, the gay community has stayed away from the polls, and it’s time for them to get with it.”

HE SWEARS HE'S NOT A RACIST

By Larry Welborn

Lawson, a 42-year-old black man, said he constantly replays in his mind how he was accosted on a Santa Ana street, repeatedly called the worst kind of racial slurs and then forced to dodge several knife thrusts.

Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly said Abel Castaneda's unprovoked attacked on Lawson last August is an example of why the state Legislature enacted hate crime laws.

Kelly then gave Castaneda a 10-year term in state prison.

"You deserve it for your hurtful conduct that day,” Kelly said.

Castaneda, who sat handcuffed in the 10th-floor courtroom, denied he was a racist.

The judge said Castaneda used the n-word 30 or 40 times during the midday encounter with Lawson, adding “that word is poisonous in our society.”

BURNING CROSSES LEFT TO FALL DOWN

By Miami Herald staff

For the second time this week, vandals have targeted a Fort Lauderdale church, finishing the job they started several days ago, according to Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS4.

Several wooden crosses, on the front lawn of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, located at 2250 SW 31 Ave., were set on fire for a second time, CBS4 reported.

On Monday, vandals tried burning the same crosses and also spray painted cars in the neighborhood with expletives against God. Graffiti was also painted on a nearby public school.

One of the crosses is now toppled over and another is about to fall over.

Police are treating these crimes as felonies and may be classify them as hate crimes, pending further investigation.

PUBLIC INVESTIGATOR THINKS KILLINGS ARE HATE CRIMES, PROBABLY

By Jill Replogle

The mood was serious. Around the room, posters commemorated the dozens of cross-dressers who have died in Guatemala in recent years -- almost all brutally murdered or killed off by AIDS. One was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting just this past weekend.

A sex worker turned political activist who goes by the name of Fernanda Milán opened the forum by denouncing the lack of jobs, health, education and security for the gay and transgender population in this small Central American country.

At least 17 murders of transgenders have been reported in the Guatemalan media in the past five years, according to a study by OASIS. a Guatemalan gay-rights organization.

OASIS estimates that around 1,200 cross-dressers work as prostitutes in Guatemala, mostly in the capital. That makes the murder rate among this sub-population some 17 times higher than the already alarming national average -- 35 murders per 100,000 citizens.

Guillermo Alonzo, the public investigator in charge of the Paulina murder case, said that some of the killings probably are hate crimes.

NOW THAT ELECTIONS ARE OVER

Cracks have begun to emerge in Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left government over the recognition of same-sex relationships.

On the weekend Barbara Pollastrini, the equal opportunities minister caused a storm by attending Turin's LGBT pride parade and issuing a letter to pride organizers that said she supports proposed legislation to give legal rights to gay gay and lesbian couples.

Immediately following the release of Pollastrini's letter Prodi spokesperson Silvio Sircana moved quickly to distance the coalition from her position telling reporters that Pollastrini was speaking only for herself.

The opposition was equally fast to react to Pollastrini. A spokesperson for Silvio Berlusconi’s rightist Forza Italia party called Pollastrini's letter an "attack on the Italian society, aimed at canceling the Christian vision."

Forza Italia is closely aligned with the Vatican.

Five LGBT candidates were elected to the Italian parliament - all members of Prodi's center-left - including the first transsexual to win national election in Italy.

POLICE LEARN AWARENESS OF SIKHS

By John Rossomando

Police Chief John DeMarco said while many in the township and surrounding community may not encounter Sikhs on a daily basis, his officers have, since members of the region’s Sikh community have begun moving into the township, notably in Chester Springs.

"Training about other people is of the highest importance for the police department," DeMarco said. "We need to learn about the community that we protect because we have a very diverse community, and we need to take a very proactive stance."

He said his department is in the "people business"; therefore, it is essential to learn about different ethnic and religious backgrounds for bridge-building purposes.

Sikhs, often confused with Arabs and Muslims by outsiders, come from the Punjab region, which today is split between Pakistan and India. This case of mistaken identity has resulted in numerous hate crimes being leveled against them across the country, especially since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Sikhs first arrived in America in the late 1890s, and they came from Hong Kong and China," said Baljeet Singh of Chester Springs, the lecturer at the June 12 meeting. "During the 1920s there was a reverse migration back to India to help in the struggle for freedom against the British."

Male members of the Sikh community place religious significance on their distinctive turbans; and kirpans, ceremonial daggers worn by Sikh men, have meaning similar to a cross for a Christians or a Star of David for Jews.

"Kirpan is an article of faith, and Sikhs wear it with no criminal intent," Singh said

TWO HUNDRED AND THIRY YEARS LATER AND COUNTING

By Venice Buhain

After three encounters with neo-Nazis in Olympia, local groups are planning what to do when the National Socialist Movement, a group trying to establish itself in Western Washington, comes to town for a rally July 3.

Previous encounters with the neo-Nazi group, including its appearance Sunday at the Downtown Neighborhood Association Street Fair, have resulted in shouting matches with locals angered by the group's messages in favor of white separatism.

Rather than setting up a confrontation on the steps of the Capitol, Unity in the Community is organizing a series of events to raise awareness and support for multiculturalism, including a diversity festival July 2. The community celebration in Sylvester Park downtown will include music, food and speakers who support diversity.

The July strategy is similar to April's, when Unity in the Community had a counter-rally at Heritage Park, away from the neo-Nazi rally planned for Sylvester Park so people could express their displeasure while avoiding heated confrontations.

"One of the good things about the neo-Nazis coming here is that you get around to doing things that you mean to do because you believe in it," she said.

ONE ASSAULTED HIS MOTHER, THE OTHER WAS A HERION ADDICT. BOTH KILL GAY MAN.

By Dominic Kennedy

Two homophobic killers who brutally murdered a gay man were jailed for 28 years each yesterday, on the day that a new law against hate crimes came into effect.

Jody Dobrowski, a barman, was beaten to death in woods popular with gays.

A judge at the Old Bailey said that Scott Walker and Thomas Pickford, both known criminals, went to Clapham Common to engage in “homophobic thuggery” against “those who were particularly vulnerable”.

Stonewall, the gay rights group that campaigned for extra penalties against homophobic hate crime, will now press ministers to outlaw incitement to hatred of gays.

Walker had been given early release on licence from a 15-month prison sentence for assaulting and threatening to kill his mother. She had been left with a swollen neck and unable to swallow after he attempted to strangle her, punched her face and bit her nose in an argument. His licence had ended the previous day

Pickford was a heroin addict with a history of petty burglaries.

The pair had beaten up a gay man in woods on the common two weeks earlier, punching him in the face and hitting him 30 times. He was left with concussion.

Another witness heard them shout homophobic insults. Pickford told police and kicked him like a football. that Walker had stuffed Mr Dobrowski’s sock into his mouth to choke him while hitting him with a shoe. He broke a beer bottle on his victim’s head.

A FORM OF COUNSELLING BRINGS VICTIMS AND CRIMINALS TOGETHER

A service is being set up in Scotland to help victims of rape, serious assault and the grieving families of murder victims meet those who committed the crimes. Based on an idea from Death Row in America, it's aimed to help the victims. Aye, so what do the killers and rapists get out of it? A feel-good factor?

Too many rapists and killers like to mull over the details of their crimes. Not to put too fine a point on it, they get off on reliving their own dirty deeds.

The project is run by Sacro, a very fine organisation doing great work with ex-offenders.

This scheme is designed to help victims, of course, and quite right too.

They will also have six months of counselling to make sure they are ready.

Such a scheme does work for some folk, helping them move on a little in life. There are even those whose, unconditional forgiveness of someone who has hurt them or I theirs badly is almost I saint-like. But could you I be so forgiving?

SCHOLARSHIPS GRANTED IN VICTIM'S HONOR FROM DEATH IN HATE CRIME

Since his death in 1982, Vincent Chin has become one of the icons for Asian American civil rights and intolerance of hate crimes. Through his death, his memory will not be forgotten through scholarships and grants.

Through this new scholarship made possible by Texas philanthropist Felix Chen, AAJA will be awarding $5,000 a year during 2006, 2007 and 2008 to a journalism student committed to keeping Vincent Chin's memory alive.

Scholarships of up to $2,500 are awarded to outstanding students interested in pursuing careers in print, broadcast or photojournalism

Minoru Yasui Memorial Scholarship is from a civil rights advocate and attorney, Minoru Yasui was one of three Nisei who challenged the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. This $2,000 scholarship is awarded to a promising Asian American male broadcaster.

The Asian American Journalists Association is a non-profit professional and educational organization with more than 2,000 members today. Founded in 1981, AAJA has been at the forefront of change in the journalism industry.

NOW THAT ELECTIONS ARE OVER

Cracks have begun to emerge in Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left government over the recognition of same-sex relationships.

On the weekend Barbara Pollastrini, the equal opportunities minister caused a storm by attending Turin's LGBT pride parade and issuing a letter to pride organizers that said she supports proposed legislation to give legal rights to gay gay and lesbian couples.

Immediately following the release of Pollastrini's letter Prodi spokesperson Silvio Sircana moved quickly to distance the coalition from her position telling reporters that Pollastrini was speaking only for herself.

The opposition was equally fast to react to Pollastrini. A spokesperson for Silvio Berlusconi’s rightist Forza Italia party called Pollastrini's letter an "attack on the Italian society, aimed at canceling the Christian vision."

Forza Italia is closely aligned with the Vatican.

Five LGBT candidates were elected to the Italian parliament - all members of Prodi's center-left - including the first transsexual to win national election in Italy.

POLICE LEARN AWARENESS OF SIKHS

By John Rossomando

Police Chief John DeMarco said while many in the township and surrounding community may not encounter Sikhs on a daily basis, his officers have, since members of the region’s Sikh community have begun moving into the township, notably in Chester Springs.

"Training about other people is of the highest importance for the police department," DeMarco said. "We need to learn about the community that we protect because we have a very diverse community, and we need to take a very proactive stance."

He said his department is in the "people business"; therefore, it is essential to learn about different ethnic and religious backgrounds for bridge-building purposes.

Sikhs, often confused with Arabs and Muslims by outsiders, come from the Punjab region, which today is split between Pakistan and India. This case of mistaken identity has resulted in numerous hate crimes being leveled against them across the country, especially since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Sikhs first arrived in America in the late 1890s, and they came from Hong Kong and China," said Baljeet Singh of Chester Springs, the lecturer at the June 12 meeting. "During the 1920s there was a reverse migration back to India to help in the struggle for freedom against the British."

Male members of the Sikh community place religious significance on their distinctive turbans; and kirpans, ceremonial daggers worn by Sikh men, have meaning similar to a cross for a Christians or a Star of David for Jews.

"Kirpan is an article of faith, and Sikhs wear it with no criminal intent," Singh said

TWO HUNDRED AND THIRY YEARS LATER AND COUNTING

By Venice Buhain

After three encounters with neo-Nazis in Olympia, local groups are planning what to do when the National Socialist Movement, a group trying to establish itself in Western Washington, comes to town for a rally July 3.

Previous encounters with the neo-Nazi group, including its appearance Sunday at the Downtown Neighborhood Association Street Fair, have resulted in shouting matches with locals angered by the group's messages in favor of white separatism.

Rather than setting up a confrontation on the steps of the Capitol, Unity in the Community is organizing a series of events to raise awareness and support for multiculturalism, including a diversity festival July 2. The community celebration in Sylvester Park downtown will include music, food and speakers who support diversity.

The July strategy is similar to April's, when Unity in the Community had a counter-rally at Heritage Park, away from the neo-Nazi rally planned for Sylvester Park so people could express their displeasure while avoiding heated confrontations.

"One of the good things about the neo-Nazis coming here is that you get around to doing things that you mean to do because you believe in it," she said.

A FORM OF COUNSELLING BRINGS VICTIMS AND CRIMINALS TOGETHER

A service is being set up in Scotland to help victims of rape, serious assault and the grieving families of murder victims meet those who committed the crimes. Based on an idea from Death Row in America, it's aimed to help the victims. Aye, so what do the killers and rapists get out of it? A feel-good factor?

Too many rapists and killers like to mull over the details of their crimes. Not to put too fine a point on it, they get off on reliving their own dirty deeds.

The project is run by Sacro, a very fine organisation doing great work with ex-offenders.

This scheme is designed to help victims, of course, and quite right too.

They will also have six months of counselling to make sure they are ready.

Such a scheme does work for some folk, helping them move on a little in life. There are even those whose, unconditional forgiveness of someone who has hurt them or I theirs badly is almost I saint-like. But could you I be so forgiving?

SCHOLARSHIPS GRANTED IN VICTIM'S HONOR FROM DEATH IN HATE CRIME

Since his death in 1982, Vincent Chin has become one of the icons for Asian American civil rights and intolerance of hate crimes. Through his death, his memory will not be forgotten through scholarships and grants.

Through this new scholarship made possible by Texas philanthropist Felix Chen, AAJA will be awarding $5,000 a year during 2006, 2007 and 2008 to a journalism student committed to keeping Vincent Chin's memory alive.

Scholarships of up to $2,500 are awarded to outstanding students interested in pursuing careers in print, broadcast or photojournalism

Minoru Yasui Memorial Scholarship is from a civil rights advocate and attorney, Minoru Yasui was one of three Nisei who challenged the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. This $2,000 scholarship is awarded to a promising Asian American male broadcaster.

The Asian American Journalists Association is a non-profit professional and educational organization with more than 2,000 members today. Founded in 1981, AAJA has been at the forefront of change in the journalism industry.

THE LAW OF THE LAND

By Peter C. Mastrosimone

Four Rocky Point teenagers beat up and robbed two illegal immigrants who were fishing at Hagerman Landing Beach on the night of June 12, Suffolk County police allege.

The defendants face stiffer than usual penalties because the victims, both Mexicans, were targeted due to their lineage and were taunted with ethnic slurs during the attack, according to Detective Sergeant Robert Reecks of the Hate Crimes Bureau, which is handling the case.

Three of the defendants are adults: Nicholas Provenzano, 19, Jesse Lee Ward, 18, and Daniel Sturgis, 19. The fourth is 16 years old. Although he will be tried as an adult and police have released his name, The Village Beacon Record will not publish it.

TWO HATE CRIME ATTACKS, ONE DAY.

SANTA CRUZ Authorities are investigating two separate hate-related attacks that took place within 24 hours in Santa Cruz on Tuesday, the Santa Cruz Police Department reported Wednesday.

In the first attack, three Hispanic men, aged 18 to 48, jumped a 50-year-old Santa Cruz County man shortly after he left the Blue Lagoon Bar on Pacific Avenue to walk to his car. About four blocks from the bar, the three men punched him in his face and head while making comments that indicated they assumed he was gay, prompting both the victim and police to label the attack as a hate crime. They also rummaged through his wallet but did not take any belongings.

The second attack came nearly 22 hours later when a man began yelling at a group of three who were on their way to eat at a Jack in the Box restaurant at 640 Ocean St. around 10:55 p.m. One of the men in the group, which included an Asian-American man and woman and a Caucasian man, returned to his parked car to move it.

As the Asian-American man stepped out of his car, the suspect punched him several times in the face, knocking him to the ground, according to Santa Cruz police. The suspect yelled racial slurs throughout the attack, and also pushed the Asian-American woman, who was trying to help her friend by grabbing the suspect, against the car. Their Caucasian friend was unharmed, making the victims and police think that this attack was also motivated by hate.

The suspect in the second attack is white about 20 to 25 years old and stands about 6 feet 2 inches tall. He has short blonde/brown hair and was last seen wearing a baggie gray hooded sweatshirt and light-colored blue jeans.

THE NEED FOR PUNISHMENT OVERLOOKED BY CRIME

By William A. Gralnick

A few things must be understood about the crime to understand why the punishment is what is important.

Despite an increase in anti-Semitic incidents over the past year in Florida, as reported to the Anti-Defamation League, the gross numbers are small and so are most of the crimes.

It must also be understood that small increases in the gross numbers is very good news. We know a great deal about anti-Semitism and what triggers it.

One of those things is rapid diversification of population. By all accounts, South Florida should be a bubbling cauldron of anti-Semitism. So, small increases, while not welcome, show we're doing better with tolerance as a population than one might predict.

We also know that anti-Semitism is like a virus: It can make you slightly ill, very ill or kill you. It weakens the body politic and can destroy the strength to resist. Like a virus, anti-Semitism seems, to date, incurable. But one way to combat a virus is through education. Just as we are flooding the world with information about "bird flu" and just as we did some years ago with "mad cow," education is crucial to limiting outbreaks.

In-school programs like Hands Across the Campus and World of Difference and a host of others are important. Multicultural education is important, too. Celebrating differences, as well as similarities, from pre-K onward is vital.

But there the analogy ends. Viruses are caused by germs; anti-Semitism is caused by people. And guilty people must be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

While we are educating our children, we must be educating our police to see these crimes and report these crimes for what they are. They are hate crimes.

We must educate our prosecutors to see and prosecute these crimes for what they are -- hate crimes, for which there are separate statutes.

And we must educate our judges to levy penalties in accordance with those statutes. The punishment must make the spray paint the most expensive paint per gallon imaginable, one that will cost the perpetrator money out of pocket and time out of life.

ARAB AMERICAN FEEL LACK OF TRUST WITH POLICE

A U.S. government study says Arab-Americans, post Sept. 11, 2001, are concerned more about racial profiling and immigration crackdown than hate crimes.

The two-year study, financed by the Justice Department, also found that police officers and federal agents are feeling the strain of combating terrorism under new federal policies that are poorly defined and inconsistently applied, The New York Times reports

The study also found police and federal agents are sometimes confused over their roles in enforcing immigration laws.

SINGER SUFFERS BROKEN JAW IN HATE RELATED CRIME

Kevin Aviance, 38, whose songs have topped the Billboard dance chart, is expected to be released Monday from the hospital where he underwent surgery, publicist Len Evans said.

Four people were arrested on hate-crime charges, police said.

A group of six or seven males attacked the singer early Saturday on a corner in Manhattan's East Village, Evans said. There were passers-by, but no one stopped to help as the attackers threw objects at him, Evans said.

The four people arrested ranged in age from 16 to 20.

SHE DIDN'T HAVE A CLUE AS TO WHO COULD DO THIS.

By Jeff Dankert

“Niggers get out.”

The words hit Christina Wevley so hard they churned her stomach. About 20 computer-printed flyers were strewn about her porch and front yard Tuesday night near Second Street and Mankato Avenue.

The notes brim with racial hate and include threats that the perpetrators would kill her and her children if they don’t leave the neighborhood. She handed them over to police.

The 26-year-old single white mother and her two black sons moved to the neighborhood a month ago from Fairway Woods, an apartment complex two miles south. Richard, 4, and Andre, 3, giggled and played on the porch, too young to understand the threat and their mother’s emerging nightmare.

Obviously we’re not going to put up with this kind of crap,” Pomeroy said. “I don’t know who’s behind it. It appears that you’ve got somebody who is ignorant and prejudiced and needs to be stopped and we will do everything that we can do to stop them.”

Hate crimes in Winona: From 1994 to 2004, Winona had 13 reported racial hate crimes, including a 1995 cross burning on the yard of a black family.

Statewide: There was a 12 percent increase in hate crimes from 2003 to 2004, and the number of victims increased 18 percent. Race bias accounted for two of every three hate crimes in 2004. State law requires police to report every hate crime, defined by the officers’ judgment and/or the victim’s opinion.

THE SHOPPING MALL WAS GROWING TOO WHITE

BY Lisa Munoz

Ranting that his local mall had become "too white," an unemployed Long Island man hurled a chunk of concrete at a minivan carrying a Caucasian woman and four young children as they entered the shopping center, cops said yesterday.

Carl Graves, 20, who is black, was charged with a hate crime after allegedly shattering the vehicle's windshield and denting the hood with the 6-inch slab about 3:15 p.m. Monday. No one was injured.

"This was racially motivated," Nassau County Police Lt. Karl Schoepp said. "He was enraged. He worked himself into a frenzy over the fact that he thought the mall was becoming too white."

Graves, of Amityville, and his buddies were hanging out near the mall, lamenting that some shops and the gaming arcade were closed, police said.

At some point, Graves picked up the piece of concrete and kept it in his jacket until he saw McCandless' minivan, cops said.

THE ATTITUDE OF A VICTIM

19 year-old Craig Matthews is out of the hospital and recovering at his home in Broseley after being brutally attacked April 5th in Corning. Matthews has been home for 3 weeks recovering from a beating that nearly took his life. Doctors gave Matthews little to no chance of surviving but now he is happy to be on the road to recovery.

Matthews was visiting his girlfriend in Corning when a confrontation arouse after a racial slur was used. The end result was Matthews being airlifted to a Cape Girardeau hospital after being hit in the head with a baseball bat.

38 year-old corning resident Don Groning has been charged in connection with this alleged hate crime.

According to Matthews this isn't the first time he has been confronted in Corning by racism. Matthews alleges racial slurs and other obscenities were yelled at him in the past, and April 15th one of Matthews' friends was also subjected to what the family feels is racism at the crime scene.

"No I don't forgive him or his family, from whatI understand he tried to kill me, so there is no reasonI should forgive them," said Matthews.

WITH HATE CRIMES YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE SIDES. YOU JUST CAN'T HATE EVERYBODY.

The last time Volker Beck participated in a demonstration for gay rights, he was punched in the face and arrested. But last Friday, the only danger to the openly-gay Green Party politician and member of Germany's parliament was that of being swamped by over-zealous camera teams.

Organized by the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) and attended by prominent German politicians and activists, the event was meant to draw attention to the repression of homosexuals in Russia and to a looming gay pride parade in Warsaw on June 10, which has just been given the green light by the authorities there.

After Moscow, Warsaw had to consider whether it wanted to be on Europe's side or whether it wanted to act like Putin's Russia," said Dworek of the LSVD, adding that Warsaw obviously opted to avoid the embarrassment of having prominent European politicians being beaten up in their city. "It also shows how important a networked Europe is."

The German government has to loudly and clearly raise its voice against the suppression of gays and lesbians in Russia and not create the impression that it's less interested in human rights than it is in gas pipelines from Russia to Germany," said Beck, adding that Chancellor Merkel had already sent the right signals during her recent visit to Moscow.

"But now actions have to follow and they have to be consistent."

SINCE THERE IS NO LEGISLATION FOR HATE CRIMES IN AUSTRIA, VICTIMS HAVE NO NEED TO FEAR OR NEED TREATMENT.

SIX months ago 5000 white Australian vigilantes swept through the beach suburb of Cronulla, swinging their fists and shouting words of hatred as they waged a war on the Lebanese community to regain control of "their" beach.

Since then, police have made 87 arrests and laid 239 charges. The most common charge for violent offenders was affray (31 per cent) and riot (27 per cent). Other charges include assaulting police, threatening violence, malicious damage and resisting arrest.

While only one person has been acquitted, the Director of Public Prosecutions has failed to prosecute 68 of those arrested. This means that 73 of those accused of a crime have eluded punishment.

The offences committed in Cronulla were crimes of hate. In some countries these crimes are called "hate crimes", that is, crimes committed because the victim belongs (or is perceived to belong) to a certain group, for example, assaulting someone because he or she appears to be of Middle Eastern appearance. Yet none of the offenders from Cronulla will face "hate crime" charges.

NSW has decided against hate crime legislation. Instead it has chosen to rely on the standard criminal law offences of assault, aggravated assault, grievous bodily harm or wounding to deal with any offender who commits a crime of violence, regardless of motivation.

However, the issue is much more complicated because the aftermath of hate violence can be far-reaching. Hate violence can lead to prolonged depression and anxiety among victims. The violence accompanying hate crimes is frequently more severe, leading to higher hospital admission rates. Victims of hate violence will often suffer permanent injuries and in a disproportionately high number of cases the victim is killed.

EXACTLY WHAT NATIVE AMERICANS THOUGHT WHEN THE EUROPEANS LANDED.

By Erin Texeira

As the fight over immigration reform drags on, an ominous undercurrent to the debate _ racism _ is becoming more pronounced.

From muttered ethnic slurs to violent attacks, activists say an anti-immigrant backlash seems to be growing in America's neighborhoods and workplaces. A few political leaders have called proposed immigration measures before Congress "racist."

"The climate has gotten demonstrably worse and it is racially charged," said Devin Burghart of the Center for New Community, which tracks anti-immigrant activity. "It's not simply a debate about immigration policy. ... It's about race and national identity and who and what we are as Americans."

Sociologist Gonzalo Santos of California State University at Bakersfield said immigration is just the latest example of social policy issues taking on racial overtones in America.

"People talk about immigration as if race doesn't matter, saying 'No, I don't have anything against immigrants or Mexicans, it's just the illegal part of it I don't like.' But those are code words," he said. "We experience race in this country through issues like welfare policy, anti-poverty programs and now immigration."

Increasingly, security is a concern. For the first time at its annual conference last year, La Raza offered a program to community groups on how to stay safe amid harassment.

THIS LAND IS MY LAND. THIS LAND IS MY LAND. THIS LAND WAS MADE FOR ME AND NOT YOU.

On May 6, the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan held an anti-immigration rally in Russellville, Alabama, that drew more than 300 Klansmen and Klan supporters, including members of the neo-Nazi hate group Aryan Nations. At the rally, robed Klansmen burned a 22-foot-high cross and yelled, "Let's get rid of the Mexicans!"

Also on May 6, when Hispanic families in Tucson gathered in a park to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, anti-immigration extremist Roy Warden arrived, strapped with a pistol, and led a demonstration. "Listen up, Mexican invaders," Warden said. "We will not permit you, the ignorant, the savage, the unwashed, to overrun us, as happened in Rome...Land must be paid for in blood. If any invader tries to take this land from us we will wash this land and nurture our soil with oceans of their blood!" Warden later e-mailed a death threat to Isabel Garcia, a Tucson public defender who co-chairs the human rights group Derechos Humanos. The e-mail was titled, "Warden to Isabel Garcia: I will blow your freaking head off!"

On April 29 a neo-Nazi in East Hampton, New York, was arrested for threatening two Hispanic teenagers with a machete and chainsaw, holding the blade to the throat of one while threatening to kill them.

On March 27, New Jersey-based neo-Nazi radio host Hal Turner called for the mass murder of Hispanics and the assassination of U.S. senators who support guest worker programs. "All of you who think there's a peaceful solution to these invaders are wrong. We're going to have to start killing these people," Turner said. "I advocate using extreme violence against illegal aliens. Clean your guns. Have plenty of ammunition. Find out where the largest gathering of illegal aliens will be near you. Go to the area well in advance, scope out several places to position yourself and then do what has to be done." Turner directed his listeners to a website that provides detailed instructions on constructing pipe bombs, ammonium nitrate "fertilizer bombs," car bombs, chlorine gas bombs, and other homemade explosive devices.

This is what happens when you demonize an entire group of people as "the others." This violence, fueled in part by anti-immigrant rhetoric, targets all Lations, whether they're in the country legally or illegally. All Hispanics become targets.

Consider this as well: Latinos have been in Florida and the southwest before those regions became parts of the U.S. And yet, they'll face violence from the racist elements (many of which had ancestors "get off the boat" in the last 150 years) in the anti-immigration movement.

HATE DOESN'T CHANGE, JUST THE COMMUNITY DOES

Sixteen-year-old Andre Cooper of Stratford learned about the dangers of racial prejudice in school, but he never thought he would get a firsthand lesson when he got outside.

Cooper, of Agresta Terrace, left Stratford High School one day last week and was walking home with his friends on Euerele Street when, he said, a bright-red pickup truck drove by, brushing him with its mirror. Cooper said he wasn't injured, but the driver, Christopher Barker, an unemployed white man, stopped the truck, got out and, pointing to the bent mirror, yelled at Cooper, who is black.

Come fix this, you f — — — nigger," he shouted, according to police.

Over the past decade, the numbers of hate crime complaints have gone up in the state, from 105 in 1994 to 162 in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available.

Experts disagree as to why hate crimes occur, and even the accuracy of the statistics.

Donald Green, director of the Institute for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University, said while hate crimes are a problem in society, statistics can be misleading. "One of the problems is that there has been a tremendous variability in the reporting by towns," he said. "The trend is to see hate crimes in areas that experience demographic change, and we are seeing that in Connecticut.

We have people who have a nostalgic view of their neighborhood when it suddenly undergoes rapid integration. Or say a gay bar opens in the neighborhood. When things change, that causes hate crimes," he said.

In school, there are more opportunities to regress in front of peers. You can do it on the playground and get away with it because people will always put it down as 'boys will be boys,' " he said. But he predicted that in the future lawsuits would be filed against school systems that fail to pay attention to schoolyard hate crimes.

US VOTES FOR ACCREDITATION OF GAY GROUPS TO UN.

A coalition of radical homosexual groups put heavy pressure on the Bush administration to change its vote to allow accreditation of homosexual groups seeking UN recognition, the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-Fam) notes in its latest "Friday Fax.".

Although they were unsuccessful in gaining accreditation for the groups, the gay-rights groups are claiming credit on their web sites for getting the US to change what was a No vote to a Yes.

Claiming credit for the change in US policy are Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Committee (IGLHRC). "The United States' anti-gay vote was shocking. We are glad that the Administration heard our concern and reversed its position," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC executive director.

Last January, the United States voted against granting official UN status to the Danish Association of Gays and Lesbians and to the International Gay and Lesbian Association, a group charged with allowing pedophile groups in its membership.

After that vote, a coalition of homosexual groups initiated a lobbying campaign and sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding an explanation of the US position. Homosexual activists also met with the members of the US delegation at the Commission on Human Rights in Switzerland to voice their anger.

Homosexual groups are becoming more active at the UN as annually they pressure the UN Human Rights Commission to include homosexuality in the interpretation and implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This would result in hate crimes charges being brought against Christian and others who oppose the homosexual agenda. The initiative has lost many years in a row owing largely to the Muslim countries.

CAUTIOUS ABOUT DROP IN COLORADO'S HATE CRIME INCIDENTS.

Hate crimes against members of Colorado's LGBT community dropped by an astounding 60% last year, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.

Of the 13 cities and states tracked by the coalition, Colorado's was the biggest drop; the group reports that violence and harassment against gays fell nationally by almost 13%.

However, coalition members say the encouraging stats might not be entirely accurate.

The Denver-based Colorado Anti-Violence Program says the reduction in reports of antigay bias could just mean fewer incidents are being reported.

Program spokeswoman Veronica Garcia told The [Colorado Springs] Gazette, "For a lot of people it’s unsafe to even identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender," adding, "We’re definitely cautious in getting too excited about a drop in numbers.”

RACISM REACHES 15 YEAR HIGH IN BUSINESS ACROSS BELGIUM.

The Centre of Equal Opportunity and Opposition to Racism, in Brussels, Belgium recorded 1,022 reports of racism last year compared with 994 in 2004.

It said 15 percent of reports involved racism at the workplace; the highest figure in 15 years.

One-third of complaints of racism in the workplace involved discrimination in recruitment.

But the anti-racism bureau did not place the blame entirely on employers, pointing out that discrimination also occurs among employees.

Meanwhile, the bureau also demanded in its annual report that both the federal government and Parliament place priority on the approval of new anti-discrimination laws.

Further, it urged for improved registration of hate speech on the internet and crimes linked to racism, homophobia and discrimination.

AVOID PARKING ON SIDE STREETS IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Police said two groups of men were violently attacked and robbed as they left a popular Orlando gay club this week.

Mathew Allam and his partner Chad Cronon said they've spent many nights walking home from the Parliament House Resort on Orange Blossom Trail. But after what happened this week, they said they wouldn't be walking home again.

"I mean, he had a gun about two inches from my face," Matthew Allam said. "It was quite a traumatic experience."

Police said there was a similar attack on two other men leaving the Parliament House two hours later. Both attacks came just days before Orlando Gay Days, a major event for the night club.

The club is now asking patrons to avoid parking on side streets. And for Gay Days this week, Parliament House said it's renting out the Citrus Bowl for parking and providing busses to the club.

On Wednesday, Channel 9 Eyewitness News learned that though police were not calling the incidents hate crimes, the attacks did leave a lasting impression on their victims.

CRYING ALL THE WAY TO PRISON

By Sandra Stokley and John Welsh

A Riverside County jury recommended the death penalty Wednesday for Rialto residents Michael Forrest Thornton and Janeen Marie Snyder in the 2001 torture-murder of a 16-year-old Las Vegas teenager.

The verdicts in the murder of Michelle Curran capped a trial that ran more than five months and featured often-lurid testimony about the couple's drug-laced lifestyle and their sexual obsession with underage girls.

The trial also included testimony of their involvement in crimes against at least two other girls, who said they were held against their will and sexually assaulted. Thornton and Snyder were arrested in connection with one incident but later released for lack of evidence. The other girl did not contact the authorities.

Thornton, 50, showed little emotion, but Snyder, 26, lowered her head onto the defense table and began sobbing loudly. At one point she cried out, "I hate you, Michael," to her co-defendant.

"She wasn't crying when she lured the victims. She wasn't crying when she pulled the trigger. She wasn't crying when she tried to escape," he said. "I call them tears of the damned."

NO INVITATION NEEDED TO ATTEND JAIL FOR HATE CRIMES

By Pamela Manson

A self-proclaimed skinhead who beat and severely injured a black bicyclist in Salt Lake City last year in a racially motivated attack had struck a deal with prosecutors to serve about six years for his crime.

But U.S. District Judge David Sam on Wednesday said about nine years would be more appropriate for David Lance Gardner, who once beat a Latino man to death in California in a case that was similar to the Utah attack.

He also ordered Gardner to pay $22,000 in restitution.

Police and prosecutors say Gardner and two co-defendants - Robby Wayne Baalman, 22, of Sandy, and Keith Wayne Cotter, 25, of Draper - were drinking at various bars on the evening of March 12, 2005.

Baalman alleged in a written statement that Gardner told Cotter to "go get the n----- on the bike."

"Gardner indicated that this would be my initiation into a white supremacists organization, the American Front," Baalman wrote.

"I guarantee, no matter what, nothing like this will ever happen again in my life," he said.

"I have concerns about his ability to lead a lawful life," Sam said, pointing out that Gardner pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a beating years ago in Los Angeles that left a man dead.

POLITICIANS PANDERS TO XENOPHOBIA

By Raquel Alvarenga

In a dramatic introduction to Rep. J.D. Hayworth’s (R-Ariz.) latest book, Whatever It Takes, conservative talk-radio host Sean Hannity promises readers that the book will provide “the hard truths” in a thorough discussion of the controversial immigration debate.

Whatever It Takes is a poorly written tirade against immigration in particular and, more widely, against diversity and multiculturalism in America as a whole. It is filled with anti-immigrant propaganda and selective statistical evidence. Hayworth relinquishes his own immigrant past and condemns not only undocumented immigrants, but also their American-born children.

As the immigration controversy brings the national melting pot to a simmer, hate crimes against the undocumented have grown more common everywhere from major municipalities like Los Angeles to small towns like Farmingville, Long Island.

Far from revealing “hard truths,” Hayworth tries to prompt a gut reaction against immigration, appealing to the worst impulses of exclusion. Far to the right even of President Bush on immigration policy, Hayworth essentially advocates a blanket solution to a nuanced issue.

He erroneously presents immigration reform as having only two paths: “America has a choice. We can either take control of four borders and immigration policy or…”

DONUT KILL A DAY.

By Hamil R. Harris and Daniel de Vise

"Attention Bikers! No Colors, No Rags, No Club Attire, No Exceptions."

Barbara Sturgell posted the sign on the door of the Happy Harbor Inn in Deale four years ago after a fight between Hells Angels and Pagans ended in a cloud of pepper spray and bullets.

The 72-year-old business owner broke down and cried yesterday as she wondered why someone had altered the sign on the door by painting out certain letters and adding others to discourage black and gay patrons.

The Maryland Commission on Human Relations has launched an investigation into the incident after an inquiry from several news organizations.

Ted Harris, an African American who has frequented the restaurant since the 1960s, doesn't hold Sturgell blameless. He and a friend spotted the altered sign on the door during a visit May 3.

"It was all in the same ink. It was professionally done," he said. ". . . When we came back, it was painted over, but you still could see the 'E-D-S' from the word 'colored.' "

The county has logged more than its share of hate crimes in recent years, local civil rights leaders said. County police recorded 76 such crimes in 2005, compared with 66 in 2004. The Human Relations Commission has a Southern Maryland office in Leonardtown -- which handles southern Anne Arundel -- "and we are busy in that office," Bell said.

SEX PISTOLS

By Elizabeth Baier

Their motto is "Armed gays don't get bashed."

Joani McBride explains: "A., I'm female, and, B., I'm little. You know, I'm fairly defenseless. But honey, a .357 [Magnum] beats four aces every time."

A gun aficionado for three decades, McBride knows the difference between a Colt Commander .45 ACP and the Charter Arms Bulldog .44, her two favorite handguns. And she knows how to point them if she has to -- she did once, at a knife-wielding attacker in Colorado.

She is one of 25 members of the Wilton Manors chapter of the Pink Pistols, an international gay and lesbian gun advocacy group.

Pistols member Dan Dugan of Homestead was packing a Lorcin .380 semiautomatic pistol his father gave him for Christmas. It was his first time shooting. He wants to fight the perception that "gay people are wimps."

TWO INCIDENTS OF HATE VANDALISM FINALLY MOVE POLICE TO REACT.

By Scott Travis

Sheriff's investigators are trying to determine who painted swastikas and a hate-filled message on the windows of a Jewish book and gift shop.

The graffiti was found at YiddishKeit inside the Mission Bay Plaza at U.S. 441 and Glades Road, west of Boca Raton. There were four swastikas and a message that said, "Burn the Jews" drawn in white paint or shoe polish.

Similar messages were found on a Chrysler Voyager minivan in the shopping center parking lot. The car belonged to a florist in the shopping center who is not Jewish, sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said. The florist was out of town when the incident happened, Barbera said.

Store owner Joseph Brooks said this was the second time this year he's been the target of graffiti. He said in early March, vandals painted a small swastika on his window.

Brooks said he called the Sheriff's Office last time and filed a report but no officers came. He removed the image.

The annual ADL audit reported 199 anti-Semitic incidents in the state last year, up from 173 the year before, 102 in 2003 and 93 in 2002. Last year in South Florida, there were reports of anti-Semitic graffiti painted on a synagogue in Homestead; mezuzahs, which are traditional Jewish parchment scrolls, removed from the doorposts of private homes in Boca Raton; a swastika drawn on a public sidewalk in Boynton Beach and anti-Semitic graffiti painted on a gas station in Tamarac.

WHOLE POPULATIONS MOVE WHEN THEIR LIBERTIES ARE NOT PROTECTED.

If for no other reason than economic, state lawmakers in Columbus would be wise to examine a recent bias study that ranks Ohio dead last in the nation for tolerance toward certain minority groups.

To dismiss a report that puts the state below even Mississippi in anti-discrimination laws simply because it was done by an advocacy group for the gay community is shortsighted folly.

To learn from the data compiled by Equality Ohio is to understand, the group says, why there has been an exodus of 18-to-34-year-olds from the state, with serious economic repercussions.

They get the message that Ohio is intolerant - real or perceived - of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, and are choosing to live and work and raise their families elsewhere.

States were rated based on protections afforded the gay community. Ohio was the only state to score a minus 2, lower than Mississippi at zero.

Lynne Bowman, executive director of Equality Ohio, said the results of the report were astonishing to members themselves. "The state that used to be so proud to call itself 'the heart of it all' has lost its heart," she said.

HONG KONG PERMITS INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA.

The 2nd International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) Hong Kong Parade is scheduled to take place in Causeway Bay on May 21

Sixteen sexual minority-friendly groups have joined force to organise the event, entitled "Stand Up Against Prejudice", in hopes of increasing awareness about homophobia in the society.

Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, a member of the Legislative Council, has accepted the invitation to be the guest of honour to open this year’s Hong Kong IDAHO.

Prominent sexual minority-friendly organisations from other parts of Greater China will be present at the parade, and they include mainland sexual minority website Gay Chinese - Information Clearinghouse for Chinese Gays and Lesbians (ICCGL), represented by Mr. Silvano Zheng; Taiwanese sexual minority church group Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church; Taiwan’s first sexual minority cleric Rev. Elias Tseng; and Taiwanese BDSM (bondage and discipline; domination and submission; and sadism and masochism) group BDSM Company.

Spiritual blessings New to the programme this year are spiritual blessings offered by several religious organisations such as Spiritual Seekers Society, Blessed Minority Christian Fellowship and Hong Kong Christian Institute, aspiring to bring reconciliation between religions and sexual minorities through messages of love. With these blessings, the participating groups seek to convey a vision to humanity, of the day when people of diverse genders, sexual orientations, standings, races and creeds work together to eradicate fear of difference, and to help everyone accept one another for a new chapter of harmony and even universal love.

IDAHOHK Committee consists of 17 NGOs, including: Women Coalition of HKSAR, Nutongxueshe, Queer Sisters, HORIZONS, HK 10% Club, Hong Kong Christian Institute, Rainbow of HK, Rainbow Action, Blessed Minority Christian Fellowship, Spiritual Seekers Society, Amnesty International Hong Kong LGBT Group, Transgender Equality & Acceptance Movement, Society for the Study of Sexualities and Sex-pol, 8A Social Movement Resource Centre, Zi Teng, f’union & G Magazine.

SKINHEAD VIOLATED PAROLE AND SENT BACK TO PRISON.

Kyle Brewster, one of the men convicted of killing Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw in 1988, has been arrested on accusations of violating his parole by making contacts for the racist Volksfront on MySpace.com.

Brewster, 37, spent 14 years in prison for taking part in one of Oregon’s most notorious hate crimes. The former racist skinhead was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in the 1988 baseball-bat killing in Southeast Portland. The slaying cast a shadow on Portland, which was branded “Skinhead City” by one of the nation’s leading civil rights groups.

Seraw’s death put Brewster and two other members of East Side White Pride behind bars. The crime prompted the enactment of Oregon’s groundbreaking hate-crime law. It helped to spark a violent street war in Portland between racist skinheads and their enemies.

The murder also set the stage for a civil trial that financially crippled one of the nation’s most influential racists.

Parole officials warned Brewster when he was released Nov. 19, 2002, that they would revoke his parole if he associated with gang members.

Authorities said that information provided by the Anti-Defamation League put parole officers on the trail of individuals who were ultimately linked to Brewster. Agencies involved in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force also provided information that indicated that Brewster has been involved with white power gang members.

Volksfront is a white supremacist group that has been associated with numerous crimes in the Northwest. In 2003, Volksfront members murdered a homeless man in Tacoma.

113 COMPLAINTS AGAINST 124 FROM 2004

By Richard Leitner

Race continues to be the biggest target of hate crimes in Hamilton, with blacks most often on the receiving end.

Det. Steve Hahn of the Hate Crimes Unit said 23 of last year's 39 documented incidents were race-related.

Even so, the overall numbers are improving -- last year's crimes were 21 fewer than in 2004 and seven fewer than in 2003 -- and reflect a downward trend in the province, he said.

South-east Asians and Arabs were also targeted, with five and two incidents, respectively, while one case involved graffiti aimed at all non-whites.

Gay men were the next biggest victim group, with seven crimes, including two assaults, one of them with a weapon. Det. Hahn said graffiti remains the favored weapon for hatred, comprising nearly 70 per cent of the incidents last year.

Whether it is in the City of Hamilton or across Ontario or even Canada, race seems to be the most prominent victim group that's been targeted time and time again," he told the Hamilton Police Services Board.

"Of course, if you're one of those victims that is either assaulted or insulted, you're not going to take a lot of comfort in knowing the stats are going in the same direction.

LAWYERS EXPERIMENT WITH HATE CRIMES AND JURIES

Make-believe White drew a giant swastika on his imaginary Jewish math teacher's garage door and put an oven door on his front step. The next day, White scrawled the "N" word -- go home" on a fictitious black student's locker because the math teacher gave her the math award White wanted to win..

Later that day, he handed out fliers laced with racial and ethnic slurs to nonexistent students. When several made-up Latino students gathered around and suggested beating him, White got scared and kicked one of them.

It's tense in City, Colo., where White lives and no one really lives. Real people live in Greeley. Real people live in Northern Colorado. There can be tension in those places, too.

On Thursday, about 50 of those real people gathered in the University of Northern Colorado's University Center to talk about solutions.

Patrick White is an invention a group of lawyers use to discuss Colorado's ethnic intimidation law. The Colorado Lawyers Committee's Hate Violence Task Force stages White's mock trial throughout the state, usually for middle and high school students but also for groups such as police officers. Task force co-chair Kristen Mix prosecuted White and former co-chair Stephen Collins defended him Thursday as part of a "Day of Dialogue" sponsored by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

Did White commit a hate crime or just vandalism? Are the fliers free speech, or did they start a fight? Did he kick the other student in self-defense, or did he attack a Latino student for being different? The trial -- really only the opening remarks -- was finished. The jury had opinions and questions.

Mix and Collins guided the audience of community leaders through probable verdicts: White is probably guilty of hate crimes for the oven door, the swastika and the locker; those actions are intimidating and based, at least in part, in race and religion.

White probably walks with an excuse of self-defense on the kick. Clarence Lopez of Greeley said he'd like to see district attorneys go through the training. Collins told the crowd that prosecutors usually avoid hate crime charges because they're more difficult to prove than crimes such as assault. Lopez said prosecutors and police put a lot of effort fighting gangs. "If we put as much emphasis on prosecuting hate crimes maybe we'd have fewer hate crimes.

UNC professor Francie Murry was at the front of a push to banish the Eaton Reds mascot, and she was in the audience on Thursday. People are afraid to talk about issues such as hate crimes, Murry said, because they're afraid it will cause chaos. Law touches everyone, and it might be the right thing to get them talking, she said.

DON'T GO INTO THOSE NEIGHBORHOODS

A former German government spokesman has infuriated state officials by suggesting weeks before the World Cup opens that dark-skinned visitors might risk their lives if they visit parts of an eastern region.

Concern about racism and hate crimes is running high in Germany following the brutal beating at Easter of an Ethiopian-born German engineer in Potsdam, the state capital of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin.

There are small and middle-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere where I would not advise anyone who has a different skin color to go,” Mr. Heye, who now heads an anti-racism group, said on Deutschland radio. “He might not leave alive.”

Mr. Heye's group conceded in a statement that his comment had been “exaggerated.” Mr. Heye himself said his intention was to combat any temptation to play down racist attacks.

The anti-immigrant far right is politically marginalized in Germany, with no seats in the national parliament. However, occasional successes for fringe parties in state elections and high-profile hate crimes have raised concern.

The World Cup opens June 9 and runs through July 9.

STUDENTS UPSET OVER RACIAL SLURS USED BY PROFESSOR.

A professor's use of readings containing racial slurs has alarmed students and renewed discussions about diversity at the University of Iowa law school.

The university's Black Law Students Association, a group of 27 students, said in a letter to law faculty, U of I administration and the Iowa Board of Regents executive director that a March 29 incident was "indicative of a much larger problem at the College of Law."

The incident that triggered the larger discussion was professor Gerald Wetlaufer reading aloud two passages that contained racial epithets in his negotiations class, according to law school Dean Carolyn Jones.

The readings, one from Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of former President Lyndon Johnson and another a 1964 speech by a black sharecropper named Fannie Lou Hamer, were in context with the course, Jones said, but students may not have been sufficiently prepared to hear the racial slurs.

Wetlaufer apologized to students for not adequately warning them about the readings but said he believes they were relevant to the course, which focuses on the power of language.

Minorities make up about 9 percent of the total U of I student enrollment, but the university's strategic plan calls for increasing the share of minorities to 11 percent by 2010.

INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA

On 17 May 1990, the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders.

The fight for the recognition of equal rights for lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender people did not end there though.

Today around 80 countries in the world still criminalize homosexuality and condemn consensual same sex acts with imprisonment, of these 9 (Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen) still have the death penalty.

In 2005 IDAHO was celebrated in more than 40 countries, from France to Hong Kong. A large variety of initiatives were taken and they were widely covered by the Media. In Iran, in spite of the government brutal homophobia,

IDAHO was talked about on numerous blogs and in thousands of emails. In Kiev, Ukraina, a huge balloon with ‘Say no to Homophobia” was let loose.

IT HAPPENED IN A QUIET, QUAINT NEIGHBORHOOD

by Dennis Carter

Someone lit a cross-shaped fire in the middle of the street on 52nd Avenue in College Park late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. North College Park residents are wondering what next to expect following a cross-burning incident that police are now investigating

Smeared ash in the shape of a cross lay in the middle of 52nd Avenue in College Park Monday afternoon, and Jocelyn Johnson still couldn’t believe someone committed the brazen act on the quaint street.

Johnson said she awoke Sunday morning to find the smoldering remains of a possible hate crime committed in the predawn hours of Sunday, according to Prince George’s County police reports. Johnson, who lives with her aunt and uncle in the house, said there might have been a reason the cross of branches had been arranged directly in front of their home.

I couldn’t tell you why something like this happens, but the coincidence is that we’re the only African-American family on the street,” said Johnson, who has lived in the 9600 block of 52nd Avenue since 2000. ‘‘It’s a little worrisome ... because you never know what they’ll do next.”

Johnson said the cross burning – even if it was a prank – could make for a trend of hate crimes in the North College Park area. In July 2003, a three-and-a-half-foot cross was set on fire outside the Dar-Es-Salaam mosque and Al-Huda School on Edgewood Road. Two juveniles were charged in connection with the incident later that summer.

Rick and Linda Milbourne, who live less than 100 yards from the cross burning, said they are disturbed that someone would commit an act synonymous with the Ku Klux Klan, but they don’t fear for their safety.

NEW TROUBLESHOOTER IN TOWN

Corby Council's acceptable behavior officer will be responsible for tackling hate crimes, youth culture and general anti-social behavior in the town. The officer, who will earn up to £28,000 a year, will also provide support for victims and witnesses involved in crimes and complaints.

Residents backed the moves after it was revealed that the council now receives about 20 new complaints about anti-social behavior every month. Irene Hayes, 36, of Kingsthorpe Avenue, Corby, said: "Having a specific officer for anti-social behavior will make things better for people with complaints.

Last month a gang of thugs beat a 26-year-old Hungarian man unconscious in Jubilee Avenue, while in another attack a gang of six left a Polish man with severe facial injuries.

The officer will also gather evidence on crack houses, hate crimes and youth nuisance. The aim is to stop anti-social behavior at the earliest opportunity to prevent it causing lasting harm.

Council leader Pat Fawcett said: "In terms of acceptable behavior we believe a lot of young adults don't realize what they are doing is wrong; that when they go out enjoying themselves and making a noise it can actually upset other people.

TO THE US-MEXICAN BORDER

By Kevin Johnson

Tension over illegal immigration is contributing to a rise in hate groups and hate crimes across the nation, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. It says that racist groups are using the immigration debate as a rallying cry.

The center — an Alabama-based non-profit organization that tracks racist, anti-immigrant and other extremist groups — says in a new report that there were 803 such hate groups in the USA last year, up from 762 in 2004 and a 33% jump since 2000.

The center's report says the national debate that has focused on Hispanic immigration has been "the single most important factor" in spurring activity among hate groups and has given them "an issue with real resonance."

The debate over immigration "has been critical to the growth of the hate movement," says Mark Potok, editor of the center's quarterly report on extremists. "More and more groups are turning to immigration to help recruitment."

Potok says the center has seen increasing signs that groups that have encouraged a particularly aggressive response to illegal immigration are working with neo-Nazi organizations to try to intimidate illegal immigrants

The building tension over illegal immigration's impact on America comes at a time when the FBI says that the number of hate-crime victims in 2004 — the last year for which figures are available — was 9,528, up nearly 5% from 2003.

The numbers don't approach the 12,020 hate-crime victims reported in 2001, when there were a rash of attacks against Muslims across the nation in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

TO BELGIUM

The General Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has said in a statement that it is concerned about the rising trend of inter-ethnic tensions and hate crimes targeting mainly Muslim immigrants in Europe.

The OIC on Sunday warned that xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic sentiments were being fuelled by anti-immigrant and far-right political parties of Europe. The OIC also condemned the increasing violent attacks against immigrants in Belgium, and called on the authorities to take immediate action by recognizing and addressing the root of the problems.

Last Thursday a Belgian teenager attacked an ethnic Turkish woman before going on to kill a black woman and her 8-year old child in the city of Antwerp on Thursday.

Two weeks ago, a racist mob attacked and injured two African-origin Belgians. The home of a 6-member Moroccan family was set on fire in an arson attack in the city of Courtai in Belgium. They were rescued from the blaze by passers-by.

The Muslim body said it was worried that European anti-immigrant parties were advocating racist policies and increasing their appeal to the masses while many mainstream political parties were also opting to adopt xenophobic slogans of the far-right in order to increase their popularity. The OIC stated that these policies were leading to an erosion of inter-communal tolerance and were inciting hatred.

"The disturbing anti-immigrant, racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic tendencies in Europe should be combated in order to facilitate the joint actions aimed at reaching mutually desired goals through dialogue, mutual respect, mutual recognition, tolerance and cooperation, in the service of global peace and stability," OIC added.

FROM THE NORTHERN SUBURBS OF MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA

A SENIOR state Labor MP has caused uproar in Melbourne's Turkish and Jewish communities and embarrassed Premier Steve Bracks by accusing Turkey of committing a "holocaust" comparable to Adolf Hitler's.

Jenny Mikakos, the parliamentary secretary for justice, has been accused of "hate speech" after telling Parliament: "Unlike Germany, which has taken responsibility for the Jewish holocaust, Turkey has never apologized to its victims."

Ms Mikakos, who is of Greek heritage, told the upper house: "On May 19 the Pontian community in Victoria and around the world will commemorate the 87th anniversary of the Pontian genocide that occurred in present-day Turkey.

"Between 1916 and 1923, over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia Minor and in Pontus, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result of the 20th century's first but less-known genocide. Over a million Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding years, 1.5 million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts of Turkey also perished."

As two Labor MPs from Turkish backgrounds, John Eren and Adem Somyurek, called on her to sit down, Ms Mikakos, the member for the northern suburban electorate of Jika Jika, continued: "The Turkish Government must begin the reconciliation process by acknowledging these crimes against humanity. The suffering of the victims of the Pontian genocide cannot and will not be forgotten."

The secretary of the ALP's Coolaroo branch, Kazim Ates haw written Ms Mikakos' speech racially vilifies the Turkish community and incites inter-ethnic hatred between the various ethnic communities that reside cohesively and peacefully as Victorians in our culturally diverse state. The Bracks Labor Government and the ALP have been promoting racial and religious harmony.

BOOKS DESCRIBING HATE ARE NOT CRIMES

By Kelvin Bissett and Angela Kamper

Books of hate promoting suicide bombings, anti-Australian conspiracies and racism can be freely sold in the Muslim community after a ruling that they don't breach sedition laws.

The material, found by The Daily Telegraph in Lakemba and Auburn bookstores last year, was judged by federal authorities not to incite violence in the first known test of anti-terrorism laws.

The ruling comes despite British police establishing strong links between three of the suicide bombers involved in the July 7 London blasts and an Islamic bookstore in Leeds.

The AFP analysed the material in context "relative to the time the books were written and the fact that some of the material could be described as descriptive, rather than inciting any type of violence", she said.

"No action will be taken by the AFP against individuals who possess copies of the 'books of hate' or sell them," she added yesterday

RADIO DJ ARRESTED FOR ENDANGERING A CHILD.

By K.P. Nayar

A radio disc jockey in New York, who used profanities on the air and threatened a woman worker at a call centre in India in 2004 for taking away American jobs has finally been arrested for hate crime.

Troi Torain, the DJ, who goes by the on air pseudonym of Star was arrested for threats on his popular programme against the wife and fouryearold daughter of a rival DJ, Envy, who has a radio show on another station called Hot 97.

Last week, Star offered a $500 reward to any listener who could provide information on Envy’s daughter’s school so that he could go there and urinate and ejaculate on the child.

Star was fired by his radio station, New York's Power 105, on Wednesday after criticism from members of Manhattan’s City Council who wanted him prosecuted and the radio station investigated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

He was taken off the air last year for a song mocking victims of the Tsunami which hit South Asia and for making fun of Asians. Star was then working for Hot 97.

Last week, on his programme Star threatened Envy’s wife, Gia Casey, calling her a whore, “the woman who carried that little mongrel for nine months” and used antiAsian profanities because she is half Asian.

Yesterday, Star was summoned to police headquarters in Lower Manhattan and arrested by detectives from its hate crimes unit who charged him with endangering the welfare of a child.

POLICE CLEARED OF RACISM OVER PIRATE RADIO

After eight months, Chief State’s Attorney Christopher Morano’s office released a report Friday that concluded the two veteran police officers accused of racism in September did not violate any state laws.

The investigation by Morano’s staff was the third and final investigation into allegations made Sept. 9, 2005 by members of the state branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and state Rep. Roger Michele, D-77th District, that two veteran police officers, Sgt. Richard Valentine and Capt. Daniel Britt, had "broadcast messages of hate" over pirated radio frequencies.

Police Chief John DiVenere said Friday, "It is my hope that the citizens of this community see past these allegations and continue their support of the many fine men and women of this agency."

Both Valentine and Britt retired in the months following the allegations.

"I always knew what the outcome would be. I’m glad it’s over and I thank my friends and supporters," Britt said Friday.

Stortz said the city is in contract negotiations with a firm specializing in diversity training, and once the contractual "glitches" are worked out every member of the police department, "from the chief to the newest officer," will receive the training.

CANDIDATE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL PROCLAIMS HOLOCAUST REALLY WAS TYPHUS EPIDEMIC

By Jay Reeves

A Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general denies the Holocaust occurred and said Friday he will speak this weekend in New Jersey to a "pro-white" organization that is widely viewed as being racist.

Larry Darby concedes his views are radical, but he said they should help him win wide support among Alabama voters as he tries to "reawaken white racial awareness" with his campaign against Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson.

"Any type of hatred toward groups of people, especially for political gain, is completely unacceptable in the Alabama Democratic Party," said state Democratic chairman, Joe Turnham.

Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Darby said he believes no more than 140,000 Jewish people died in Europe during World War II, and most of them succumbed to typhus.

"I am what the propagandists call a Holocaust denier, but I do not deny mass deaths that included some Jews," Darby said. "There was no systematic extermination of Jews. There's no evidence of that at all."

"It's time to stop pushing down the white man. We've been discriminated against too long," Darby said in the interview.

FBI RELEASES HATE CRIME STATISTICS FROM 2003

From Robert Longley

Antagonism toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability prompted hate crimes against 9,100 victims during 2003, according to hate crime statistics recently released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Hate Crime Statistics, 2003, published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, includes data from hate crime reports submitted by local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the Nation. The report documents 7,489 bias-motivated incidents, which include 8,715 separate offenses.

A review of the data by incident showed that all but 4 of the incidents were classified as single-bias (involving only one bias motivation). A breakdown of the single-bias incidents by the type of bias revealed that 51.4 percent were motivated by racial bigotry, 17.9 percent were caused by religious intolerance, 16.6 percent were the result of a sexual-orientation bias, and 13.7 percent were triggered by an ethnicity/national origin bias. The remainder involved a bias against a disability.

The offenses of murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, and intimidation are considered by the UCR Program to be crimes against persons. Within this category, intimidation was the most often reported hate crime, comprising 49.7 percent of the total crimes against persons in 2003. Simple assault accounted for 32.8 percent of the total, and aggravated assault comprised 16.7 percent. Murder and forcible rape accounted for 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, of crimes against persons, and the offense category other made up the remaining 0.5 percent.

In addition to gathering hate crime data about incidents, victims, and offenses, the UCR Program collects data about known offenders. In the context of hate crime data collection, the term known offender does not imply that the identity of the perpetrator is known but only that a distinguishing attribute has been identified. With regard to the attribute of race, among the 6,934 reported offenders, 62.3 percent were white, and 18.5 percent were black. The race was unknown for 10.7 percent of offenders, and the remainder were of other races or were members of a group composed of offenders of varying races.

THOUGHT CRIMES PROPOSED IN JAPAN

By Scott North

Japan's government is pushing for the passage of an anti-conspiracy law with potentially far-reaching consequences. Called the Kyoubouzai Hoan (conspiracy or collusion law), the legislation appears headed for passage in the diet (parliament) as soon as next week. In its present form, it could result in Japanese citizens being detained or punished for merely agreeing with one another.

Domestic critics of the plan say it evokes comparison with the pre-World War II Peace Preservation Law, which made opposing the war a thought crime. The proposed statute is a vaguely worded, two-sentence amendment to an existing law. It defines "conspiracy" as an agreement, whether overt or tacit, fanciful or earnest, between two or more people that might be construed as planning to violate any statute for which the minimum sentence is four years or more. There are currently 619 such statutes, and more could be added by changing the minimum sentence guidelines.

Lawyers say that a husband and wife imagining nefarious ways to get back at their landlord for raising their rent fit the amendment's definition of a "group" planning criminal activity. Labor-union members brainstorming ways to resist harsh workplace practices could be held for colluding to violate laws that prohibit interfering with business activity. Teens discussing how to hot-wire cars could be held on conspiracy charges even if they did not attempt to act on their knowledge.

In the postwar era, Japanese law has generally punished only crimes actually committed or attempted. In cases such as murder or arson, prison time is sometimes given to accomplices who knowingly provide weapons or gasoline. However, punishment for conspiracy alone has been limited to rare cases of sedition.

The statute promises co-conspirators who reveal plans to the police reduced sentences or immunity from prosecution. People fear the new law would encourage self-censorship or spying in non-profit organizations, churches, labor unions, and political groups. Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, as well as protections against searches and seizures, could be rendered null. Various forms of cyber-communication could be mined for incriminating agreements.

Japan already has domestic laws against organized criminal groups. The new conspiracy provision raises the specter that much daily speech and activity could be criminalized or made subject to police scrutiny, if not immediately, then at some time in the future.

A MUTATING PANDEMIC

By Jeffrey Thomas

Successful programs aimed at battling anti-Semitism and intolerance in Europe and Eurasia could be in jeopardy if they do not receive more funding, according to experts who testified before a congressional committee May 9.

Goldenberg, the former chief of New Jersey’s hate crimes unit, emphasized the special threat such crimes pose to a democracy. Hate crimes “can create tension where none had existed, and breed dissent where once there was harmony, and incite distrust where once there was collaboration.

Goldenberg’s training team comprises experts in the field of hate crimes from police services in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Hungary and Spain, with new members soon to join from Croatia and Ukraine.

Liebe Geft, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance, explained the rationale for this special treatment for the Holocaust and anti-Semitism: “[O]ur basic assumption is that learning about Europe's historic persecution, culminating in the Holocaust, of its archetypal minority, the Jews, can educate other minorities, including today's Muslim immigrant communities in Europe, about the dynamics of prejudice and discrimination against which they seek to empower themselves.”

Stacy Burdett of the Anti-defamation League told the committee, “We really need almost a new generation of Holocaust education tools.”

CRIMMINAL DEFINITION OF KIDNAPPING NOT MET, ERGO NO HATE CRIME

By John Moreno Gonzales

Two of Suffolk's Hispanic elected officials said yesterday they were dismayed that East Hampton town police did not call county bias crime investigators after a 15-year-old boy with suspected neo-Nazi tendencies was accused of threatening two Latino teens with a machete and a motoring chainsaw.

State Assemb. Phil Ramos and Suffolk County Legis. Ricardo Montano said East Hampton Town Police should have contacted the Suffolk County Police Hate Crime Bureau to probe the April 29 incident. Town detectives filed menacing and reckless endangerment charges against the boy, neither of which meets the legal standards to prosecute a 15-year-old for a hate crime.

"It's a crime against that person's very existence and certainly not deserving of being minimized," said Ramos (D-Brentwood), a former Suffolk police detective who has received dozens of calls from concerned residents about the case.. "It's deserving of the use of all the resources available."

Under municipal contracts the town could have called in county bias investigators at no cost, just as some smaller departments do when they call county homicide investigators to handle a murder.

Jessica Scaperotti, a press secretary with the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services, the state's criminal law research agency, said a 15-year-old can be charged with a hate crime if it is one of more than a dozen crimes. The most serious is murder and the least serious is attempted kidnapping, she said.

Sarris said the 15-year-old described as a neo-Nazi imitator, allegedly held the 14- and 16-year-old Latino boys against their will when he lured them into a shed decorated with swastikas under the pretense of a drinking party. But Sarris said there was nothing that met the criminal definition of kidnapping. While the Suffolk District Attorney's office did not return calls for comment yesterday, grand juries have the power to upgrade charges.

STICKS AND STONES WILL BREAK BONES, BUT WORDS?

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has some explaining to do; he was one of only three congressmen to vote against the “Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act,” H.R. 5037, which would prohibit demonstrations at any national cemetery, military funeral or memorial service within 500 feet one hour before, during and one hour after the ceremony.

“We are here to defend the right of (expletives) to be obnoxious,” the outspoken and openly gay congressman said. He added that he thought the bill was too broad to stand up to a court challenge.

“I think it’s very likely to be found unconstitutional,” said Frank (D-Newton). “It’s true that when you defend civil liberties you are typically defending people who do obnoxious things . . . You play into their hand when you let them provoke you into overdoing it. I don’t want these thugs to claim America is hypocritical.”

Law enforcement identified 9,100 victims arising from 8,715 separate criminal offenses. Religious bias and sexual orientation bias each accounted for 16.4 percent of reported single-bias hate crimes, followed by ethnicity/national origin bias with 14.2 percent and disability bias with 0.5 percent of single bias-motivated offenses. It is widely believed that hate crimes are seriously under-reported.

By levying harsher punishment against someone who commits a “hate crime,” you basically say it’s not as bad to commit a crime against the only group not identified as a minority: able-bodied white men.

If like Rep. Frank supports the reverse discrimination of “hate crime” legislation, why can’t he find within himself to say that protesting a military funeral is also a bad thing that ought to be curbed?

THERE'S NOT ENOUGH POLICE

A woman on the South Side of Chicago said her car's windows were smashed in by rocks with racial slurs attached to them.

The woman, Tahisha Andrewin, said she discovered the vandalism when she walked out with her children, who were on their way to school.

"We're constantly seeing (everything from) racial slurs to gang messages and insignia -- things of that nature -- being written on buildings, car windows being busted out with negative slogans on bricks and things of that nature," she said.

Andrewin said she called 911, but was told vandalism wasn't an emergency, and she would have to call the city's emergency 311 number to file a report over the phone. Ninth Ward Alderman Anthony Beale said that was unacceptable.

"We do not have adequate police presence in the area to respond to the amount of calls that are coming in," Beale said. "That's a problem. If you have somebody having a brick thrown through a car window, that's a problem."

EIGHT STATES HAVE NON DISCRIMINATION LAWS FOR TRANSGENDER INCLUSIVE PEOPLE

Two US states have made historic strides in protecting the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people.

Hawaii and Vermont, have in the past week introduced laws to include, protect and support transgender people.

Hawaii’s second transgender-inclusive bill passed into law, followed by an expansive non-discrimination bill in Vermont clearing the Legislature, positioning Vermont to become the ninth state in America to make discriminatory practices based on gender identity or expression illegal.

“The legislation in Hawaii and Vermont represent huge civil rights victory for the transgender community,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Centre for Transgender Equality (NCTE).

Hawaii’s new law explicitly prohibits discriminatory practices in public accommodations based on “gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation.” Public accommodations include any facility whose operations affect commerce, such as hospitals, shops, hotels, restaurants, museums, theatres, and schools.

The Vermont bill will prohibit discrimination based on a person’s gender identity or expression passed. The bill covers employment, housing and public accommodations, and is a bold step forward in providing equal protection under the law for all Vermonters. Vermont’s hate crimes law already includes “gender identity and expression” language.

Recognising the need to curb rampant discrimination against gender-variant people, currently eight states, the District of Columbia and 80 US cities and counties have now passed explicitly transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination laws. These laws currently cover 31% of the US population.

AMENDMENTS INTRODUCED IN CROATIA

The amendments that introduce the term «hate crime» in Croatian Criminal Code, proposed by the Legal Team of Iskorak (Coming Out, a NGO) and Kontra Associations (A Croatian Lesbian Association), were adopted by the Sabor (Croatian parliament) Committee for Human and National Minority Rights at its session of yesterday, May 9, 2006.

The amendments were adopted by a majority of votes, while the Committee Members from the Croatian Democratic Union abstained from voting.

The proposed amendments would define hate crime as any criminal offence perpetrated agains another person on the grounds of its race, faith, nationality, colour of skin, sexual orientation, political or other beliefs, background, age or other features and characteristics.

According to Iskorak, a conclusion was presented at the debate that crimes agains persons, committed because of their personal characteristics or beliefs are rarely sanctioned in a proper manner, which results in violent acts perpetrated by members of Police and security forces being treated as misdemeanor and not criminal offenses, as are the crimes against national minorities.

According to Iskorak, the proposed changes in Article 89 of the Criminal Code will define, for the first time, hate crimes in Croatia, but the sanctioning of individual acts will be possible only after further amendments and changes in the Code, which the Legal Team plans to procude and submit to Sabor procedure.

This initiative of the Legal Team is supported by the Croatian Women Network, the Serb Democratic Forum and the Centre for Peace Studies.

THIS LAND IS OUR LAND

By Phil Koster

From the story about an assault in Fort Collins as reported in the Coloradoan on April 20, "Possible bias crime lands man in custody," it would appear that a hate incident precipitated a criminal assault, but that a "hate crime or bias crime" did not occur, because the assault involved a third party who was not the target of the "derogatory remark" made about "two men observed kissing."

Per the Colorado Revised Statute 18-9-121, a bias-motivated crime is a criminal offense punishable under law committed against a person or property, which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, and where applicable, sexual orientation, gender or disability. Bias-motivated behavior takes the form of hate incidents more often than hate crimes.

Hate incidents are any acts, conduct, speech or expression that are bias motivated, but not punishable under the law, but as we see from the article, can and do lead to violence.

Hate incidents/crimes isolate the victims and the members of the community who share the victim's characteristics. Hate incidents and crimes breed fear and mistrust, creating fissures in the community, that is, your community. When a person is victimized on the basis of his or her self concept, striking at the heart of a victim's identity, it has a chilling effect on the community as a whole. Hate is wrong, regardless whether the law recognizes that a crime has occurred or not. Hate incidents, if left unchecked, can breed an inviting environment for hate crimes. Our community must respond to hate incidents before they escalate into crimes.

Lawmakers pass hate crimes laws to punish perpetrators. District attorneys prosecute those who violate the law. The police enforce the law. The work of lawmakers, DAs and police only address part of the solution. Community members complete the solution when they support the victim; express the community's reaction, "not in our town" about the occurrence of hate incidents and crimes; promote tolerance and diversity, thereby healing the wounds and negating the hate; organize preventive measures and programs and build bridges with people from different backgrounds.

KENNEDY-SMITH ANTI-HATE CRIME BILL REJECTED BY SENATOR LEADER BILL FRIST

Roberta Sklar

Late last week, on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Edward Kennedy asked for unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consider sex-offender legislation, S. 1086

TEENAGERS ACCUSED OF HATE CRIMES

Prosecutors filed malicious harassment charges Tuesday against two 19-year-old men accused of launching an unprovoked, racially fueled attack on a 14-year-old boy.

The 14-year-old was beaten up by Cory Stewart, of Seattle, and Colin Kelly, of Bothell, as he was walking home from Whitman Middle School with several friends, a Seattle Police detective alleged in a probable cause statement.

Stewart and Kelly, who are white, first made lewd sexual comments to four of the boy's female classmates, Detective Len Carver wrote, and when the boy asked them to stop, Stewart called him a "nigger," and the two attacked him. They continued to kick and beat him when he was on the ground, charging papers said.

"This was an unprovoked attack on a 14-year-old," King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said. "Hate crimes will not be tolerated in our community."

Kelly is also charged with one count of fourth-degree assault, accused of striking another 14-year-old Whitman pupil who tried to intervene.

Stewart and Kelly are not in custody and are to be arraigned May 16. A call to Kelly's home was not immediately returned Tuesday, and no home phone number for Stewart could be located. It was not known if they had obtained lawyers.

MEANWHILE IN PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTSs

By Subrina Dhami

Police say more swastikas were found Monday after three were discovered drawn on a building Sunday night. This is the third time the symbols were drawn on property in Pittsfield within the past month. Police say they are investigating these cases as hate crimes.

Attorney Andrew Hochberg says at first he thought it was personal because he is Jewish. But Monday morning many more swastikas were discovered on adjacent buildings.

Last month swastikas were found carved into the slides of the Sinai Academy playground. The president of the Jewish school, Jonathan Kramer, says it's disheartening to hear of more cases, but this sends a clear message to the community.

Police say the maximum penalty for defacing property with hate symbols is up to two and a half years in jail and a $5,000.

BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA

Parmjit Kaur Pannu was taking her daily walk in her neighborhood close to the intersection of Hosking and Akers roads, near Ridgeview High.

The 63-year-old Pannu is a Sikh and was dressed in traditional Punjabi dress, a kameez -- a long shirt called a salwar -- a pajama looking bottom and a chunni, a long scarf, worn over the shoulder.

She lives with her husband Avtar Pannu and her son Jaspal Pannu and his wife and young family.

Her son Jaspal drives a truck for Frito-Lay. Avtar, her husband, works at Grimmway Farms. They've been in Bakersfield for 21/2 years.

She was about to turn the corner of the street when a shiny red pickup slowed and with everyone to hear, from other houses and cars in traffic, to hear a stream of obscenities being hurled at her."

The people in the red truck also threw a roll of duct tape hitting this woman on her morning walk in the back of the head.

CANDIDATE WITHDRAWS AFTER THREATENING LETTER

A threatening letter left on a 2nd District courthouse supervisor's desk prompted the woman to withdraw her application for a top administrative job and may result in hate crimes charges.

The investigation by the Weber County Sheriff's office with help from the FBI into the letter, which included racist language, will be forwarded to prosecutors this week.

The letter was left on the woman's desk on March 2 and contained white supremacist rhetoric meant to intimidate the woman, who is Hispanic. She was one of three finalists for the clerk of court job and withdrew her application after receiving the letter. The hiring process is halted pending the outcome of the investigation.

The letter's contents, which included specifics about the job opening and other in-house details, led investigators to believe early on that the writer was a courthouse employee or someone closely familiar with the building. The letter also carried no postage.

Officials have said that if a crime were committed, charges could come from the state's hate crime law, threatening or interfering with a government operation, or federal civil rights violations.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED

By Sean Webby

For Steve and Tracy Matthews of Mountain View, crime and hate happened to other people. Then late last year, their son Cameron, a Los Altos High and Stanford graduate, and his Jewish roommate were beaten unconscious by a group of men shouting anti-Semitic slurs in a San Francisco pizzeria.

Even if you are not part of a recognized target group, you're not safe. Our son Cameron is not Jewish, but that didn't protect him from an anti-Semitic attack. They wanted to do something to help prevent others from being victimized.

Their friends were somewhat cynical about what would come of it all, but nevertheless encouraged them to get involved. One said, 'Keep shining the light of day on the authorities,' who the family says seemed inclined to regard the incident as a simple Saturday night drunken brawl.

Nonetheless, Steve Matthews, 56, spoke of the family's frustration. 'Everybody we have spoken to who has had the misfortune to rely on the justice system for action to represent them have come away feeling badly about it,' he said. 'We felt that things have not moved very quickly. Justice deferred is justice denied.'

It was not until two months after the attack -- after the Anti-Defamation League called San Francisco police -- that the incident was classified as a hate crime, the Matthewses said.

POLITICS FOR SAKE OF EXPEDIENCY

By Evan Lehmann

Sen. Edward Kennedy on Thursday withdrew an amendment to strengthen hate crimes language from a bill creating a national sex offender registry, amid criticism that sexual predators could exploit delays caused by his political maneuvering.

The Senate then approved the national registry with an unrecorded vote. Supporters say the registry will help law enforcement agencies -- backed by the F.B.I. -- to track predators across state lines. The movements often confound the patchwork of state registries in place across the country.

With the registry having bipartisan support, Kennedy sought to include legislation he's been pursuing since 1999 to extend the definition of hate crimes to include gay people. It would also create a new federal charge for violent acts based on race, religion, national origin and sexual orientation.

"Congress can't ignore the problem," Kennedy said Thursday of hate crimes. "They send the poisonous message that some Americans deserve to be victimized solely because of who they are."

"It was unfortunate that Sen. Kennedy tried to block the bill, but we are pleased he decided to stop his obstruction of this important piece of legislation that will keep our children safe from dangerous predators," said Aaron McLear, spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Kennedy said Thursday the hate crimes provision would enhance child safety -- a focus of the registry -- and blamed the Republican leadership for delaying a vote on the whole package.

Kennedy on Thursday sought to lay out a schedule by which the Senate would vote on both the sex offender registry and his hate crimes amendment by May 25.

Republican leadership objected to the schedule, based on the inclusion of Kennedy's hate crimes provision.

NATIVE AMERICAN ATTACKED BY NY CABBIE

A Long Island taxi driver was arrested and charged with a hate crime after police said he shouted racial epithets while hitting a man with his cab outside a convenience store.

Robert A. Rossetti Jr., 56, of East Quogue, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of second-degree assault and second-degree aggravated harassment as a hate crime. He was ordered held on $5,000 bail.

Newsday, which interviewed the victim, identified him as Jonathan Cedillo, a 21-year-old of American Indian and Mexican-American descent who recently moved from California to Riverhead to work as a yacht detailer.

Detective Ted Raffel said the store has recently attracted protesters rallying against illegal immigrants.

GAY PRIDE ACCUSED OF RACISM

By Eric Ervin

A panel discussion initiated by allegations of racism by the Atlanta Pride Committee turned heated May 2 when an African-American gay activist called the meeting a "ruse" and accused the organization of avoiding the issue.

The event was called by the Pride Committee to discuss race relations among gay Atlantans. For a majority of the nearly two-hour meeting, the topics of hate crimes, police brutality and discrimination, and immigration reform and its effects on gay men and lesbians took center stage.

But toward the end of the meeting, Kevin Bynes, an activist who works with AID Atlanta, questioned the Atlanta Pride Committee’s intent with the panel.

"I think it’s a ruse when Atlanta Pride — when faced with racism — contacts a PR firm," said Bynes, who is director of an outreach program at AID Atlanta. "The idea of black people heading a discussion of racism, it’s ridiculous."

Donna Narducci, Atlanta Pride Committee executive director, disagreed. She said she supported the organization’s decision to hire Zandra Conway, who owns a public relations firm, to coordinate the meeting. Conway is also a member of In the Life Atlanta, the organization that sponsors the annual Black Gay Pride event.

In March, Powell, a black publisher of a men's magazine, offered the Atlanta Pride festival $9,500 worth of free advertising in exchange for sponsorship. He said it would attract more black gay men to the annual Pride festival. Narducci initially refused his offer, saying at the time that she had stopped accepting in-kind media sponsorships in an effort to bring in cash for the organization. She later reversed her decision, saying she "failed to see the greater good that could have been gained by partnering with Clik."

In an e-mail blast, Powell suggested that his offer was declined because of race. He called Narducci’s reversed decision "disingenuous" and said he would not be a sponsor until Atlanta Pride addressed what he believes is a lack of participation from blacks.

BEING TAUGHT TO HATE

By Samara Kalk Derby

Police say there have been more than 500 hate crimes in Madison in the past decade, but all 20 of those directed against Muslims have happened since Sept. 11.

Speaking at a forum Tuesday night, Majid Sarmadi, a UW professor in the School of Human Ecology, said he's had some painful post-9/11 experiences. First, his office was vandalized and then he began receiving threatening phone calls at home at all hours of the night.

According to Sarmadi, part of the problem when it comes to perpetuating hate is the news media, which often put "Islamic" before the word "terrorist,'' needlessly bringing religion into the equation.

"If we are going to win the war on terrorism we have to take religion out of it," Sarmadi said during a panel discussion on hate crimes Tuesday night at the Warner Park Community Center.

African-Americans were targeted the most, with 98 incidents and crimes. Gays and lesbians were the second most targeted group, with 64. Jews were targeted 51 times.

Judith Rosario, who works for Centro Hispano and the Urban League, said that not only do adults need to be educated on combating hate, they also need to teach their children not to hate. "We are not born with it," she said. "People learn to hate."

IRAQ PLANS TO ERADICATE ALL HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY

By Jerome Taylor

Unfornetly, Ahmed Khalil was shot at point-blank range after being accosted by men in police uniforms, according to his neighbours in the al-Dura area of Baghdad.

Human rights groups have condemned the "barbaric" murder of a 14-year-old boy, who, according to witnesses, was shot on his doorstep by Iraqi police for the apparent crime of being gay.

Campaign groups have warned of a surge in homophobic killings by state security services and religious militias following an anti-gay and anti-lesbian fatwa issued by Iraq's most prominent Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Neighbours in al-Dura district say Ahmed's father was arrested and interrogated two days before his son's murder by police who demanded to know about Ahmed's sexual activities. It is believed Ahmed slept with men for money to support his poverty-stricken family, who have fled the area fearing further reprisals.

Human rights groups are particularly concerned that the Sadr and Badr militias, both Shia, have stepped up their attacks on the gay community after a string of religious rulings, since the US-led invasion, calling for the eradication of homosexuals.

Darla Jordan, from the US State Department said: "The US government continues to work closely with our Iraqi partners to ensure the protection of human rights and the safety of all Iraqi citizens.

SEATTLE HAS BIAS PROBLEMS

By Athima Chansanchai

Is this a Seattle that looks familiar to you, or does it feel foreign? In the University District, two white men yell, "Look at the chinks!" from a balcony and spit at two young Asian Americans.

In Fremont, a white man in a pickup truck drives by an African American cab driver, yells out an obscenity and then comes back flashing a gun.

In Belltown, near the Space Needle, a Hispanic man rams his vehicle into a car containing two young South Asian men, referring to them as "Arabs."

In Pioneer Square, a man approaches another man standing at a bus stop and hits him after saying, "This is a gay bashing day!"

These and other incidents like them show up more than 400 times over a five-year period in reports obtained from the Seattle Police Department by Ken Molsberry, a computer systems and data analyst for the Seattle City Attorney's Office.

The purpose of the study, Molsberry wrote, is to "dispel the misconception that there is any neighborhood in Seattle in which bias attacks are not a problem."

The two biggest motivators for attacks, according to the report, were race (142 incidents) and sexual orientation (119 incidents). Other biases, in decreasing order, included religion, national origin, political ideology and gender identity.

SOME HATE CRIMES ON THE DECREASE, SOME ON THE INCREASE

by Rob Akers

Hate crime against members of the LGBT community in San Francisco showed a slight decrease with most documented instances shifting from the Mission to the Castro District during 2005, according to information released by Community United Against Violence last week.

On a national level, we still do not have federal hate crimes laws that protect our LGBT communities," D'Elia said during a news conference held Friday, April 28, which featured several speakers, including hate crime survivors and family members.

There were 322 incidents of LGBT hate violence in the San Francisco Bay Area last year, a 5 percent decrease from the total of 340 cases in 2004. Nationally, the total number of incidents fell 12 percent.

A total 53 instances of hate crime was reported in the Castro District in 2005, the highest number in the city. Fourteen of those incidents occurred on Halloween. This compares to only one case reported during Halloween 2004.

Locally, males remain the largest category of victims, up from 177 in 2004 to 185 in 2005. There was a slight increase in females reporting, from 93 in 2004 to 95 in 2005. Transgenders reporting in 2005 totaled 55, of those 47 are male to female victims.

The only racial/ethnic group in the Bay Area to show an increase in reporting was Latinos, with 55 incidents, a 20 percent increase from 2004.

Nationally, reporting increased 37 percent for people of Arab/Middle Eastern descent and by 18 percent for indigenous people.

Reporting by Bay Area youth under the age of 18 increased 100 percent while cases involving youth 18 to 22 years decreased by 48 percent. Overall, San Francisco showed a 28 percent decline in youth victimization.

For three years previous to 2005, incidents of harassment and violence perpetrated by Bay Area police and other law enforcement professionals had been steadily decreasing. Overall, cases decreased from 27 in 2004 to 22 in 2005, but statistics show more officers were inclined to be involved per incident. A total of 82 officers were alleged offenders in 2005, up from 27 in 2004. Potentially connected to this increase, victims reporting incidents to police dropped 20 percent.

Tamara Costa, CUAV's love and justice youth organizer, reported a need for youth specific resources in the Bay Area to improve reporting. She called preliminary findings "appalling" and said a survey of LGBT youth would be finalized by this fall.

TWENTY YEAR OLD FACES TWENTY FIVE YEARS

By Evan Axelbank

A grand jury has indicted Nathan Poffenbarger on five counts, including assault in the first degree as a hate crime.

The 20-year-old Cornell student is also charged with tampering with the knife he allegedly used to stab a visiting Union student in February.

"It is alleged that he committed this crime in whole or substantial part because of a perception or belief on his part regarding the victim's race," said Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson. If convicted, Poffenbarger faces between 8 and 25 years in jail.

TWENTY PERCENT

By Matthew Beltran

Twenty percent of California’s 2004 hate crimes were related to the victim’s perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender. Ten percent happened at a public school or on a college campus.

One Sacramento State program hopes to reduce those statistics, reported through the Attorney General’s office, and educate the campus by establishing a Pride Resource Center. The Sac State Pride program hopes to make a difference.

Over the next two years, Pride will have to monitor the usage of the center by the campus community and determine if additional space is needed for the program.

Today, there are centers at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, USC, , Cal Poly, Cal Pomona and Stanford. More than 180 campuses with resource programs exist nationwide.

LESS THAN HALF OF DAMAGE MAY NOT MEAN HATE CRIMES

By Keith Clines

Other cars hit; police doubt hate crime.

Only hours after more than 1,000 people marched in downtown Huntsville Monday for immigrants rights, eight vehicles owned by Hispanics were vandalized in a local industrial plant parking lot.

Huntsville police filed criminal mischief and hate crime reports for the vehicles parked in a Cinram Corp. parking lot, 4905 Moores Mill Road, while their owners were inside working.

"I don't really want to call it a hate crime," Capt. Andy Jackson, commander of the north precinct, said Tuesday afternoon.

A front tire was slashed and the windshield and windows broken on one vehicle, and another vehicle had its rear window, side windows and windshield broken. Windows were broken on four other vehicles and windshields were broken on three other vehicles. The right rear fender was damaged on another vehicle and another vehicle was damaged on the left side and had a rear window broken.

NEWSPAPER CARRIER ATTRACTS NEWS

By Marie McCain

One suspect was arrested Monday after allegedly stabbing a newspaper carrier in what police believe to be a hate crime.

The victim, Peter Eugene Daley, 23, of Palm Springs, suffered a single stab wound to his neck, Palm Springs police Sgt. Mitch Spike said. aley is hospitalized and his injury is not thought to be life-threatening, Spike added.

Police said the couple encountered an allegedly intoxicated man, who was shouting anti-gay remarks. Police said the man approached Daley's car and struck the side of Daley's neck. Daley's girlfriend, who was delivering papers with him, called police.

ALCOHOL INDUCED CRIME RAISED BY MORE THAN A FIFTH

By Alison White

Round-the-clock drinking has been hailed as a significant factor which led to an almost 10 per cent rise in crime across Kent, England.

Overall there were 1,149 violent crime offences reported between October and December last year, an increase of 17.3 per cent, when compared to the same period in 2004.

A jump in the reporting of hate crime and domestic violence has been hailed a success by police, who say these crimes are often under-reported. Kent Police has been working in communities to encourage people from minority groups and domestic violence victims to come forward.

Offences classed as lower level violence, including harassment and those resulting in little or no injury, account for 88.2 per cent of the increase in violent crime.

PARENTS CAUSED HATE CRIMES

By Matt O'Connor

In an unemotional voice, Deona Williams recounted Monday how she cried hysterically and begged for her life as three skinheads cornered her one summer night in 2002, shouted racial epithets and held a knife to her throat.

"I was so scared," said Deona, an African-American who was 14 and about to start high school when the assault took place in Fox Lake. "I was thinking either they're going to kill me or try to rape me."

The testimony came at a federal trial at which the only issue for the all-woman jury to decide is how much in monetary damages should be awarded to Deona, now 17, and her family. A judge already has found the three white defendants legally liable for their actions.

Two of the defendants, Harley Hermes and Michael Canlas, portrayed themselves in court Monday as changed young men who regretted their conduct. "I've grown up a lot since this incident," Canlas, who has no lawyer, said in a brief opening statement. The third defendant, Shaun Derifield, didn't show up for the trial.

Hermes and his grandmother, Kittye Hermes of Glenview, both testified about how his childhood was chaotic because both his natural mother and stepmother were drug addicts. He was kicked out of his home when he was 12, he said.

LINEBACKER ILLEGALLY FACEMASKED

The man charged with assaulting Miami Dolphins linebacker Jason Taylor faces hate crime charges, police said.

Redmond Charles Burns, 24, allegedly used racial epithets and yelled obscenities at Taylor, who is black, during an alleged highway confrontation Sunday night. Taylor told police that Burns grabbed his shirt, ripping it in several places, and suffered a ‘‘minor laceration'' on a forearm from a metal object Burns allegedly used to attack him.

Taylor, who refused medical treatment, issued a statement from Tampa this morning. Taylor followed him and dialed 911, but lost track of the truck somewhere near a trailer park in Davie.

Police said Burns punched and kicked the officer who tried to handcuff him. When he tried to kick out the window of the police car, an officer sprayed him twice in the face with pepper spray. Then he was taken to the Broward County Jail.

HE MOVED TO AVOID VIOLENCE, BUT VIOLENCE FOUND HIM

Jonathan Brown, Jason Bennetto and Oliver Duff

Christopher Alaneme left London 18 months ago to escape the violence of the big city and pursue a new life in a quiet coastal town. But the 18-year-old's name has become the latest addition to the growing list of victims of racist violence in Britain.

Christopher, whose parents are from Nigeria, was stabbed to death in Sheerness, Kent, apparently as he sought to protect his friend, a 14-year-old white boy. Christopher knew he would stand out as just one of a handful of black people living in the town at the mouth of the river Medway. But for the loyal band of friends, nearly all of them white, whom he came to know in this time, he stood out for entirely different reasons.

According to Christopher's former girlfriend Danielle Price, his assailants had shouted "nigger". But other sources believe the exchange was less explicit. "Someone said 'he's a big one, he stands out doesn't he?' Another said something about a 'big black lad' - that was the only reference to his colour.

Police have arrested two men and have put out an appeal for the arrest of three further suspects. The three white men are understood to have been identified from surveillance cameras in Sheerness and are believed to be in hiding in London.

Last year there were more than 59,000 racist incidents reported to the police, a rise of 12 per cent on the previous year. But the true scale of the problem is far higher. The British Crime Survey estimates that there are more than 200,000 racially motivated incidents every year.

REDUCTION IN HATE CRIMES GOAL MISSED

Mark Townsend and Jamie Doward

Key targets to reduce the number of hate crimes that do not lead to a conviction have been missed this year, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service has admitted.

Ken Macdonald, director of the CPS had given the CPS a goal of lowering the proportion of hate crimes that do not lead to a conviction to 36 per cent. But in a speech to the crime reduction charity Nacro, Macdonald said they were still 2 per cent - 1,180 more hate crimes - above target.

New CPS figures reveal a rise to 59,250 reported hate crimes last year compared with 41,937 crimes for 2004 and 2005.

BELGIUM PROSECUTES ANTI IMMIGRATION RACIST

The leader of the Wallonian extreme-right party Front National, in Belgium, Daniel Féret, was convicted of inciting race hatred on Tuesday.

The Francophone politician was also banned for running for election for the next 10 years. Féret was found guilty of inciting race hatred via election policies and party manifestos.

If the leader of the Front National party cannot serve out the community work order, he will be forced to spend 10 months in jail.

The prosecution had said according to Front National, society's problems — such as crime, unemployment and social, political and economic crises — would be solved by cracking down on immigrants.

RACIALLY AND RELIGIOUSLY PRIVILEGED

By Brenda Norrell

The Southern Poverty Law Center said the leader of the anti-immigration group Border Guardians has secretly urged the nation's largest neo-Nazi group of white supremacists to launch a campaign of violence against undocumented workers.

The Southern Poverty Law Center released the Intelligence Report on hate groups, which states that Laine Lawless of the Border Guardians has called for violence against undocumented workers.

Lawless sent an e-mail dated April 3, to Mark Martin, SS commander of the Western Ohio unit of the National Socialist Movement, according to Susy Buchanan and David Holthouse of the Intelligence Report.

Lawless, an original member of Chris Simcox's vigilante militia before it became the Minuteman Project in early 2005, detailed 11 suggestions for ways to harass and terrorize undocumented immigrants, including robbery and ''beating up illegals'' as they leave their work place, the report states.

Lawless also said, ''Discourage Spanish-speaking children from going to school. Be creative. She also encouraged threatening migrants with being shot.

The Report contacted Lawless for comment, sending her copies of her own e-mails that included their original headers, as she requested. But after receiving the copies, Lawless refused to talk.

Lawless, the former high priestess of Sisterhood of the Moon, a lesbian pagan organization, has been heavily involved in anti-immigration extremism since 2004, when she joined Simcox's Civil Homeland Defense outfit, as it was then called.

Like Lawless, Martin would not comment for this story. But he did offer this tagline when he forwarded Lawless’ suggested tactics to other neo-Nazis: "The information contained in this email is Racially and Religiously privileged and confidential. It is intended for specific Aryan recipients only."

NO COMMENT ON LIE DETECTOR TEST

By Brad Edwards

It is alleged that Jason Burns was grabbed, punched, and called slurs outside the library. "Hey look! There's the faggot that speaks in classes," recalls Burns of the incident.

Burns says he was able to break free and run for his car after being punched a number of times. "They didn't chase me, but said, 'Yeah. Go ahead and run fag...we'll get you anyways," Burns told 24 Hour News 8.

Burns, a Hope College senior, speaks about homophobia and hate crimes on campus. He decided to go to police after speaking with a Dean and a number of professors.

Police have now asked him to take a lie detector test. He initially agreed, but was later advised not to do so.

24 Hour News 8 learned it is actually a crime - a misdemeanor - for a “law enforcement officer” to ask an alleged victim of a sex crime to take a polygraph. But there is no law or rule when it comes to alleged hate crimes.

Holland Police would not talk to 24 Hour News 8 on camera, but said in a statement: "It's not a common procedure to ask a victim for a polygraph. We are working on this case assuming the allegations made in this case are true."

DEATH BY CHANCE

Three men were in custody in connection with the alleged racially motivated murder of a black teenager.

Moments before the attack on Christopher, at around midnight, his friend, a 29-year-old local white man, was stabbed, and remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital

The three men in custody have been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Two of them - aged 26 and 29 - walked into separate London police stations with their solicitors earlier and were being taken to Kent for questioning. The third was arrested in the Maidstone area on Sunday. A fourth man arrested shortly after the incident has been released on bail pending further inquiries.

Christopher's ex-girlfriend, Danielle Price, has revealed that the teenager was only in the High Street in Sheerness where he was attacked by "chance".

HATE CRIMES AND GANGS IN LAS VEGAS (Crips Gang - Part 2)

by Lindsay Patterson

According to a police report released on Tuesday, four suspects and one juvenile all admit to their role in the beating of an MGM Grand employee. Although no on has been charged with a hate crime, police are now saying that the beatings may be racially motivated with a possible gang connection. Police say they found items in some of the suspect's homes that suggest gang activity.

As police continue their investigation, seven arrests have been made in response to the April 15 attack outside of the MGM Grand.

The police report asked if it was for fun. The suspects stated no. They could give me no legitimate reason other than that I could figure that this is a hate crime."

NINETY YEARS LATER

By Emily Ingram

Community Race Relations Coalition members are one step closer to getting what they want in Waco — public acknowledgment for past injustices.

The CRRC’s lynching issue task force finalized a resolution in an emergency meeting Monday night apologizing for past lynchings and hate crimes in McLennan County, including the infamous Jesse Washington lynching that took place on the town square nearly 90 years ago.

“I’ve . . . heard ‘I can’t apologize for something I didn’t do,’ ” CRRC member Joe Nesbitt said. “That’s not true. You can. This isn’t an apology as an individual. This is an apology as a community.”

WHATEVER MAKES THAT COMMUNITY UNCOMFORTABLE

By Sara Israelsen

A man beaten with a baseball bat in Pleasant Grove while his assailant allegedly taunted him about his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints might be a test case for hate-crime prosecution under Utah's revised law.

During the 2006 legislative session, Utah legislators passed a bill to give prosecutors and courts the ability to punish hate crimes. The new law requires that the public harm caused by a hate-crime-type offense be considered during the sentencing phase, including the "degree to which the offense is likely to incite community unrest or cause members of the community to reasonably fear for their physical safety," according to wording in the bill.

The law, however, does not name protected categories such as race, religion or sexual orientation. The new law revises a 1992 hate-crimes law, which prosecutors have called unenforceable because it required them to prove that someone tried to deprive a victim of constitutional rights — in addition to an intent to intimidate or terrorize.

DONNA STREET CRIPS GANG IN CHAINS (Crips Gang - Part 1)

We're learning more about a mob that went on a violent rampage more than a week ago. News 3 has obtained an arrest report which paints a graphic picture of intentional attacks.

One investigator writes, "they could be linked as one hate crime, all the victims, were white." Investigators also found that at least one of the teens has ties to the Donna Street Crips Gang.

According to his arrest report, Smith and his friends had just been at a party when they went to the MGM and got into a fight with a worker. The teen also tells police he was at the convenience store robbery and helped attack people near there. From there the mob went to a local park where a person was shot. All this happened in less than 72 hours.

Last week, police arrested 18-year-old Daryle Williams a senior at Mojave High School, another juvenile, and Demarcus Smith, who appeared in court Tuesday. Smith is a star basketball player with a nearly perfect grade point average.

All seven teens face a number of charges including robbery, burglary, and battery. And, according to the arrest report, we could see more people arrested in connection to this case. Metro also arrested two girls ages 15 and 16.

police have arrested seven teens in connection with the beating. On Monday, police arrested 18-year-old As'Ryen Brown, a star athlete at Cimarron-Memorial, and Avery Slocome, a senior at Canyon Springs.

TWENTY FIVE YEARS TO THINK ABOUT IT

A Brooklyn man convicted of a hate crime for the brutal beating of a gay neighbor was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison.

Steven Pomie, a suspected street gang member, was convicted by a jury last month of first-degree assault and assault as a hate crime for the June 9, 2005, attack on Dwan Prince. He received the maximum, 25 years on each charge, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Police said witnesses told them that Pomie was walking down the street in a pink tank top that belonged to his girlfriend when he noticed Prince staring at him.

Investigators said Prince responded by saying something that enraged Pomie, who then began beating him. Police said Pomie had an extensive arrest record and was a suspected member of the Crips street gang

HATE CRIMES MODELED ON ECONOMIC THEORY

Harvard professor Edward Glaeser's new study “the political economy of hatred” demonstrate to us how politicians – “the entrepreneurs of hate” – spread hate-creating stories to discredit opponents whose policies benefit an out-group.

If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. People who hear these stories think they might be true and will investigate those stories only if there are private benefits from learning the truth.

The central prediction of Professor Glaeser’s model is that hatred will be spread against poor minorities by anti-redistribution candidates and spread against rich minorities by pro-redistribution candidates. It is always cheaper and more convenient to refute your opponents by spreading hatred.

Hitler, in an attempt to discredit socialist, preferred to cite the high percentage of intellectuals of Jewish origin among social publicists as proof of its subversion. Galeser attributes the tragedy of Jewish to the natural law that hatred is particularly likely to spread against groups that are politically relevant and socially isolated.

LESS CRIME, MORE REPORTING

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced tougher sentences for offences motivated by hatred of the victim’s sexual orientation (this must now be taken into account by the sentencing court as an aggravating factor, in addition to race or religious hate motivation).

Homophobic violence has apparently risen by 8.5% in the capital, while overall crime has fallen by 4.3%.

However, the MPS says the increase is not necessarily illustrating more attacks, but instead that more victims are coming forward to report their attacks.

WE DIDN'T DO IT

Two German men suspected of brutally beating a black German of Ethiopian origin in a racist assault Sunday denied the attack when questioned Friday by the federal court in Karlsruhe.

Both insist they have nothing to do with the crime and are asserting alibis," said federal prosecutor Kay Nehm

But there was compelling evidence against them, Nehm said, adding that traces of blood found on a broken bottle at the scene did not come from the victim, who has been in critical condition in hospital. He said a witness to the attack would also link the two men, 29 and 30, to the crime.

LOOKING AT BIAS IN EDUCATION

By Ron Kampeas

Congress came a step closer to a mechanism that would monitor how Middle East Studies departments spend federal money, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an advisory body, found that anti-Israeli activism could engender a hostile atmosphere for Jews on campus.

Longstanding complaints from the Jewish community that many college faculties nurture hostility to Israel instead of scholarship were reinforced after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A number of academics argued that anti-Israel monomania in Middle East departments helped blind the U.S. policy establishment to the emerging Islamist threat.

A JTA investigative series last year found that several of the Middle East Studies centers with anti-Israel and anti-Western agendas have extended their biases even beyond the college campus, delving into public education and developing curricula for middle- and high-school students.

IRAN'S STATE MURDER OF GAYS

The Iranian government is executing gay and bisexual men under the cover of rape and kidnapping charges, according to a major new investigation by Simon Forbes of the UK-based gay and lesbian human rights group OutRage!

It is the first document in a series of documents that will be published by OutRage! in the coming weeks and months. These documents expose the state-sanctioned torture and murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people by the Iranian clerical regime.

“Mr Forbes's pioneering investigation is based on information from credible, verified sources inside Iran. It provides clear evidence of homophobic honour killings, arrests, torture and executions,” said OutRage! spokesperson Peter Tatchell.

Until Iran's anti-gay laws are repealed, the UK, EU and US should permanently halt the deportation of lesbian and gay Iranians. So long as Iran criminalises same-sex relations, it will not be safe for gay people to return to Iran

US ATTORNEYS CONSIDERING CHARGES AGAINST MILWAUKEE POLICE CHIEF (Jude - Part 2)

Communities in Milwaukee are continuing to voice outrage over an all-white jury's decision to acquit three white police officers charged with brutally beating an African-American man. U.S. attorneys are now considering filing federal charges against the officers and Milwaukee's Chief of Police has launched an internal investigation.

U.S. attorneys are now considering filing federal charges against the officers and Milwaukee's Chief of Police has launched an internal investigation

The victim, Frank Jude, was nearly killed in October 2004 when he was beaten at a party by a group of off-duty police officers, all of whom are white. According to news accounts, they accused Jude of stealing the wallet and badge of one of the officers. As many as 15 officers surrounded Jude and viciously beat him.

Also Tuesday, Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced that starting Monday, anyone injured by police while being arrested in Milwaukee County will be interviewed by the district attorney's office within hours, not days, as is the current practice. Led by Milwaukee civil rights pioneer Vel Phillips, marchers gathered at the Milwaukee County Courthouse before proceeding along N. 9th St. and Wisconsin Ave. to the Federal Courthouse. "We want to let people know Milwaukee is not really the Selma of the North. . . . This sends a message to a lot of people," Phillips said.

At the start of the march, sheriff's deputies lined the courthouse steps, while others were mounted on horseback. Some also had dogs. "I was appalled when I saw the dogs," said Tim Frazer, 44, a legal assistant at a law firm. "I don't think it's necessary."

Dennis Hayes, national NAACP general counsel, told reporters that the meeting addressed the handling of the Jude investigation, ensuring racially proportionate jury representation, and touched on racial disparities in the judicial system. He also said the NAACP plans to help form a community network to address instances of police brutality.

A COWARD OR JEALOUS AND STILL A JUNKIE

The suspect in Stephen Long's murder has a long history of violent criminal offences, including an unprovoked beating of a London woman because she was a lesbian.

Christopher Michael Broughton has been in and out of jail for an array of criminal convictions, such as possession of a drug for the purpose of trafficking and assault

In 2002, he committed a "hate crime" that left a lesbian physically and emotionally scarred. Broughton was sentenced to three years in prison for what the judge called a "cowardly" attack on Shannon McLellan outside a chip wagon Aug. 17, 2002.

As they waited, Broughton made remarks about "faggots and lesbians" and said the women should perform a sex act on him. Police arrested Broughton and found 10 small packages of cocaine in his pocket

VICTIMIZED IN EAST GERMANY TRAM STOP

A black German citizen of Ethiopian descent has been beaten into a coma by two unknown assailants who called him "nigger" in an unprovoked attack that has reawakened concern about racist violence in eastern Germany.

The man, named only as Ermyas Mulugeta, a scientist, working at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Borniman has been living in Germany since 1987, was waiting for a tram at four o'clock in the morning on Easter Sunday in Potsdam, near Berlin, when two people approached him and shouted "nigger" at him. When he objected, they attacked him with a bottle and beat him to the ground.

As the victim was using his cell phone talking to his wife the phone recording was played at a news conference on Monday. On it, Ermyas can be heard asking "Why are you calling me pig?" A voice says: "Beat it you stupid nigger." Ermyas says: "Why are you calling me nigger?". A high-pitched voice says: "Beat it you stupid pig!" Then a voice says: "We'll finish you, you nigger!"

Potsdam's chief of police, Bruno Küppert, said it was the worst racist attack in Potsdam since unification with the west in 1990.

In 2004 alone, the Bundesverfassungsschutz recorded 776 cases of violent crime "with right-wing political motivation," up from 759 in 2003. Among them were 640 cases of physical assault resulting in injury, and six attempted murders but no actual murders.

MORE DEAD IN ATTACKS ON ROMA

By Steve Gutterman

An attacker with a hunting rifle shot and killed two Gypsies in the northwestern region of Pskov, where racists have called for violence against Roma people, a police official said, days after an attack on a Roma camp in the southern region of Volgograd left two people dead.

The assailant opened fire Sunday in the home of two Gypsy brothers, aged 26 and 27, in the village of Kuznetsovka, regional Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Voronetsky said. Both men died at a hospital.

A 23-year-old suspect was arrested, he said.

GYPSIES ARE HATE CRIMES TARGET

Police in Russia's Volgograd region have arrested three men suspected of participating in an attack in a Roma camp that left two people dead.

The three suspects, aged 18-20, are allegedly part of a gang of skinheads that attacked residents of the camp late on April 13, beating them with metal bars.

In addition to the two deaths, an elderly woman and a teenage girl were hospitalized with serious injuries.

Russia has seen a rise in racially motivated violence, with a series of recent attacks on immigrants and ethnic minorities.

TWO COUNTS OF BATTERY WITH A HATE CRIME ENHANCER

A judge ruled Thursday that a 42-year-old white man from Waldo will stand trial on hate-crime charges for his alleged role in an assault on a black man in Random Lake.

Jeffrey A. "Pollock" Wolski faces two counts of battery, one with a felony hate-crime penalty enhancer, the other a misdemeanor.

Gary T. Maas, 45, of Random Lake, and Oliver L. Kostuch, 38, of the Town of Holland, also were charged with battery with a hate-crime penalty enhancer for the alleged incident. A jury acquitted Kostuch in August and the charge against Maas was dismissed later that month.

Marvin Guy, 30, testified in court last year that patrons at the Eagle's Nest, 201 Carroll St., yelled racial slurs at him before, during and after the alleged assault around 2 a.m. on April 2, 2005.

CRIME IS REPORTED THREE MONTHS EARLIER IN VIRGINIA

The Virginia State Police “Crime in Virginia” 2005 report is complete and now available to the public through the state police Web site. The 136-page document gives precise rates and occurrences for all crimes committed throughout Virginia last year.

The report breaks down crimes by offense, arrest data and jurisdiction. For example, Virginia experienced noticeable decreases in vehicle thefts, hate crimes and non-forcible sex offenses last year, according to the report.

The report breaks down the crime in categories. Group A for serious offenses like homicide and burglary; and Group B, less serious offenses including trespassing and disorderly conduct.

In 2005, there were more than 120,000 Group A arrests and over 180,000 Group B arrests. In 2004, there were 119,334 Group A arrests reported by contributing agencies and 184,000 Group B arrests reported.

"This report was completed three months ahead of previous years which speaks to its importance, as well as the effectiveness of our CJIS Division,” said Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Superintendent of the Virginia State Police.

SHE WASN'T HAPPY AT SCHOOL

By Barbara Bell

A former student at Trinity International University in Bannockburn accused of sending anonymous threatening letters to minority students last year was convicted Thursday of felony disorderly conduct and ordered into counseling.

Alicia Hardin, 20, of Chicago was originally charged with a hate crime, a more serious offense, said Lake County Assistant State's Atty. George Strickland. But the charge was reduced through a plea agreement because Hardin was young and had no prior criminal record, he said.

Associate Judge John Phillips placed Hardin, who is African-American, on two years' probation and ordered her to attend counseling and perform 200 hours of public service. She also was ordered not to have any contact with the college and pay $2,000 in restitution.

Police have said that Hardin, who was not happy at Trinity, was trying to convince her parents that the school was too dangerous for her.

POLITICS TRUMPS HATE CRIME LAWS

By Anthony Man

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said Tuesday a surge in reports of anti-Semitic incidents in the state shows the need for a broad federal law to combat hate crimes.

Nelson said he was troubled by what he heard during a briefing from Florida leaders of the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County

The campaign of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Longboat Key, who is challenging Nelson for re-election, said Harris opposes the specific legislation Nelson favors.

MEDIA AND WHITE BOYS

Several white members of Duke University’s lacrosse team are accused of raping and sodomizing two black women and subjecting them to racist abuse. The way this case has been handled by mainstream media is really indicative of just how deep racial stereotypes run in this country.

Rush Limbaugh called the rape victim “a ho” during the March 31 broadcast of his national syndicated radio program.

Many media outlets make a point of referring to the victim as a “stripper” or “exotic dancer,” while framing the allegations of racist verbal abuse as mere race “issues” or “tensions.” Many outlets dare ask if this case has anything to do with race at all, as if sexual violence can ever be separated from systemic oppression.

Why in this Duke case, are we not hearing the media call the alleged attackers to as “animals,” or “a trio of dogs?” Why do we not hear the phrase “allegedly preyed upon” a woman? Is rape somehow less savage or animalistic when committed by white lacrosse players?

NOT SO FRIENDLY GAY TOURIST DESTINATION

St. Maarten, in the Caribbean, Police have appealed to the public for help in the investigation into an attack on two CBS News journalists who were beaten with tire irons outside a bar on the Dutch side of this Caribbean island in what the victims described as a hate crime.

Dick Jefferson, 51, and Ryan Smith, 25, both journalists for CBS, were outside a bar with several friends early Thursday morning when three men attacked them and started hitting them with tire irons.

Jefferson, who lives in New York and is a senior broadcast producer for the CBS Evening News, said the attackers yelled anti-gay slurs at his friends earlier in the evening.

Jefferson faulted St. Maarten authorities for not collecting witness testimony on the night of the crime or pursuing other leads. "The police were and are still trying to ignore this situation," he said from the Miami hospital where Smith was being treated.

A GRATUITOUS SLUR ENDS UP IN MURDER

The police have arrested four Harlem teenagers and charged them with the robbery and murder of a New York University student who died earlier this month after he was chased onto 125th Street and hit by a car.

Although law enforcement officials had been investigating the incident as a possible bias crime, citing an anonymous witness who said he heard one of the attackers, who were black, yell, "Get the white guy," they determined that the assault on the student, Broderick J. Hehman, was instead a robbery gone awry.

The suspects, two 13-year-olds and two 15-year-olds, will be charged as adults, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office. They face nine years to life if convicted.

Inspector Michael Osgood, the commanding officer of the Police Department's Hate Crimes Unit, said: "The purpose was to take his money, not to assault him because of his identity," he said, adding that although one of the attackers may have used racist language during the chase, that in itself did not make the incident a bias crime. "It was a gratuitous slur.

Norman Siegal, a civil rights lawyer and former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, expressed disappointment at the department's decision not to treat Mr. Hehman's death as a bias attack. He said he thought the police were shying away from the hate-crime designation for political reasons.

"They don't want to have increased racial tension, racial divisiveness and violence," he said. "They'd rather ignore what's painfully real, which is that there are still racial tensions in this town."

AFTER 500 HOURS FOR GAY BASHING YOU CAN CARRY A GUN

By Jason Auslander

The probation sentences given this week to three young Santa Fe men who pleaded guilty in connection with a gay-bashing incident are no slap on the wrist, defense attorneys said.

Paul Montoya, 21, Joseph Cano, 19, and Jonathan Valdez, 21, were sentenced to three years of "zero-tolerance" probation for pleading guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery with great bodily harm.

State District Judge Michael Vigil granted the three men deferred sentences, meaning that if they satisfactorily complete the probation period, the charges will be dismissed, and they will regain the rights they lost by pleading guilty to a felony, such as the right to vote or carry a gun.

"They can't have a glass of wine," West, the Defense lawyer for the two men, said. "If (a probation officer) comes over, and they're having a glass of wine with their steak, they're revoked."

Vigil also sentenced the men to perform 500 hours of community service, a number Marlowe, West and Stephen Aarons, Cano's attorney, said was the highest they'd ever heard. "That is extraordinary," West said. "That's like working for 10 solid weeks."

FRUSTRATIONS

Others wanted to know what counts as a hate crime, while still others told of their frustration at being regarded with suspicion because they are Sikh or Muslim.

About 100 people turned out Saturday for a town hall meeting organized by the FBI’s Los Angeles field office and its 2-year-old multicultural advisory committee. “It’s an avenue for communication,” FBI Special Agent M. Catherine Viray said in an interview. “There are always going to be disagreements, but now there is a way to air them.”

Danny Bundakji, who identified himself as a chaplain for both the Garden Grove Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, described his surprise when, en route to a conference in the Middle East a month ago, he was detained for an hour and a half by airline representatives because his name turned up on a list of suspicious travelers. Upon his return, he said, he was met by two Homeland Security officers.

The advisory committee is comprised of 20 community organizations, including the Council of Pakistan American Affairs, the Free Muslims Coalition, the L.A. Latino Muslim Association and the Sikh Society.

FALLING OUT BRINGS CROSS BURNING

By Jim Haley

Joseph Lin of Lynnwood falsely told a grand jury he wasn't involved in a cross burning.

Joseph Lin, 19, lied to the grand jury about participating in a cross burning in the yard of an Edmonds family in July 2004, the U.S. attorney's office said.

According to court records, another defendant in the case, Colin Patrick Sargent, had a falling out with a young man who lived in the Edmonds home. Somebody else suggested the cross burning. Sargent, 19, of Edmonds was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for a violating the victim's civil rights.

Six other young men assisted in the cross burning, documents said, including Lin and Jayson Russell, 19, of Snohomish

Miyake called it a "universal symbol of racial hatred" that is disturbing to the larger community, especially racial minorities. Lying to the grand jury about the crime goes to the very foundation of the criminal justice system.

FRIEND'S HATE TURNS ON FRIEND

Police are investigating a vicious attack on a gay man in downtown Austin. The victim said his attacker befriended him last Friday night at Rain, a gay club.

"Basically after we had our last drink and great conversation, he made a move at me," the victim said. That's when he says Dougie, the driver, got out of the car, went over to the passenger side and starting wailing on him before he could get the word, "Stop," out of his month.

The screams rang through the streets and a neighbor woke up to someone banging down his door. The call came in as an aggravated assault, but the victim says it was more than that.

We do know hate crimes in Austin are on the rise. Last year there were 22 cases. That is the highest in three years. And so far this year there have been nine.

HATE IN PRISON IS A MICROCOSM OF SOCIETY

By Royson James

Two corrections officers say racist graffiti in the workplace, racial harassment, vile name-calling and death threats are part and parcel of daily life for black jail guards at the Don Jail and other Toronto jails.

They say 15 months of threats and bullying have created a poisoned and dangerous work environment for black corrections officers in Toronto detention centers. One of the officers behind the complaint is Dave Mitchell, a top-ranking black officer. Mitchell, as deputy superintendent

A note directed at him by name and obtained by the Star, contained a death threat, racial slurs and taunting.

"If this can happen to me, a high-ranking officer, imagine what is happening to the people in the detention centers," Mitchell told the Star yesterday. "I don't care if get fired, demoted, disciplined."

HATE FEEDS AT IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS

I doubt that the Committee on Diversity at Columbia University, in New York, can prevent any future hate crimes.

Six hate crimes in one academic year should make their existence not mundane but dire

On a campus where most of the students are seemingly of the same political affiliation, it is very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security. We are politically correct. We embrace the diversity of others. We all supposedly agree that gender, race, and sexuality don’t matter. Obviously, this is not the case.

Two students were arrested Ruggles Hall for allegedly committing a hate crime drawing graffiti of swastikas, racial epithets, and homophobic symbols on the walls.

Huma Farid ’06, who is Muslim and wears a head scarf, or hijab, was crossing the street by Lamont Library when a group of women called her a “filthy Jew-hater.”

Last spring, Galo Garcia III ’05 was punched as he was leaving a dance sponsored by the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA). The assailant also yelled racial epithets at Garcia.

According to Columbia junior Jennifer Oki, the president of the Black Students Organization, there have been other cases of racially-motivated vandalism at Columbia. “This is not an isolated incident, but rather it is part of a larger trend,” Oki said.

HATE CRIMES UP IN FLORIDA

The number of Anti-Semitic incidents reported in Florida increased for the fourth consecutive year, while similar reports declined nationally in 2005, according to an annual report released Wednesday

Most of the incidents were reported in South Florida - 134 cases in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties - while 65 incidents were reported elsewhere in the state, said Andrew Rosenkranz, the ADL's Florida regional director.

"I think we get more calls into South Florida, but you also have to wonder how many incidents occur when people don't call us," Rosenkranz said.

New York led the nation with 381 anti-Semitic incidents reported, according to the audit, followed by New Jersey with 266, California with 247 and Florida.

MAKE ME HATE

By Geoff Matthews

David Ahenakew, the former head of the Assembly of First Nations, spout some of the most outrageously racist remarks imaginable, and then blame a journalist for reporting them.

Ahenakew's lawyer was in court in Saskatchewan this week, arguing that his client's hate crime conviction should be overturned because his anti-Semitic remarks were never intended to be public.

So let's get this straight. In December 2002, Ahenakew was addressing a Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations conference when he remarked that Jews started World War II. Sitting in the audience that day was a reporter from a local newspaper, who asked Ahenakew what he meant by that remark.

And that's when all hell broke loose. "How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's going to take over, that's going to dominate?" Ahenakew asked.

Perhaps he thought that would be the end of it. But it wasn't. He lost his position with the Assembly of First Nations, was stripped of his Order of Canada and was fined $1,000 for a hate crime under the Criminal Code. That's the conviction his lawyer is trying to have overturned, arguing that his client was somehow goaded into making his remarks.

HATE HAS HISTORY TO LOOK FORWARD TO.

By Maveric Vu

A memorial service for a student — Thong Hy Huynh, 17, who was stabbed by a fellow student on campus on May 4, 1983 — was held at lunchtime Tuesday as part of Davis High’s annual Human Relations Week. Scott Halliday, 18, reminded those present how a “single conflict can escalate to tragedy.

On that fateful spring day 23 years ago, a group of white students began arguing with a group of Vietnamese students. James Pierman, 16, went to his car to grab a knife and used it to stab Huynh in the chest. The 17-year-old died at the scene.

“The tragedy of today is that it can happen anywhere and anytime,” said history teacher Don Winters. “It takes just one person, no matter how good the community is.”

Davis High junior Erin Han said circumstances have changed since the early 1980s. “Right now, it doesn’t affect me that much,” said Han, 17. “Racism and sexism isn’t that much of a problem here.” he added, “As an Asian I was … shocked to hear that a hate crime was directed toward us.”

HATE AND ASSIMILATION

By Hywel Trewyn

A Welsh pressure group's caravan was burned out by arsonists. The small touring caravan parked by a roundabout at Griffiths Crossing, near Caernarfon was destroyed in a blaze on Tuesday night.

It belonged to Welsh pressure group Cymuned and was sited prominently on private ground with the slogan "Speak our language". Cymuned chiefs claimed they were the victims of a "hate crime".

Cymuned chief executive Aran Jones said: "This vicious and dangerous attack shows the very real hatred that some people feel for our language and our separate identity and makes it clear how much more work is needed to educate people who choose to move to a Welsh-speaking area that there is a moral responsibility on them to make the effort to learn Welsh.

"This is the colonization that we talk about - people who are so violently opposed to our way of life. Hatred like this against our language and our way of life is something unfortunately only too real, and is clearly extremely dangerous.

EMBARRASSING A POSSIBLE PERPETRATOR

AN MP last night claimed North Wales Police is "embarrassing the people of Wales" with its investigation into allegations Prime Minister Tony Blair committed a "hate crime" seven years ago.

An inquiry was launched in October 2005 following claims Tony Blair allegedly shouted "the f***ing Welsh" as he watched the results from the Welsh Assembly on election night in 1999.

The Crown Prosecution Service advised the force not to proceed with the complaint within weeks of the inquiry coming to light.

THIS IS NOT A CRIME

For his whole life, Councilor Joe DeMedeiros struggled with whether to tell the public he is gay. He'd told some friends, his mother and a few close colleagues. But he'd never told the world.

On Tuesday, at an emotionally charged hate crime and homophobia forum where speaker after speaker shared stories of personal anguish, he stood and told the crowd that he is gay.

He said as a politician, community leader and gay man to stand aside and say nothing at the forum would have been dishonest. Still, it took him "about 18 tries" to muster the courage to speak, he said.

"It's a huge risk," he said of stating his sexual orientation so publicly. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I was nervous about the reaction."

HATE CRIMES UP IN CALIFORNIA

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in California increased for the third year in a row even as they declined nationwide, the Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday.

The ADL said there were 247 anti-Jewish incidents reported in California last year, up from 237 in 2004 and 180 in 2003. The figures were based on hate crime statistics and reports to ADL regional offices.

The reported incidents included both vandalism and harassment such as anti-Semitic slurs or hate mail. In one case, swastikas and the words "Hitler rules" were found painted on playground equipment at a Jewish preschool in Riverside County, the organization said.

But the ADL said the most serious threat to the Jewish community in Los Angeles was not even part of the statistics. It involved an alleged plot targeting military facilities and synagogues that authorities say they unraveled before violence could occur.

POLICE CHIEF WON'T TOLERATE INTOLERANCE

Springdale, Arkansas police are describing a weekend assault on an Hispanic teenager as a hate crime and say congressional debate over immigration laws may have stirred up some ill will toward minorities.

The Springdale High School student was attacked by three people go got out of a pickup truck and hit, pushed and cursed the boy and used racial slurs.

O'Kelley says the department will be more vigilant as the debate on immigration law continues.

Arkansas does not have a hate crimes law.

MUSLIM ATTACKED AT WORLD'S LARGEST FAITH BASED UNIVERSITY

Baylor University police are investigating a report of a Muslim student who said she was attacked on campus, officials said.

She is now recovering at her parents' house in Oklahoma but plans to return to Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university.

Baylor's interim vice president for student life, Dub Oliver said: "As a faith-based institution, Baylor is sensitive to, and very concerned about, the report of an assault involving ethnic or religious intolerance."

HATE CRIMES AND MINDLESS AREN'T EQUIVOCAL

By Cara Lovell

Vandals who targeted two religious centers in Redhill within hours of each other are being hunted by police. The mosque in Earlswood Road and Christ the King Church in Honeycrock Lane had windows broken.

Imam Habib, from Redhill Mosque, said it is the fourth time the building has been targeted.

The night before vandals launched stones at the windows of Christ the King Church. The two incidents are being linked.

These were mindless attacks against two separate religious establishments and hate crimes such as this are not acceptable.

YOU REALLY HAVE TO HURT TO BE HEARD

BY Rosalino Rossi

Toting signs reading "Does Someone Have to Die?'' and "We're Scared of School,'' kids rallied across the street from Kennedy School in the wake of a brutal beating last week that stunned the school

Even Jesse Ruiz, State Board of Education chairman, called the assault "disturbing'' and asked the board staff to examine the state's spin on a federal law meant to help students who are crime victims.

Interpretation of the "safe schools'' provisions of the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law is helping or hampering student transfers. Under the law, student victims of "violent crimes'' are entitled to immediate transfers.

Under the Illinois policy, it appears that a misdemeanor victim must suffer "great bodily harm'' to invoke such a transfer.

THE DEAD AREN'T IMMUNE

by Scott Roberts

As many as 200 headstones were discovered overturned at Park Lawn Cemetery in Etobicoke Sunday in an apparent act of random

Investigators were fingerprinting many of the stones in hopes of identifying suspects. There were no witnesses to the crime. There is nothing to indicate the incident constituted a hate crime, police said.

“I don’t know why anyone would do this,” said Staff Sgt. Glen Dewling. “I can’t explain it.”

IT'S ONLY A MOVIE, A PICTURE SHOW.

By Frank Scheck

The victim, Trey, one half of a loving gay couple living in a quiet suburban Dallas neighborhood. Trey's partner Robbie is convinced that the assailant was the new next-door neighbor, Chris, a vociferous homophobe who is the son of a Bible-thumping fundamentalist preacher.

When Robbie attempts to get the police involved, he becomes further dismayed by the obviously prejudicial attitudes of the investigating detective.

Although the performers do what they can with their stereotypical roles they ultimately are unable to lift the film beyond its positive yet simple message.

NEITHER DENIED NOR CONFIRMED HIDES HATE CRIME

Family members believe the present interest in Jermaine’s death by the media and the police “will soon die out” and Jermaine will become “just another statistic".

The badly beaten and bruised body of 24-year-old Jermaine Marlan Nestor was found at the Pigeon Island Causeway Saturday morning by an early morning jogger. Jermaine was discovered gagged and tied to a tree. There was a rope tied around his neck. The official cause of death was strangulation.

don’t know why anybody would want to take the life of my son.” Family and friends remember Jermaine as having a positive attitude towards life even if he was physically challenged. There are some who believe Jermaine was killed because of his sexual orientation.

Jermaine’s family however, have neither denied nor confirmed rumors that he was gay.

OVER EIGHTEEN, ANGRY AND FILLED WITH HATE

An allegedly racially motivated attack on a black man lands two Bend residents and one person from Canby behind bars for felony assault and intimidation

After exchanging insults with a couple on S.E. Third Street, police say 23-year-old Roger Post of Bend and two teenagers got out of their car and attacked 19-year-old Darryl Lindsey. The suspects fled before officers arrived, but witnesses got a license number, and all three were arrested at the home of the registered owner.

REPORTING HATE CRIME TO WEB SITE

By William Green, Political Correspondent

Race and religious hate crime is soaring in Yorkshire – and now accounts for nearly a tenth of all such offences committed in the whole of England and Wales.

Police in South Yorkshire said more victims of race crime were coming forward thanks to a third party reporting system introduced in the county.

Under the system, a victim can report the incident via a dedicated website without ever having to come face to face with a police officer. Hate crime reporting centers across the county staffed by partner agencies also offer another avenue for people to come forward.

DIFFERENT TIME, SAME CRIME

In an anti-German hate crime, E.A. Schimler, a language professor at Northland College, was taken from his room on the evening of March 31, 1918, by a mob of masked men to a lonely spot a half mile from Ashland, stripped of his clothing, covered with tar and feathers, and left to fend for himself.

Schimler, a U.S. citizen, had come to the U.S. when he was 14, graduated from Dartmouth College, and after teaching school in the U.S. had spent six years in Germany.

College authorities said there was no evidence of Professor Schimler being disloyal to America in either words or actions.

NO MR. INBETWEEN WITH HATE

By Giovana Dell'Orto, Associated Press Writer

A friendly dog on a leash, a small padlock on the front door, and dark towels over taped-up windows are all that stand between Luis Ortiz and his fear that burglars will again break into his dilapidated mobile home and beat him to within an inch of his life

The 43-year-old Mexican immigrant was beaten with a bat in his sleep one night last September. He suffered a broken jaw, his teeth were smashed and his hands were mangled.

The effort to help Tifton's illegal immigrants comes amid a debate on Capitol Hill — and in the streets across the country — over whether to crack down on the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants or help them become U.S. citizens.

IT'S ALWAYS THE FACTS THAT GET IN THE WAY

By Tom Jackson

In what the authorities described as a possible Nazi hate crime, a man wearing a gas mask broke into a woman's mobile home in this Tampa suburb early Thursday morning, slashed her face and arms, and fatally wounded a friend of her son by stabbing him in the neck.

The 45-year-old woman, Patricia Wells, who is white, told officers that she had been attacked because she dates a black man, the police said. A small compound occupied by neo-Nazis is next door to Ms. Wells's home, and she said members of the group had previously threatened to kill her and her boyfriend.

A former member of the group, David Dirolf, 21, said in an interview that he had heard members threaten Ms. Wells and her son on several occasions. Ms. Wells's son was a target because he is gay, Mr. Dirolf said, adding that he thought the 17-year-old boy who was stabbed had been mistaken for the son, who was not home.

That victim, Kristofer Guy King, died Friday afternoon. Ms. Wells was treated at a hospital and released.

"It was a hate crime," Wells told reporters Friday, with bandages on her left arm and face, proof of her harrowing encounter early Thursday with, she says, a knife-wielding man in a gas mask. Killed in the same episode was 17-year-old Kristofer King, a friend of Wells' son who was overnighting in the mobile home on Teak Street.

Still, as of Monday afternoon, no one had been charged in the attack, although no less than the New York Times headlined its Saturday article covering the event, "Hate Crime by a Neo-Nazi Is Suspected in Stabbings."

Under our Constitution, even when authorities know they have a ticking time bomb on their hands, sometimes they have to wait for the explosion.

As we wait for the other shoe to drop, the neo-Nazi connection in this tragedy remains merely interesting and not at all actionable.

FROM SLAVE SHIPS TO THE BACK OF THE BUS

Madison police arrested a man on a hate crime charge after he allegedly threatened to shoot several teenage African-American boys on a Metro bus.

Police spokesman Howard Payne said the incident happened on Buick Street at about 7:20 p.m. when police were called to the bus to confront a middle-age man who was reportedly armed. Bus riders pointed out Michael L. Frisch, 54, at the back of the bus.

Several 15- and 16-year-old boys told officers that Frisch said he was armed and threatened them, also telling them to "Go back where you came from."

FENCES MAKE FOR GOOD NEIGHBORS

A Brooklyn man faces up to 25 years in prison after being convicted of a hate crime for the brutal beating of a gay man last year.

Steven Pomie, 23, was convicted by a jury Monday of first-degree assault and assault as a hate crime for the June 9, 2005, attack on Dwan Prince, District Attorney Charles Hynes said. Pomie is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24.

Authorities said Pomie attacked the victim as Prince walked home, shouting anti-gay slurs as he beat him unconscious and kicked him in the head. The attack put Prince into a coma for some time.

When Prince testified against his assailant he said he still lived in terror and was nervous about appearing in court to face Pomie. Prince told the court the last thing he remembers before waking up in a hospital paralyzed is saying goodbye to his brother who had been visiting him at his apartment.

Prince said that as a result of the attack he has difficulty speaking, and is unable to control trembling in his limbs caused by nerve damage.

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS CHANGE

by Carl Starrett

Hate Crime Statute of Limitations: Civil Code § 52 and California Code of Civil Procedure § 338 were amended to extend the statute of limitations for civil actions based on hate crimes from one year to three years.

Although this new law does not directly apply to employment claims, it will affect California businesses as it is part of The Civil Rights Act of 2005.

HATE IS MEANT TO BE ASTONISHING

A Chester County, Philadelphia, playground made for kids with special needs is hit by vandals who painted slurs on all its equipment

Police said every piece of equipment at the park had some sort of racial, pornographic or slur against the disabled.

The playground was the county's first handicapped accessible public playground.

The graffiti was mostly cleaned up by volunteers by Monday afternoon. It included Swastikas, satanic messages and obscene pictures

HATE CRIMES MAKE FOR GOOD TV

The hit reality TV show Home Makeovers with Ty Pennington targets families who suffer from diseases or victims of hate crimes and exploits their tragedy to showcase their home upgrades with products from well known corporations.

In an e-mail forwarded from Charisse Simonian earlier this month to network affiliates details the exact kind of tragedies and rare illnesses being sought by the Top 20 show.

The affiliates were requested to help in locating prospective families for the series,

Currently, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is in the midst of four shows attempting to help communities in the path of Hurricane Katrina.

SUCH A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD

On March 21st, 26-year old Stephen Lauderback was arraigned in 17th District Court in Redford, Michigan, on charges of arson, malicious destruction of property, assault with a dangerous weapon and ethnic intimidation

The incident occurred over a two-day period, March 7 and 8, when Lauderback entered a BP gas station at the corner of 5 Mile Rd. and Beech Daly, sometime after 3:00 pm and purchased a newspaper.

He said, 'You know what? For each American that's killed in Iraq, we should torture ten of you guys,' " Obaid said, adding that Lauderback pulled a knife on two employees who followed him outside the building.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Police Sgt. David Kutek said the suspect came back the next day at 1:30 pm, brandished a steel pipe and steel rod, and started hitting merchandise, displays and an employee.

When the police came, they came and they had to taser him, twice, because he wanted to hit the police.

Southeastern Michigan has seen numerous hate crimes occur recently, including several cross burnings in the downriver area and anti-Jewish graffiti at the Bryant Middle School in Dearborn.

THIS ISN'T NATURAL

Cross burnings in Trenton and Dearborn; racist threats in Taylor, Troy and Warren; assaults on gay men in Pontiac

The more talking we did about the incidents, the more we agreed: It just wasn't natural," said Betsy Kellman, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League of Michigan.

The conference will concentrate on segregation, hate crimes and affirmative action. Linda Parker, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, said there is "profound segregation in our residential communities

VANDALISM ISN'T A SLOGAN

By Genevive Bookwalter

In light of escalating vandalism and hate crimes, religious leaders at UC Santa Cruz are calling for action.

"We'd like to have open dialogue about the things people are concerned about," said Pat Puder with Lutheran Campus Ministry. "Vandalism isn't really communication."

Spray-painted swastikas, derogatory slogans and destruction of campus property have members of the University Religious Council, which embraces all faiths, speaking out for a renewed sense of community and spiritual fulfillment.

The hate crimes and vandalism include the spray painting of five Santa Cruz churches, a Christian bookstore and the historic Santa Cruz Mission Adobe with swastikas and offensive slogans last month. Last week at UCSC's Porter College, 15 security card readers were destroyed at various dorm entrances. The growing vandalism list also cites slashed tires, broken doors and smashed windows.

A VARIETY OF REASONS TO EXCUSE HATE

A man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing a retired immigration agent who was found with a slur against gays written on his back.

Gregory Michael Pisarcik was convicted of first-degree murder last November for the 2002 slaying of 53-year-old Narciso Leggs Jr.

Leggs' sister, Paula McClain, told the judge her brother would have helped Pisarcik by giving him money -- if robbery was the motive. If Mr. Pisarcik had really known what kind of person my brother Narciso was, he could not have been able to murder my brother," she testified.

Pisarcik told authorities he had been raped by a man when he was 12 and had taken drugs for years to help ease the painful memories of that incident, according to his probation report.

"You're an angry young man for a variety of reasons," Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel told Pisarcik at the sentencing.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED REPORTS O'NEIL AS UNDRAFTABLE

Reported back in December 11, 2005 Colorado senior Clint O’Neal has been suspended from the football team indefinitely and cross country runner Jackie Zeigle has left the squad, according to the CU athletic department.

Both face charges stemming from e-mails sent from O’Neal’s account earlier this month that were filled with racial slurs and threats of violence toward two CU cross country athletes.

O’Neal and Zeigle, who are romantically linked, were charged recently with harassment, a misdemeanor that carries a minimum punishment of a $50 fine, and a maximum punishment of $750 and six months in jail, if convicted.

A former University of Colorado cross-country track runner agreed through a plea bargain through her attorney and on Thursday pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor racial intimidation charge and was sentenced to work four days with a jail crew and 40 hours community service.

A police report said Zeigle and former CU football player Clint O'Neal, who are both white, sent the typo-filled message to Greg Castro, a Hispanic cross-country runner. It called Castro a "river rat" and "border hopper" and "bean eating peace of (expletive)."

According to a story in the Colorado Daily, Zeigle took responsibility for writing the e-mails, but said that O’Neal directed her to log onto O’Neal’s account and write the e-mails intended to intimidate the two fellow student-athletes.

The message suggested O'Neal would drag Castro behind his car, an apparent reference to the 1998 dragging death in Texas of James Byrd Jr., a black man.

Police said the message was sent from O'Neal's account on an Internet portal for college students. O'Neal, who was charged in the case, told the court two months later, in February, he had nothing to do with the message. He is scheduled for trial May 16.

As far as Sports Illustrated ranks O'Neal, waiting for the football draft, A hard-working blocker with marginal upside, O'Neal has potential to back-up in the NFL. The ability to play several blocking positions is key, but the transgressions last November likely leave him undraftable.p>

IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO BLAME THE VICTIM THAN TO CATCH THE PERP

In 2004 a lesbian from Athens, Georgia, filed a civil lawsuit alleging that a former Gwinnett County Deputy raped her because she is a lesbian.

The officer was charged with rape, false imprisonment, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with intent to rape, and violating his oath of office.

According to the Athens-Clarke County District Attorney's office, the officer was acquitted of most charges, but found guilty of violating his oath of office. The officer agreed to a deal whereby he received two years' probation during which he was to have no contact with the victim.

In many parts of the USA Amnesty International Report found a pattern of police failing to respond appropriately to crimes against LGBT individuals. Police lack of understanding, or in more extreme cases hostility, has resulted in officers arresting the victims of the crime rather than the perpetrators.

IT'S NOT A HATE CRIME WITHOUT THE EVIDENCE OF HATE PRESENT

By Marsha Dorgan

Eight years after the Napa murder of a Kenya native, a former Napa woman was in court on Tuesday afternoon after being arrested on a warrant for felony accessory to the cold case homicide. Julie Weeks, 43, who now lives in southern Oregon, is accused of withholding information about the suspected killer of Edwin Njuguna. Njuguna was stabbed to death Sept. 12, 1997

Njuguna, 24, was stabbed three times, including a fatal wound to his heart. The melee started in front of a residence at 2523 Marin St., where a party was being hosted by Weeks and family members for a friend who was leaving for the military

Njuguna, along with Ryan Perez, 19, and Samir Abdalla, 20, both of Napa, were driving on Marin Street after a high school dance. They stopped in front of the house, and according to more than 20 partygoers, Njuguna, Perez and Abdalla were told it was a private party and they were not welcome. A free-for-all fight erupted. Perez, who suffered a broken wrist, and Abdalla, who was also stabbed, told investigators the partygoers yelled racial slurs at Njuguna, prompting the fight

Earlier this month, one of the witnesses under the direction of the Napa police placed a recorded telephone call to Weeks at her Oregon home. In that call, Weeks made incriminating statements about her knowledge of the involvement of the male suspect, Troendly said. She was arrested at her Oregon home on March 12.

ACCORDING TO FBI STATISTICS

Data compiled by the National Crime Victimization Survey and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program is based on an ordinary crime that becomes a hate crime when offenders choose a victim because of some characteristic – race, religion, ethnicity, religion or association – and provide evidence that hate prompted them to commit the crime is a database of 77,600 nationally representative people interviewed every other year about their experience with crime, while the UCR data is based on law enforcement reports to the FBI.

While nine in 10,000 whites and nine in 10,000 Hispanics are victimized by hate crimes, only seven in 10,000 blacks are targets, according to the report.

Generally, per capita rates of hate crime victimization do not appear to vary based upon victim's gender, race, ethnicity or educational attainment," says the report on all hate crimes reported by victims and police. "However, young people; those never married, separated or divorced; those with low incomes; and those living in urban areas did report experiencing hate crimes at higher rates.

It's an astounding report," said Jack Levin, a leading hate crime expert at Northeastern University. "It's not necessarily completely accurate, but I would trust these data before I trusted the voluntary law enforcement reports to the FBI

While the press took no notice of the report, it has been praised by pressure groups promoting hate-crimes legislation and enforcement such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its comprehensiveness and breadth – by far the largest study ever done on hate crimes.

ARE CHRISTIANS VICTIMS OF HATE CRIMES?

By Elaine Kolodziej

Hate crime statutes are necessary because the failure to recognize and effectively address this unique type of crime could cause an isolated incident to explode into widespread community tension.

We have seen hate crimes prosecuted in defense of black victims and homosexual victims. But, I’ve always wondered, what about Christians? Do they not deserve protection from hate as well?

There are many documented cases where the perpetrators are members of some minority class and the victims are either white or Christian — or both. And, there is no mention of prosecuting them as a hate crime. None!

Now, I understand, it’s because crimes against Christians, in particular, are not likely to “explode into widespread community tension.” Christians do not feel “isolated and vulnerable” because they turn to each other for comfort and reinforcement. They turn the other cheek as it says in the Bible and somehow learn to cope. So while these cases indeed involve hate, they remain “isolated incidents” because of the Christian belief in their fellow man.

So, for now, Christians are easy targets and remain fair game for hate speech and hate crimes.

SIXTEEN YEAR OLD TEACHES A SENATOR ABOUT RIGHTS

By Tully Satre

Sixteen year-old Tully Satre stood alone during a town meeting with Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and former Virginia Governor.

Last year, Senator Allen supported a bill which would PROTECT gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizens - the Hate Crimes bill which included 'sexual orientation.

However, this year, Senator Allen made a statement saying that he regrets his support of this bill, and would - if faced with it again - vote against protecting GLBT citizens in this country.

The Republican Senator says that he believes sexual orientation is not a civil right. One's sexual orientation doesn't warrant "special" rights.

However sexual orientation is not a civil right, it is a part of someone, and gay citizens are being denied basic civil liberty, very basic rights that most citizens are granted

The Senator went on to say what was and what was not constitutional - including actions from activist judges, as well as a separate case where Massachusetts became the first and only state to approve same-sex marriage...which according to him was in contrast of what the people believed.

What the majority may think, is not necessarily always constitutional. Take a look at history - slavery for example, that was supported by a majority of our citizens at one time, but it by far was not constitutional, and it by far was invading the basic freedom of citizens in this country. We can not say that majority rule is necessarily constitutional when it comes to issues of human rights and basic civil liberty

A COMMUNITY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

A Young Indian woman from Stroud has described how the racist taunts that scarred her upbringing have led to her personal campaign against hate crime.

Ms Gohil's fight against offenders' ignorance of ethnic minorities was outlined to more than 100 delegates at the newly-formed multi-agency partnership.

With 90% of racist incidents going unreported nationally, Ms Gohil said the best thing the new group could do now would be to consult widely with the Stroud and Cotswold communities.

Police, teachers and staff from housing associations and councils were among the public and voluntary sectors represented at the conference at Stroud Subscription Rooms.

STOPPING ETHNIC HATE CRIMES IN A GLOBALIZED ECONOMY

An eastern European man was injured in a racial attack on his Belfast home today, just as police launched a new drive against such crime.

The 51-year-old was treated in hospital for an arm injury after a gang burst into his home in the south of the city and set about him with a hammer.

Hate crime has recently been identified by Chief Constable Hugh Orde as one of the biggest challenges facing his force.

Latest figures show there were 763 racial incidents in the North between April last year and January, an increase of 73 on the previous year.

MUSLIM JAILED FOR PRAYER IN INDONESIA

By Richard C. Paddock, Times Staff Writer

Yusman Roy, a former boxer and a convert to Islam, is serving two years in prison because he believes that Muslims should pray in a language they can understand.

Roy's desire to pray in Indonesian has sparked such an outrage that he was convicted last year in criminal court of "spreading hatred." Animosity toward Roy ran so high that police posted guards to keep an angry mob from torching his house and school.

Now, he is kept in a cell by himself at overcrowded Lowokwaru prison, and the warden has warned him not to preach to his fellow inmates in any language.

Roy is one of at least 10 Muslims incarcerated in recent months for what the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, the country's most influential Muslim body in setting religious policy, has deemed deviant thinking.

THE MELTING POT IS MELTING

A white supremacist has been sentenced to 57 months in a federal prison for his part in the beating of a black man last spring in Salt Lake City.

Robby Wayne Baalman, 20, had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of interference with a federally protected activity: the victim's use of public streets.

Co-defendants Keith Wayne Cotter, 25, and David Lance Gardner, 43, have pleaded guilty to the same crime and are awaiting sentencing

We attacked the victim because of his race and because he was using a public street and to raise awareness that skinheads are out there which sent a message that these are our streets, white streets, and to show them this is a white country that whites had built," according to Baalman's statement.

TWENTY SMALL FIRES SET IN ONE CHURCH

More than 20 small fires were set inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints early Sunday, authorities said.

Chief Fire Investigator David Lowery said investigators don't have a suspect and don't know enough to say whether it was a hate crime.

Church fires in Charlotte are rare, officials said. The National Coalition for Burned Churches and Community Empowerment estimates there are 15-20 church fires a month in the U.S.

ECONOMIC HATE CRIMES

Pasco County Commissioners say they may join South Florida officials in passing a resolution asking state and national lawmakers to expand the definition of a hate crime to include attacks on the homeless.

Holy Ground Homeless Shelter Director Lisa Barabas-Henry says attacking someone because they are homeless should be a hate crime, but she also raises important questions, like how would a would-be attacker know if someone's actually homeless?

Barabas-Henry is no stranger to violence herself. A former shelter guest is accused of turning on her, putting a gun to her head and demanding money.

She wasn't injured, but says emotional trauma is causing health problems.

UNDERCLASS UNDER REPORTED

Last November, a 13-year old Liberian boy who had immigrated to the United States with his family just two months earlier from a Ghanaian refugee camp was nearly killed in Philadelphia after a brutal beating. He was the victim of a hate crime. And the unlikely assailants of the attack were his African-American neighbors.

African immigrants are sometimes insensitive to the historical marginalization that African-Americans in this country have suffered. African-Americans often ignore the ethnic differences between African populations and their cultural diversity. But we wouldn't know any of this from watching the news.

It seems that when it comes to minorities, mass media are often selective about how much news coverage to give to them.

FAITH, HERITAGE AND DISCRIMINATION

By VERENA DOBNIK

Protesters joined bagpipers, marching bands and thousands of flag-waving spectators at New York's St. Patrick's Day parade Friday after the parade's chairman compared gay Irish-American activists to neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and prostitutes.

John Dunleavy, the chairman of New York's St. Patrick Day Parade, remarked to The Irish Times "Today is St. Patrick's Day. We celebrate our faith and heritage, everything else is secondary.

The city's parade, with 150,000 marchers, is the nation's oldest and largest. Referring to the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, Dunleavy said, "People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?"

ATTACKER MOVED FROM ONE CO-ED DORM TO ANOTHER.

By Paul Giblin

An Arizona State University student who says she was raped in her dormitory room by an ASU football player is suing several school officials alleging they failed to protect her.

The suit names as defendants former football player Darnel Henderson, football coach Dirk Koetter, former athletic director Gene Smith, the Arizona Board of Regents and other ASU officials.

The suit contends that Koetter and ASU officials failed to address misconduct by football players, Henderson in particular, and created an environment that encouraged inappropriate behavior by football players, including sexual harassment of women.

The suit comes nearly a year after ASU football player Loren Wade was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting death of former Sun Devils football player Brandon Falkner outside a Scottsdale nightclub.

A subsequent investigation revealed that Wade previously had threatened several female students. An 18-year-old student told ASU police that Henderson, 19, raped her at San Pablo Dormitory on March 11, 2004.

Police investigated, but the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to file rape charges. Attorneys determined there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction, according to a letter by prosecutor Dante Alegre to the woman on Jan. 4, 2005.

The lawsuit contends that during the summer of 2003, Henderson severely sexually harassed several women in ASU’s Summer Bridge Program, which allows incoming students to live on campus.

Henderson exposed himself to women numerous times and threw one woman against a wall, according to the suit. ASU officials also were aware that Henderson continued and escalated his pattern of sexual harassment during the fall of 2003, the suit says.

Officials responded by moving him from one coed dorm to another. Neither Koetter nor the woman’s attorney, Rob Schleier, returned calls seeking comment Friday.

Koetter suspended Henderson, a safety, from the football team for a “violation of the Student Code of Conduct” on April 2. The university later expelled Henderson. He is from Oakland, Calif., and is believed to have returned to California.

PERPS FEEL COMPELLED TO COMMUNICATE

By Brian Chasnoff

Although fire officials concluded arsonists were not targeting books on the Holocaust when they set fire to a North Side warehouse, members of an organization that amasses the texts contend the blaze was a brazen hate crime.

Mazal also is the director of the Holocaust History Project, an organization of about 50 members that has amassed millions of books, documents and artifacts relating to the genocide that killed about 6 million Jews during World War II by Nazi Germany and collaborators.

The organization does not store the bulk of its archives in the warehouse, said Sara Salzman, a member of the organization.

Arson officials discounted the notion of a hate crime because the arsonists left behind no markings to indicate why they set fire to the building. Perpetrators of hate crimes usually feel compelled to communicate a clear message

PROMOTING CHRISTIAN EQUALITY

While parked at a hotel in Cleveland, TN, the bus being used by the Soulforce Equality Ride to cart them to various college campuses was reportedly spray painted with the words "Fags Mobile," an incident they are calling a hate crime.

Police are investigating homophobic graffiti spray painted late Thursday night on the side of a bus being used by LGBT rights activists on a cross country trip to promote equality at Christian colleges

The driver said he saw a middle-aged woman and a teenager drive away from the scene. Police are investigating the incident as a case of vandalism.

Tuesday seven riders were arrested as they tried to enter Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Regent, which is affiliated with Christian Broadcaster Pat Robertson, says it does not bar gay enrolment, but its student handbook states "...homosexual conduct or any other conduct, which violates Biblical standards, is prohibited.

CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION COVERS UP HATE CRIME

By MARC CAPUTO

Florida's black legislative caucus announced Thursday they will launch a sustained campaign with the NAACP and other black leaders to secure the arrests of the boot camp guards at Bay Boot Camp .

Democratic Sen. Gary Siplin of Orlando, said Siebert, Bay County's medical examiner, was part of a cover-up to hide the fact that Martin was murdered in a ''dastardly act'' by the guards who beat him. Siplin called Siebert's autopsy finding a ''a hate crime'' because of its racial overtones.

Preliminary results of the second autopsy of Martin, who was exhumed last weekend and reburied Tuesday, indicated he did not die of natural causes connected to sickle-cell trait as reported by Siebert who stood by his original autopsy and said the 14-year-old died naturally Jan. 6 from exercise-related complications of sickle-cell trait, a blood disorder affecting people of African descent.

SOMETIMES A HATE CRIME ISN'T ENOUGH

The 22-year-old Carolos Berrelez was stabbed to death near a Louisville bar in October of 2004 by Adam Anthony Barker. Though it wasn't a hate crime.

Records show Adam Anthony Barker, a 24-year-old. was released from home incarceration early on the morning of October 22. Less then 24 hours later, he killed Carlos

He would mace people, blind them and then either attack them with a weapon, like a bat or a knife as it was in this case.

On Wednesday, Barker and prosecutors agreed to a 40-year sentence. He'll be eligible for parole in half that time.

THERE IS MOTIVE AND THERE IS MOTIVE

Gov. Jon Huntsman has signed into law a compromise hate crimes bill focuses on a crime's impact on the community.

Rep. David Latvick of Salt Lake said: "We all have the responsibility to be bridge-builders, if we truly want to live in the community that HB90 will set the path for.

Some opposed the principle of increasing punishment on the basis of motive, and some said it would punish people for their thoughts or violate their free-speech rights.

But much of the opposition was against increasing the penalties for persecutors of gays. It was argued that that would create special rights for homosexuals.

I'm a Democrat," Litvack said. "I can say anything I want about hate crimes and I'll get re-elected.

COMPENSATION FOR HATE CRIMES

Barbara Pash, Associate Editor

An anti-Semitic incident in her legislative district has spurred Del. Jean Cryor (R- 15th), of Montgomery County, to introduce a bill that compensates victims of hate crimes for property damage.

Introduced last week, well after the bill submission deadline, Ms. Cryor said the painting of swastikas and anti-black slogans on local buildings "was a shock to all of us."

The Maryland State Police and the Montgomery County Police Department support Ms. Cryor’s bill. So far, the perpetrators of the incident have not been found but a hate funds reward has been established locally for anyone who turns them in.

HATE CRIME PROTECTION FOR ANIMALS

Swastikas were spray painted on a barn in Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County, yesterday, according to state police, who labeled the incident a hate crime.

Police say Jo-elynn Vega noticed the swastikas when she went outside to attend to farm animals.

Vega told the trooper that the zoning officer said her Birch Hollow Estates neighbors complained about odors from the farm animals.

THE OTHER CLIMATE CRISIS

Cars belonging to the Jesuits were burnt in Malta in an apparent pay-back attack for publishing an anti-racism report.

Both incidents happened immediately after a press conference held by the Jesuit Centre of Faith and Justice, closely connected to the Jesuit Refugee Service. In November the press conference announced the publication of the proceedings of the National Conference on Racism and Xenophobia in Malta, held by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, and the actions undertaken by the Maltese Jesuits to promote racial tolerance.

Former Labour Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici suggested that the irregular immigrants who do not want to stay in Malta and want to go to mainland Europe “should be helped” to do so.Indcatholicnews.com

Hatred against a group of persons in Malta is defined by reference to color, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.

DO YOU REMEMBER WHO WE HATED BEFORE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001?

by Claudia Deane and Darryl Fears

As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after September 11, 2001.

Conservative and liberal experts said Americans' attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists.

According to the poll, the proportion of Americans who believe that Islam helps to stoke violence against non-Muslims has more than doubled since the attacks, from 14 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent today.

One in four Americans admitted to harboring prejudice toward Muslims, the same proportion that expressed some personal bias against Arabs.

A total of 1,000 randomly selected Americans were interviewed March 2-5 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.

THE AMERICAN DREAM FROM THE EYES OF CHINESE GOVERNMENT

China's Information Office of State Council released a white paper on the human rights record of the United States in 2005 yesterday

Issued by the Information Office of the State Council of China

Racially-motivated violence remains a serious issue, as more than half of over 9,000 hate crimes were described as race-based by the FBI in its annual report. African Americans are more than 20 times as likely to be a victim of a racially motivated crime than whites are.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that the employment discrimination rate was 31 percent for Asians and 26 percent for African Americans, and instances of discrimination against Muslims doubled after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The Los Angeles Times reported on June 16, 2005 that Los Angeles County has become "the homeless capital of America," with the average number of vagabonds or people in shelters hitting 90,000 a day, including 35,000 people chronically homeless.

A December 2005 study by the University of Maryland indicated those who killed a white victim were two to three times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed a non-white; but African American offenders who killed white victims were nearly 2.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than white offenders who killed white victims and 3.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than African American offenders who killed African American victims

WHITE ON WHITE CRIME ISN'T A HATE CRIME TO SOME

Several cars in Grapevine were painted with swastikas, the letters "KKK" and vulgar words late Sunday night by four young men, police said.

A witness spotted the men and called the police. Taylor B. Koch, 19; Kyle T. Payne, 18; Michael N. Buckman, 20; and Christopher R. Rucker, 19, all of Colleyville, were arrested.

The men are being held on $3,000 bond.

The men are not being charged with hate crimes because the victim was white.

BURNING ALABAMA CHURCHES AREN'T HATE CRIMES

By Doug Patton

Matthew Cloyd, Russell DeBusk and Benjamin Mosely were arrested for recently burning nine Alabama churches.

These three malicious young malcontents not being charged with nine hate crimes.

When Jay Scott Ballinger, a self-described Satanist, confessed to burning two dozen churches in the mid-to-late-1990s, even his heinous acts were not classified as a violation of hate crime laws.

The question is asked if Christians are fair game for the most egregious hate crime violations.

PLEA DEALS OFFEND HATE CRIME LEGISLATION

On Sunday, Feb. 8, 2004 an inter racial couple was attacked by a father, Walter Lineberry, and his three sons inside the restaurant for the simple fact that they were an inter racial couple.

Lineberry called his sons via cell phone (to summon the troops) upon spotting the couple.

When the couple tried to leave, they were confronted by Lineberry and his sons and a graphic description is given of how the couple was knocked to the floor and repeatedly kicked and stomped resulting in serious injuries not only to the couple but also to an 83-year-old woman and a waitress who tried their best to intercede on the couple’s behalf.

The Record-Journal reports that Walter Lineberry has accepted a plea deal which results in the most serious charges being dropped most notably the charges that make it a hate crime! Linebery's attorney, Charles Thompson of Meriden, said the plea deal signifies that the court now believed his contention that the incident “was a simple bar fight.”

TWENTY SIX YEAR OLD NOW ARRESTED 16 TIMES

By Melissa Grace

Two thugs have been arrested for slashing three Asian men outside a Gramercy Park diner - an attack labeled a hate crime by cops, police said yesterday.

Norberto Fernandez, 26, who has been arrested 15 times since 1998, and Philip Walsh, 22, were charged with felony assault as a hate crime after allegedly yelling an anti-Chinese slur at an NYU student and his two buddies as the men stepped into the Gramercy Restaurant on Third Ave.

Although restaurant workers called cops, who chased off the men, they returned and ambushed their victims as they exited the eatery 45 minutes later, officials said.

A VOTE TO UNINVITE AFTER A VOTE TO INVITE

Regent University, in Virginia Beach, Virginia connected to Christian Broadcaster Pat Robertson, is warning members of a gay group that if they try to enter the campus on Monday they will be arrested.

The warning comes following the arrest last week of 24 people at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg

Equality Ride, the Soulforce organized ride, is made up of young adults on a two-month journey to Christian colleges and military academies that ban GLBT enrollment.

Soulforce is a nondenominational group advocating for gays in various churches. Members of the group hope to engage students at the schools in a dialogue about homosexuality and discrimination.

The decision to bar the group reverses an invitation made by the school last month when Vice President of Academic Affairs Randall Pannell said the college was "looking forward to the Equality Ride's visit.

The college says the decision to "univite" the Soulforce riders was based in part on a statement on the ride's Web site that says Regent has a policy banning GLBT students.

REMEMBERING CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Beginning this week prospective immigrants to The Netherlands will be tested on their knowledge of Dutch life, including the country's attitude toward gays.

The video also includes shots of immigrant slums in the major cities where many immigrants wind up living.

Included in the test are sections of domestic violence and female circumcision. Both of which are illegal in The Netherlands.

The test is aimed mainly at people seeking entry to The Netherlands from the Middle East and Asia. People emigrating from other EU countries, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are exempt.

Islamic groups are slamming the exam calling it a pretext to discrimination. They confront people with these things and then judge them afterwards.

FIRST RESPONDERS SLIME THE INTEGRITY OF OTHER FIRST RESPONDERS

Mark Bratton and his family were fishing in the Oconomowoc River when things turned ugly and despicable.

Fire chief, Terry Stapleton, 65, sent his German shepherd after them. Firefighter Mark Weber, 41, yelled racial slurs and pointed a gun at them.

Stapleton has been charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing justice. Weber has been charged with disorderly conduct and reckless use of a fire arm. Both have taken a leave of absence from the fire department.

Bratton and his family have accused Waukesha County firefighters of hate crimes, where Court Commissioner Thomas Pieper ordered that the men have no contact with the alleged victim or witnesses. The Brattons are also suing the firefighters and the department.

POLITICIANS ABUSE THE HATE CRIME ISSUE

By Tammy Bould

Voters need to know that a hate crime occurred in our jail under the watch of Sheriff Thompson," Robinson said. "An African American federal prisoner was beat senselessly by correctional officers while he was in custody.

The man involved in the incident has not sued Knox County or me," Thompson said. "He has expressed a dislike for the former administrator.

A candidate for Knox County sheriff, Thompson said his opponent, Robinson, is using the media to try to derail his campaign.

POLICE HELP PERPETRATORS

By Amy Yarbrough, staff writer

Five vehicles were vandalized in the underground parking garage at the Hampton Inn on Tuesday night. Someone used a black, permanent marker to scrawl "KKK" and "Murder" on the cars, and threw eggs at the cars and at a hotel fence, said Redwood City police Sgt. Sean Hart.

Investigators do not believe the vandalism was a hate crime and suspect it may have been the work of juveniles. Police have no suspect information.

I always tell my guests it's a safe garage," the woman said. "I was surprised

STUDY FINDS STRATEGY PROTECTS DAY LABORERS FROM HATE CRIMES

By Bart Jones, staff writer

According to a Hofstra University study released yesterday, organized hiring sites reduce hate crime attacks against day laborers.

Official hiring sites reduce hate and hate crimes against day laborers," said Gregory M. Maney, a sociology professor at Hofstra who conducted the study along with the nonprofit Hempstead-based Workplace Project.

The report described acts of violence and harassment against day laborers, including one worker who was whipped with a belt by a contractor to make him work faster. It also found people in passing cars sometimes throw eggs, bottles and garbage at day laborers.

THE WORLD AIN'T BIG ENOUGH

New York Times Editorial

For all the difficulties Muslim immigrants face, Europe's most-abused group is still, by far, the Gypsies.

They are compelled to live in slums, shunted off to inferior schools and denied jobs. They are subjected to pogroms, forced sterilization and police abuse.

Sadly, the European Court of Human Rights has just backed one of the worst forms of discrimination: the nearly automatic placement of Gypsy children in dead-end schools for the mentally handicapped.

The case was brought by families of 18 Czech Gypsy children, but according to the European Roma Rights Center, based in Budapest, similar discrimination exists throughout Eastern Europe. The Czech government estimates that 75 percent of Gypsy children go to these schools, and that 90 percent of the children in Czech remedial schools are Gypsies.

The court's majority, made up largely of Eastern Europeans, acknowledged the problem but found no proof that bigotry was the cause. The president of the panel, a Frenchman, voted with the majority.

SELF HATRED. ANOTHER TWENTY SOMETHING

By Adam Taylor

Jason Cola, 22, was charged with repeatedly striking the victim with a metal broom handle during a game of pool at a home in the 1500 block of Shadybrook Road about 12:30 a.m.

The victim told police Cola exposed himself and threatened to kill him because he was gay.

Cola was taken to Young Correctional Institution after failing to post $15,000 bail.

FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS...

By Barbara Karkabi

More than 100 Muslim men, women and children rallied Friday at City Hall in Houston to praise the Prophet Muhammad as a peaceful man and to criticize Danish cartoons portraying him as violent

Protests over the cartoons swept the Islamic world in January and early February. Syed said they had discussed a local protest earlier, but were spurred into action by the Feb. 22 bombing of the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, Iraq.

We had one insult to our holy personality the prophet and now the mosque, where the descendants of the prophet are buried is destroyed.

There is so much conflict and distrust, the world is not a friendly place. We all need to take care not to push people to the limit and to try not to do things that might hurt others.

FACE IT. TERRORISM IS A HATE CRIME

The European Union has expressed outrage over the terrorist attacks in the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi in which at least 15 people were killed and over 100 injured.

The European Union sincerely hopes that those responsible for these barbarian acts of terrorism will be brought to justice.

The attacks took place Tuesday evening at the historic 16th century Sankatmochan temple and a railway station.

A PANDEMIC OF HATE

An increasing number of people are victims of race-hate crimes in Glasgow, but many more incidents go unreported, it was claimed today.

Every week four more people on the south side of Glasgow are added to the statistics.

Today officers in G division, which covers the south side, were hosting a conference to make it easier for victims of hate crime to report incidents.

Since January 1, there have been 35 race-hate crimes recorded across G division.

THERE IS A RESPONSIBILITY FOR FREE SPEECH

In a landmark decision, a tribunal ruled that two white supremacists were spreading hate when they posted offensive material on their websites about blacks, Jews and other minorities.

It's believed to be the first time a Canadian Internet web-hosting service has been found liable for hate messages.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on Friday leveled the two men with $13,000 in penalties and ordered them to stop spreading hate.

POLITICS INTENT: COLLATERAL DAMAGE

We should recognize that terrorism or war in the Middle East leads to violence against innocent members of communities.

Attar Singh Bhatia, a 66-year-old Sikh resident of Queens, was beaten with a baseball bat hours after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, few in the Sikh community were surprised.

Mr. Singh and other community activists went to City Hall on March 5 to support the Backlash Mitigation Bill, which was introduced by Councilmember David Weprin two weeks earlier. The bill will allow New York to develop a plan that can be implemented to protect communities—including people, homes, houses of worship and community centers—from the violence of widespread hate crimes sparked by a common, often international, event.

The bill has gained more public attention after being made fun of in the Daily News. A Feb. 19 editorial insinuates in a mocking tone that the bill would only protect Arabs and Muslims.

WHO ENFORCES THE LAW

PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) is urging Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy to revise his hate crimes bill to explicitly include protections for transgender people.

PFLAG is concerned, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (LLEEA), which would allow the federal investigation and prosecution of hate crimes based on sexual orientation and “actual or perceived gender” is not explicitly transgender-inclusive, unlike a version of the bill that passed the House in September 2005.

PFLAG’s letter notes that anti-transgender hate crimes account for 11 percent of all hate crimes committed against the LGBT community. It also raised concern that law enforcement authorities are often uninformed about trans issues and are less likely to treat anti-trans crimes seriously.

The House version of LLEEA allows for federal prosecutors to intervene in communities where the police are not responding adequately to crimes against the transgender community.

A RECIPE FOR AGENDAS

Written in permanent marker, racial epithets and phrases such as whites only appeared on the walls of common areas, including hallways and stairwells, of the dormitories at DePaul University in Chicago.

DePaul University spokesperson Denise Mattson told WBBM Radio the incident was an assault on the university's values DePaul University spokesperson Denise Mattson told WBBM Radio the incident was an assault on the university's values.

the campus has been politically charged since late January when a new campus organization, the DePaul Conservative Alliance, conducted an affirmative action bake sale at which blacks were charged less than whites.

The DePaul Conservative Alliance is the umbrella organization that provides general direction and overhead for the DePaul GOP and the DePaul Right to Life Organization.

IT WAS A JOKE

Three university students were arrested Wednesday in a string of nine rural Alabama church arsons last month. With the arrests, Alabama Attorney General Troy King says "a reign of terror" is coming to an end.

Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee Debusk Jr., both 19-year-old students at Birmingham-Southern College and Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20-year-old were held for the arson.

The fear began, court documents show, when the three men who all attended a church-affiliated school, were deer hunting last month, CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta reports. They then decided on an entirely new target. First came the arsons at five churches in central Alabama. Then, a few days later, four more on the Western edge of the state were torched.

The break in the investigation into the fires came when one suspect Cloyd confided to someone "that he had done something stupid. It started as a joke."

THE ONLY SHELTER A STATE PROVIDES

By Brendan Farrington, AP

A bill filed two weeks after Broward County teenagers were caught on videotape beating a homeless man would increase the penalties for those who attack people living on the street.

What we're trying to accomplish is to stop individuals from perpetrating crimes of assault, killings, murder against those who are the least of us,'' said Rep. Priscilla Taylor, D-Riviera Beach and the bill's sponsor. "We have a growing epidemic of people killing people just for fun and that's not acceptable.

Three teenagers are charged with murder of a 45-year-old man whose head and chest were bashed with a baseball bat while he slept on a park bench.

The teenagers are also charged with two other assaults the same night. One man was assaulted with a golf club outside a church. A third was beaten with a bat outside a college building.

Committee members favored the spirit of the bill.

WHO ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES

By Lou Chibbaro

Judiciary Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) single-handedly removed the hate crimes language from a redrafted version of the child safety bill that he introduced directly to the House floor without a hearing or "markup" vote in committee.

At Sensenbrenner's request, House Republican leaders agreed to allow the Ohio congressman to bring the Children's Safety & Violent Crimes Reduction Act to the House floor on March 8 through a suspension of House rules that allow amendments.

Conservative religious groups, including the Family Research Council, waged an aggressive lobbying campaign to have the hate crimes bill language removed from the child safety bill.

NOT IN MY BACKYARD

By Katie Laird

Do hate crimes even happen in Utah?" asked Marissa Ballantyne, a BYU junior majoring in public relations from Provo.

In the Salt Lake Valley an African-American family woke up to find a cross burning in their front yard. Three years later, a group of students in a Salt Lake high school formed Students Against Faggots Everywhere, in response to the formation of the gay-straight alliance at East High School.

In 2000, white supremacist groups started dropping leaflets with racist agendas on Salt Lake doorsteps, and the National Alliance announced they would be starting a focus group concentrated on young white youths in Salt Lake City.

When you're targeting someone because of bias and prejudice said Representative David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, it affects the whole community.

IF ONLY HITLER KNEW SWASTIKA IS SYMBOL OF BUDDHA'S HEART.

At the Stoughton, Massachusetts Jewish Community Center nearly 12 swastikas were spray painted on the walls of the building.

Stoughton Police are investigating, but as yet have no leads.

Volunteers turned out later in the day to take part in a 'paint away the hate event to cover the swastikas.

BRICKS HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN VICTIMS.

Burning down a building as a racial or religious threat carries an additional charge and penalty under the law, but not assaults and other violent crimes against people because of their race or beliefs.

Lee Fisher, a former state senator who sponsored the hate crime law almost 20 years ago said the hate crime laws need to be rewritten stronger for the sake of the people.

Ohio's ethnic intimidation charge is limited to specific misdemeanors, such as menacing, telephone harassment, criminal damaging or arson. An ethnic intimidation conviction increases the penalty for the underlying crime.

But Jeff Gismo, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said prosecution for the actual crime should be enough. Punishing people for what they think borders on an infringement of free speech, he said.

Strengthening laws against race-related crimes shows that cities and states are committed to ending them, said G. Michael Payton, director of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission

USING HATE AGAINST HATE

Fliers surfaced at the doors of the Heritage Acres Apartments on Nansemond Parkway in Suffolk last week contained a headline "KKK congratulates gang bangers for slaughter of black people" and racially charged comments.

The perpetrator is known.

The fliers were distributed by a black tenant who wanted to shock young African-Americans.

So far the woman is not being charged with a crime and may not get charged at all because of protection of freedom of speech.

THE SILVER SCREEN

By Cara Mia Dimassa

A young black man complains when a white woman clutches her purse as she walks by and then carjacks her sports utility vehicle. An LAPD officer rants against a black insurance employee and later saves the life of another black woman. An Iranian shop owner is the victim of a hate crime and takes out his anger on an Hispanic locksmith. A female Hispanic police detective and a Korean woman exchange racial epithets after a fender bender.

The movie, Crash, has become a Rorschach test for Angelenos, separating those who think the city's multicultural citizens usually get along and those who think race relations are an open wound.

Police Chief William J. Bratton has seen the film Crash three times and encouraged the deputy in charge of the Los Angeles Police Department's professional standards to pass around copies. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa loved the movie; his lawyer, a former member of the L.A. County Human Relations Commission, hated it.

To its fans, Crash offers a raw, unsentimental but ultimately honest view of race in Los Angeles. Fans see honesty.

BURNING WALLS BLISTERING FINGERS

By Peter Lewis

An Everett businessman whose federal trial on arson charges resulted in a hung jury last month will face a new trial in May on at least 23 counts of food-stamp fraud that allege he cheated the government out of about $1,300.

Among other allegations, a Seattle federal grand jury charged last fall that between November 2002 and July 2004 Akram illegally allowed food-stamp recipients to redeem the stamps for cash and to use them to purchase items other than food. He also is accused of providing less cash or ineligible merchandise than the stamps were worth.

Akram, a Pakistani who was petitioning to become a U.S. citizen admitted to stage the arson to look like a hate crime.

THE RELIGION OF COMPASSIONATE INTOLERANCE

By Martin Williams

The Rt. Rev Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, one of Scotland's most senior Roman Catholics has said "politically correct zealots" who are supporting legislation which will allow homosexual couples to adopt.

Bishop Devine continued to say he was "not prepared to stand by and watch the destruction of Christian values and truth".

Bishop Devine believes there is a growing feeling that, because adoption panels are frightened of being accused of discrimination against gay men and lesbians, they are being given preferential treatment over heterosexual couples

The British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), which is partly funded by the Scottish Executive, which Bishop Devine manages, has supported the moves by ministers to allow same sex couples to adopt.

it should for the sake of the children be deemed a far more appropriate refuge for them than exposure to a homosexual or lesbian way of life.

What started as a tolerance and compassion for gays had developed into the suppression of the majority heterosexual lifestyle.

Executive figures show that the numbers applying to adopt fell from 1081 in 1983 to 373 in 2003.

BY THE BOOK

BY Susan Brown

The car fire at the home of an Indian family had not seemed suspicious, but police said. The family's 2004 Lincoln Navigator was destroyed by fire in the driveway of their home.

About two months later Krishna Chand, home owner of the burnt out car, found an obscenity scrawled big and bold on the garage door, just behind the bushes and the light post still charred from the fire.

The Munster, Indiana Police do not believe these two incidents are suspicious enough to be related

Prior to the incidents at the Chand home, the department had not received any reports of possible hate crimes against residents of Middle Eastern origin.

The racist term that was spray-painted on the family's garage is most generally aimed at those of Arab descent. The Chands are from India.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Tom Gancarz, who oversees hate crimes for the FBI's Merrillville office, said the agency's files show the number of hate crimes in the area hasn't changed much in the last few years.

OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES

By Robert Cohen

An Arab-American civil rights group yesterday accused Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) of making racist comments about Arabs during a New Jersey rally this week when he condemned the takeover of U.S. port operations by an United Arab Emirates-owned company.

Lautenberg denied the accusation, calling it a bum rap.

We wouldn't transfer the title to the devil; we're not going to transfer it to Dubai, Lautenberg said.

Lautenberg said. "I didn't call Arabs the devil. I said I won't do business with the devil and I won't do business with Dubai.

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?

By Paul Belien

The French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo (CH) has a picture of Muhammad on today’s front page. The prophet is crying because, he says, “it is hard being loved by idiots.

Muslim groups in France tried to prevent the distribution of CH by court order, but the court turned down the request.

The Muslim group's complaint was rejected because they failed to name Philippe Val, CH’s publisher.

In response to the Muhammad cartoons Abu Jahjah has started publishing offensive cartoons on his website

The AEL (Arab European League) website posted a cartoon of Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler which caused great concern among Jewish groups.

Belgian authorities do not seem prepared to press legal charges against Abu Jahjah, the editor of AEL, and his Brussels based website.

Belgium signed an agreement with Muslim extremists in the 1990s, to the effect that Belgium agreed to turn a blind eye to the activities of extremists and terrorists so long as they refrain from perpetrating terror attacks in Belgium.

REASONING EXTREME BIAS

By Emery P. Dalesio, AP

A recent University of North Carolina graduate was charged with nine counts of attempted murder.

Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a 22-year-old Iran native, told investigators he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world.

Spending most of his life in the United States Taheri-azar graduated from the university in December after studying psychology and philosophy.

IT'S WHAT YOUNG TEENAGERS DO

Who here wants to take a shotgun and blast her in the head over a thousand times?

Twenty middle-schoolers were suspended for two days after viewing a boy's posting on the MySpace.com Web site that contained an alleged threat and anti-Semitic reference, school officials said.

Police are investigating the boy's comments about his classmate as a possible hate crime, and the district is trying to expel the boy from TeWinkle Middle School.

Some parents, however, questioned whether the school overstepped its bounds by disciplining students for actions that occurred on personal computers, at home and after school hours.

BLACK AND BLUE HATE CRIME (Jude - Part 1)

By JOHN DIEDRICH and DERRICK NUNNALLY

A jury cleared three white former police officers of most charges in the 2004 brutal beating of a biracial man that enflamed racial tensions, but city officials vowed to ask federal prosecutors to consider pursuing the case.

An all-white jury deliberated for more than 26 hours and returned not guilty verdicts late Friday on the charges against Daniel Masarik and Andrew Spengler, both 26. John Bartlett, 34, was cleared on one charge but the jury deadlocked on a charge of substantial battery.

Prosecutors claimed the men beat Frank Jude Jr. on Oct. 24, 2004 because they thought he stole a badge at a party. District Attorney E. Michael McCann said the officers relied on a code of silence within the department to protect them.

McCann said he would pursue a retrial on the remaining charge against Bartlett, and also would ask the U.S. attorney to investigate whether federal charges could be filed.

The acquittal of three white former police officers in a beating has brought hundreds of protesters into Milwaukee's streets.

Jude said he couldn't believe the defendants weren't charged with hate crimes. He said he was called a racial slur repeatedly as he was beaten and after his pants were cut off. In a police report, officers claim Jude stole a police badge and wallet. Nothing was found on Jude, prosecutors said.

McCann said that to warrant a hate crime charge, the officers would have had to "target" Jude because of his race, but evidence indicates they went after him over the badge. McCann said Jude and companion Lovell Harris, who were arrested on suspicion of theft, would not be charged.

DELIBERATING HATE

By Bill Scanlon

A 12-person jury deliberated for eight hours today without coming to a decision in a case that accuses Phillip Martinez, 39, of Lafayette, of breaking the jaw of a college student in a racially motivated attack.

Most eyewitnesses said Martinez directed racial slurs at Sterling before punching him in the parking lot of the Wild Oats Market. Martinez did pled guilty today to a separate charge, possession of a controlled substance

The incident has attracted wide attention as Boulder as Colorado University is trying to attract more black and Hispanic students.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND SLURS

The photos had been in a box marked: Keep. Do Not Sell. At the time they were taken, the newspaper didn't want to draw attention to the racial discord of the 1950s and 1960s.

On Sunday, the photos finally went to print in a special eight-page section called ''Unseen. Unforgotten.'' Others are on the newspaper's Web site at www.al.com/unseenl

Many of the pictures show confrontations: a police officer shoving a demonstrator, black children hit with a firehouses' spray, crowds heckling demonstrators on their knees, and whites throwing bricks at cars and blocking blacks from "whites-only'' areas.

Catherine Burks Brooks, 66, a Birmingham teacher who was a Freedom Rider says ''I was very, very thrilled to see that we do have them,'' she said after learning about the newly found photos. ''I knew the pictures had to exist, but they were being hidden somewhere.

WE HAD TO LEARN.

By Cary Tennis

I have met a lovely guy at last after years of being single or dating disastrous men.

The problem is this: When I attend family functions with his family they say things I find really offensive. For example gays are called "fags" and faggots. Their younger brother, 16, says girls wearing short skirts deserve to be raped with his father backing him up.

I believe that talk like this is a form of violence. Signed Really Offended.

Dear Really Offended: I was not always offended by such speech. I grew up around it. It was common in my childhood neighborhood and in the places where lived and went to school and worked. I did not always know that such speech was offensive

I had to be taught that it was offensive and why it was offensive. I had to be taught by people who knew better than I did. Sometimes the ways in which I was taught were unpleasant.

My point is that our sensitivity to such speech is the result of hard-won victories by activists, and that this fact has implications for how we should respond to such speech today.

Our insights into the nature of rape and homosexuality didn't happen by magic. We are not born that good. We are not born that fair-minded. We have learned to be better than we were. We have been taught to be better by people who took risks and made sacrifices so they could teach us to be better.

HATE IS ADDICTIVE

By Ken Montoya

On Wednesday, March 1, Ukiah High School is hosting a community forum on violence prevention. The forum will focus at taking steps, re-teaching ourselves and students, to make Ukiah High School a safer place for all students

The skill I am referring to is re-teaching. Specifically, the re-teaching of tolerance, diversity, and resiliency as important concepts we wish our students to understand, respect and model in a multi-cultural and diverse global world.

I have been thinking about these three concepts because of an incident that occurred a few weeks ago involving one of our female students who was the victim of a hate crime because of who she is. I will not downplay the importance of this incident.

Hate destroys resiliency. The responsibility of re-teaching the need to end violence and hate should not fall on the shoulders of schools alone. Re-teaching of tolerance, diversity and resiliency requires partnerships with home, workplace and community-at large

HATE HAS A HOME

Gary Titus was convicted in the death of a gay Des Moines school teacher named Ken Eaton. Titus and another man picked up Eaton, convinced him they were gay and went back to his apartment where they killed him.

Gary Titus convicted for that heinous hate crime back in 1989 will stay in prison if the Iowa State Parole Board has anything to say about it.

Titus is proud to mention how he has completed substance abuse and courses in victim assistance. Something for the Parole Board, however, was missing.

Most members expressed surprise it took several questions before he would admit the murder and that it was a hate crime.

UNDER THE LIGHTS

Stage III Community Theatre, in which slain University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard acted as a youngster in the early 1990s, plans to present a play about Shepard's murder.

The production of The Laramie Project, which opens Friday, isn't well received by everyone. Don Allen was an usher at a recent Stage III production when some people with season tickets told him to punch those tickets through - they wouldn't be seeing The Laramie Project. Several younger actors said their parents weren't comfortable seeing them perform.

Shepard, who was Gay, was beaten and left tied to a fence outside Laramie in October 1998. He died at a hospital several days later.

"I think the production itself is the best thing that is out there available to the public," Shepard said. "It's so honest and straightforward and 'real people.' I support it in every sense of the word. Everybody should see it.

SUBSCRIBING TO MAIL BOMBS

In a city that is more than 92 percent White, according to U.S. census data, Don Logan said his job has been challenging.

The mail bomb that exploded in Logan's hands two years ago seemed like an assassination attempt, a terrorist attack. But nobody knows for sure.

Logan is in charge of the city's diversity office, a position that was created following a controversy and which has drawn criticism and praise.

Two years later, Logan said he does not know what to believe about the bombing. The U.S. Postal Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are the chief investigators on the case

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Several unidentified assailants attacked two women, aged 28 and 34, both of them citizens of Kyrgyzstan of Kazakh origin, in St. Petersburg's Kalininsky district early on Saturday.

The two women, who were vendors in a street kiosk, were returning home from work and one of them was talking over a cell phone in the Kazakh language. Three young men attacked them, stabbing one of the women to death. The second woman suffered serious knife wounds and was hospitalized.

Ethnic enmity figures among the main motives behind the murder of a female Kyrgyz citizen in St. Petersburg.

The assailants escaped. They did not steal cash, jewelry or the cell phone where the dead woman was practicing her freedom of speech, but in a different language.

THE COST OF BEING A BIG MAN

By Sam Knowlton

Zane Bearrick, 21, had bragged about the destruction of a church by his bulldozer and invited others to see it. Bearrick steered the bulldozer into a church building, a mobile home.

Bearrick is charged with felony malicious mischief and Martin has said he thinks the act was a hate crime. Bearrick is white, and the congregation’s members are black.

If the crime is determined to be racially motivated, it could double the maximum penalty for a conviction to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

SKIN DEEP

By Tom Gordon

A man of Arab descent was in fair condition Friday night after being shot Thursday night by a man who had been yelling racial slurs outside a Middle Eastern takeout restaurant near the University of Alabama campus.

Among those who went to the aid of Nabil Chagri was John Bart Tyra, a Marine Reservist who returned from a tour in Iraq nearly a year ago. Afterward, Tyra said he was sickened by the incident.

Friday morning, authorities arrested Jason Michael Gardner, 23, of Northport. He was charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.

Gardner was told to leave the restaurant when he was found urinating on an inside wall. He yelled racist slurs, went outside to his car and came back with a .22 and shot at the back of a family van where he almost murdered Nabil Chagri.

Also inside the van, but not hit by the gun fire was Chagri's wife, his young daughter and her infant sibling.

FROM VICTIM TO SURVIVOR TO HERO

By Carol Rock, Staff Writer

Brian Moriguchi could be living proof of the adage, "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's sergeant received an award recently for his work investigating and combating hate crimes. Ten years ago, he was a victim himself.

In February 1996, someone scrawled a racist caricature on a memo posted in Castaic Sheriff's office. He went to his superiors and was told to be quiet about it. Soon after the tires of his car was slashed and his personal property was vandalized. His girlfriend was followed by other Sheriff's Department personnel.

He was transferred to the Lancaster station and assigned to the detective bureau, where he became a specialist in hate crimes.

He filed suit against the county and won a $158,000 settlement, part of which was to have been paid by two of his supervisors, who have since left the department.

In a Feb. 16 ceremony, Moriguchi was given the Helene and Joseph Sherwood Prize for Combating Hate by the Anti-Defamation League.

NO LOVE LOST IN NEO NAZI MARCH

Clad in khaki uniforms, tall black boots and red arm patches bearing swastikas, about 30 members of the National Socialist Movement were barricaded on one side by SWAT team members.

On the other side, a group of black-clad counter-demonstrators, many covering their faces with black masks, held anti-Nazi signs.

State Sen. Siplin said this march right through the middle of one of downtown Orlando's traditionally black neighborhoods is not going to go unanswered.

A total of 17 people were arrested Saturday, including 14 members of out-of-town groups such as the Skinheads Against Racial Prejudices and the Southeastern Anarchist Network were arrested, said Orlando Police spokeswoman Barb Jones.

No members of the Minneapolis-based National Socialist Movement were arrested, police said. A spokesman for the neo-Nazi group said they were protesting crime in Orlando.

During the march, the group held signs bearing slogans such as "White People Unite." Later, they made Nazi salutes at the federal courthouse as a SWAT team separated the white supremacists from a jeering crowd.

Grandparents held the hands of their grandchildren as they watched the march from the front of their homes.

The older generation grew up seeing hate. They grew up seeing these kinds of groups being open and I think for some African-Americans they want the younger generations to see that hate still exists," said the Rev. O'Hara Black of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church.

But other Parramore residents felt the march was a personal affront. "For them to come into our neighborhood it's wrong, it's a slap in the face."

UTAH LEGISLATORS PASS HATE CRIME PROTECTING THE INDIVIDUAL

A six-year battle to strengthen Utah's hate-crimes law received overwhelming support of the house. House Bill 90, which underwent an overnight overhaul, passed the house on a 64–5 vote Thursday in Salt Lake City.

It now moves to the senate, where little opposition is expected.

It's the right bill, it took out the groups and has the aggravating factors," she said. "But it protects the individual. Under this bill, I would be protected just as much as if I were a member of a group.

The bill contained no mention of sexual orientation. The Republican-led house argued it would create "special rights" for gay people and might violate the First Amendment, supposedly "punishing a person for their thoughts.

AFTER EIGHT YEARS OF DEBATE

by Jennifer W. Sanchez

Since the 20th century state representatives finally approved a new hate crimes bill that would ask judges to consider giving criminals longer sentences for offenses likely to spark "community unrest" or fear

Passing the responsibility to the Courts lawmakers passed HB90 on a 67-5 vote Thursday after a handful of legislators spoke in support of the bill. No one spoke in opposition

If HB90 becomes law, judges could increase the severity of minor misdemeanors but not felonies. For felonies, the bill allows the Board of Pardons to consider the hate motivating a crime as an aggravating factor resulting in a longer prison term.

After the vote, representatives started clapping and almost everyone in the room stood, turning toward Rep. David Litvack, the Salt Lake City Democrat who for years has tried to pass a hate crimes bill. Such a standing ovation for bills - other than ceremonial ones honoring prominent community members - is rare.

TEENAGE BOYS FLUNK SOCIOLOGY

Chicago Times staff

For the second time this month in the western suburbs of Chicago students, teenage boys, were accused of exhibiting swastikas in public places.

This time three Hinsdale Central High School students were charged with hate crimes after they allegedly drew anti-Semitic messages, including swastikas, on school property this week.

Authorities don't believe the incidents are related in that the teenagers don't know each other.

HOMOPHOBIC HIGH

Anti-gay feeling is running high among Haringey school children is the published conclusion based on a workshops with school children aged 12 to 13.

The report notes that "on sexuality a more worrying picture emerged" and that a "lack of tolerance was experienced in more than one session" from both boys and girls.

Justification for these attitudes came from biblical references and church teachings," it reads

Councilor George Meehan, executive member for children and young people, added: "It remains the case, however, that homophobic incidents are a small proportion of reported incidents.

REFLECTIONS FROM A MIRROR

By Nonie Darwish

Whatever your nationality or religion or sex is what lies at the core of the human nature to hate.

My father was killed when I was eight years old. He was hailed as a national hero and considered martyr. In school, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness. We learned of songs with verses of a derogatory nature about others different from us.

When I grew older I realized that something was very wrong in the way I taught to feel. Sadly, the way I was raised was not unique. Hundreds of millions of other people have also been raised by the misguided hand of hatred.

Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? It's a system that brings unity, cohesion and compliance to feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption.

SOUTH AFRICAN SUNDAY TIMES PHOTO CREATES UNWANTED SPOTLIGHT.

By Marc Hoffman

Identified as one of four Lesbians of a soccer team in South Africa's Sunday Times was a death sentence for Zoliswa Nkonyana, 19.

Now 6 boys, between 17 and 19, have been arrested with her murder. The local lesbian soccer team member was taunted and threatened by a woman who later came back with a group of young men who began beating her.

This week the Cape Town Pride Festival kicks off, culminating in the Pride March through the city streets.

VICTIMIZED TWICE IS ONE TOO MUCH

Surrey, a county south east of London, with one million people have seen a rise of 65 per cent in recorded hate crimes during the past year. 151 more cases of hate crimes have been reported from April 2004 to January 2005.

Surrey Police are particularly concerned about those one time victims who are now repeat victims by repeat offenders.

Recent figures also show a 102 per cent increase in hate crime detection rates, up from 47 in the period April 2004 to January 2005 to 95 in the period April 2005 to January 2006.

Surrey Police is committed to tackling hate crime but admit they are overwhelmed. We cannot do it alone, they have said. They want those victims to come forward and report their victimhood to them.

Chairman of Surrey Police Independent Advisory Group Nuweed Razaq said: "It is essential that individuals and groups within our communities come forward to report and challenge these unjust crimes.

WEBSITE CRAIGSLIST.ORG ACCUSED OF BIAS

By Julie Bosman, New York Times

African-Americans and Arabians tend to clash with me. No minorities. Those were some of the phrases used in Craigslist.org in advertising rental listings.

The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to publish ads that exclude potential tenants on the basis of race, gender, marital status, national origin and religion.

Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, said in a statement on his Web site, it is unclear how much doing so would cost Craigslist, or what impact that expense would have on the company's bottom line in screening the housing ads.

TORONTO EXPERIENCES DROP IN HATE CRIMES

By Paul Lungen, staff writer

Though the Jewish organization B'nai Brith of Canada are concerned the drop in reported hate crimes are a result of unreported incidents; 19 per cent less hate crimes occurred than the year before.

The Jewish community makes up approximately 8.3 per cent of the population in the City of Toronto but was victimized in 84 per cent of total hate crimes.

Three hundred and thirty eight hate crimes against Jews occurred in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. Toronto police reported that most hate crimes are often "unprovoked, random assaults committed in public areas throughout the city by unknown suspects.

A 1998 report cited approximately 10% of hate crimes are associated with organized hate groups. The majority of suspects are young males acting alone or in small groups.

THE GLOBALIZATION OF HATE

There are thousands of boys with cutlasses and sticks on the rampage. I've counted at least 20 bodies here by the Onitsha bridge.

Nigeria's 140 million people are split roughly equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Sizeable religious and ethnic minorities live in both regions.

Religious violence is often stoked by political leaders seeking to bolster their own power bases and reserve their financial stake in Nigeria's large oil reserves.

The political atmosphere in the nation is degenerating and with high poverty there are a lot of unemployed youths. That is why this kind of crisis starts easily," said Adamu Abubakar, a Red Cross official in Bauchi.

UNREPORTED

By Joseph Farah

Victims of hate crime in the U.S. tend to be poor, young, white, single urban dweller, according to an analysis of Justice Department statistics collected from between July 2000 and December 2003.

Virtually unreported by the U.S. press a Bureau of Justice reports details a study of 210,000 "hate crimes" a year during that period has gone virtually unreported by the U.S. press

Between 1982 and 1993, eleven years, 266,291 deaths in the United States were alcohol-related -- one fatality every 30 minutes. Compare that to the Hate Crime Statistics of three years.

By a wide variation 84 percent of hate crimes were violent, involving a sexual attack, robbery, assault or murder. By contrast, just 23 percent of non-hate crimes involved violence.

PHOTO MURDER LESBIAN

Zoliswa Nkonyana, 19, was beaten to death with bricks and golf clubs front of her stepfathers house because of a published photo picturing four lesbians accompanying an article against hate crimes.

The editor to the South African Cape Town newspaper Sunday Times Mondli Makhanya responded, "Our intention was to highlight a crime against the gay community, and it was never our intention to cause further hurt. We're happy to correspond with the gay community on this issue

Despite warnings from Triangle Project of hate crimes against gay and lesbian people in the traditional township areas, the Sunday Times published the picture of Nkonyana along with three members of her lesbian football club.

GAYS AND LESBIANS HAVE PARENTS

Though America has embraced freedom of religion, religious agencies are trying to push laws through state legislations to ban the adoption of unwanted babies by Gays or Lesbians.

Roman Catholic bishops in Massachusetts are seeking an exemption from state anti-bias laws to allow the church to bar Gays from adopting through its social service agencies. Mississippi bans adoption by gay couples, but gay singles can adopt.

Florida has banned all gays and lesbians from adopting since 1977. Some states, such as Ohio, Georgia and Kentucky, approved constitutional amendments in 2004 banning gay marriage and since marriage has been defined in those states the question of who adopts abandoned children needs to be scrutinized.

Kent Markus of the National Center for Adoption Law & Policy in Ohio says he hasn't seen this much activity in 15 years as a researcher.

VULNERABILITY ATTACKS GAYS AND LESBIANS IDENTITY.

by Dr. Gregory Herek

Dr. Herek who is listed on this web Resources Section, presents new material describing longer lasting effects of trauma induced by the perpetration of the actual hate crime event.

An analysis from 5 year study shows Gays and Lesbians suffer more and longer when attacked in a hate crime than those Gays and Lesbians who suffered from a non hate crime event.

Many of the problems observed by Dr. Herek's research team may result from hate crimes victims' feelings of personal danger and vulnerability associated with their identity as a gay man or lesbian

SIXTEENTH STREET CHURCH A FOUNDATION FOR BLACK AMERICAN MEMORY.

By Jay Reeves, Associated Press

Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was honored as a national landmark Monday, by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

As ten Baptist churches have recently been burned to the ground between Feb. 3 and Feb. 11 this year in Alabama, Bush's Attorney General called the building a catalyst for the cause of justice. Four children, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11, killed when a bomb went off under the steps of the building on Sept. 15, 1963, the 43rd year, 5th month, 6 day anniversary date.

The Church in Birmingham was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shutterworth.

In 2000, thirty years later, the FBI concluded the crime was committed by a splinter group of the Klu Klux Klan called the Cahaba Boys.

Richard Chambliss, who placed the TNT, under the steps of the church, was found not guilty, in October 1963, of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine with a six-month jail sentence. The FBI was found to hinder the investigation. Later, retried, Chambliss died in an Alabama prison on 29th October, 1985.

Co-conspirator Robert Cherry was tried in 2001 and was found mentally unable to stand trial. Robert Blanton, now 61, was given a life sentence in 2001 and writes for right wing groups. Suspect Herman Cash never faced trial and died 1994.

The enshrined Sixteenth Street Baptist is undergoing an extensive renovation to shore up its foundation, but Cabinet Interior Secretary to President Bush, Gale Norton said the historic designation does not make the building eligible for new funding.

IF YOU JUST THINK OF BALING YOU GONNE END UP WITH OUT A THING

By Chris Bradley

Being Black as a student in America isn't just about bling and rap. The NAACP took a few students down to the Bovee University Center’s Down Under Food Court to teach the students about their rights as citizens.

The NAACP told the students about Michigan’s criminal justice system. Among the issues discussed were the lack of hate crime legislation, overrepresentation of minorities in prisons and the Michigan affirmative action amendment, which will appear on ballots in November

There also were two posters that told stories of minority youths being put into prisons with adults, many of whom were beaten or killed.

Sheena Kelly, Flint senior and NAACP member, didn't feel comfortable because she is usually the only minority in the class. Many people don’t go to this school because it’s so predominantly white. Exactly why she joined the NAACP.

The NAACP meets every other Monday in the Multicultural Education Center for join ups and a show of unity and strength.

ON PRESIDENTS DAY ANGER NOT HATE CONSOLE CONGREGATION

by Clay Carey

Church pews were turned over. Refrigerators and the Church Organ were turned over. Racial slurs and poorly drawn swastikas' were inked on the walls. Light fixtures were torn down from the ceiling.

The proud pictorial history of past St. Bellview Missionary Baptist Church ministers near Millersville in Tennessee where torn and scattered on the floor.

It would have to be a sick-minded person to come into the sanctuary and tear everything up, Pastor Alfred Brooks said during the morning's service. But by the help of God, it didn't keep us from coming to worship this morning.

The police and FBI are investigating this incident as a hate crime.

SEXUAL HATE CRIME IS NO HATE CRIME IN ALABAMA

by Theo Travers

Hundreds held a vigil to remember the seven year anniversary of Billy Gaither murdered on February 19, 1999 not just because he was a human being, but because he was Gay.

Butler(19) and Mullins(25) killed Billy Gaither(39) a gay man who propositioned them at a bar. Butler pleaded not guilty, but Mullins confessed.

In testimony, Mullins, a skinhead, said he decided to kill Gaither because the victim had made a pass at him. He said he asked Butler along, and that Butler understood what was to happen.

Butler claimed he had no idea that Mullins planned to kill Gaither at Peckerwood Creek in Alabama when he was asked to meet the two men one February night.

But District Attorney Fred Thompson alleged Butler had numerous chances to flee from the crime or get help for the victim and did not. You went along every step of the way? Thompson asked. Yes, sir, Butler replied.

At 5-foot-3, 120 pounds, Butler was described by prosecutors as a boyish looking sixth-grade dropout who resembled Opie from The Andy Griffith Show

Representative Alvin Holmes proposed a revision to add sexual orientation as a parameter under the state hate crimes law. It was voted down in the state house of representatives

RELIGIOUS BROADCASTERS SPEAK FOR GOD

Dallas cheered the leaders of the National Religious Broadcasters who oppose legislation favoring homosexual behavior.

Speaking at the Gaylord Texan Convention Center the broadcasters said the Word of God in the Testament ranks the law of Congress. Chairman Ron Harris believes Christian media can be Gods tool for evangelicals to change the culture of the nations

Pat Robertson of the 700 club and prominent Evangelical, will not attend citing his misplaced condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who, in Robertson claimed, acted in disobedience to God in finding peace in the Middle East.

CRIME DOES NOT PAY FOR VICTIMS OF PERPETRATORS EXTREME BIAS

by Sean Kosofsky, Director of Policy for Triangle Foundation

Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan believes anti-LGBT harassment and police abuse do not count as crime, even when paramedics, police or probation officers break the law

Glenn issued a press release demanding the State of Michigan take back funding it gives to the Triangle Foundation who serves victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes.

Glenn has convinced a few legislators to hold hearings on the issue and they may introduce an amendment to the Michigan budget to block groups like Triangle from accessing Victims of Crimes Act (VOCA) funds to serve LGBT clients

The Victims of Crimes Act (VOCA) requires perpetrators of federal crimes to pay fees when they are convicted. Those funds are then distributed to agencies serving crime victims. In other words, this is not taxpayer money - it is from offenders themselves.

PICTURE OF HANGMAN'S NOOSE SPELLS FEAR FOR EDITOR.

Jeff Unearth, Christopher Sherman, among contributors of story

The black female editor of the newspaper, The Pine Hills News, Ethylene Crenshaw, received in the mail a picture of a hangman's noose. A complaint has been filed with the police.

Although 40 year old Ms. Crenshaw said she fears for her life, the police have not determined whether a hate crime has been committed

Crenshaw, whose experience includes being an active member of the Volusia-Flagler American Civil Liberties Union said she intends to take this matter seriously.

THE FIRST RESPONSE OF A FIRST RESPONDER

Firefighter Rufus Smith said. I give my life to the citizens of Jacksonville, Florida any day, any second, all day for 17 years.

When Firefighter Smith reported to his fire station at Duval and Jefferson streets downtown Friday morning he and another black firefighter found nooses on their gear.

Mayor John Peyton issued a statement expressing his anger and disappointment at this morally reprehensible act. Peyton said the city's Human Rights Commission and the office of General Counsel would also investigate the incident.

In 2002, Smith filed a lawsuit with a U.S. district court claiming black firefighters have a tougher time getting promoted than whites. Within the past year, Laws filed a complain of unsafe working conditions with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Smith and Laws were placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated.

HOW DO CRIMES BECOME HATE?

Kenneth C. Blanchard Jr. is a professor of political science at Northern State University

Blanchard says reactions to horrific crimes may be sorted by political perspective. Liberals think prejudice needs a response such as hate crimes legislation. Harsh penalties are warranted by hatred of some specific group of people. Conservatives think that such laws are unnecessary. Motives are considered in sentencing. Hence juries tend to punish crimes of prejudice to the full extent of the law.

Hate crime laws send the wrong message - that it is especially bad to kill certain kinds of people.

To someone who knows a bit about sociobiology, this behavior is frighteningly familiar. Their predatory intentions, and not their prejudice, were their dominant motives. Predators always seek out the most vulnerable prey. In nature, this is usually an individual who is weak, slow, small or isolated from the pack.

HATE BANDITS USE DEAD RACCOON TO ROCK CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

By Denise Hollinshed, staff writer

A Raccoon, strung up to a post, was found dead by minority workers working on Interstate 64 near Caseyville, St. Louis.

Metro-East Black Contractors, and a spokesman for the group, Eric Vickers, said they were appalled by the incident and have asked the U.S. Justice Department and Illinois Department of Transportation to investigate it as a hate crime.

Matt Vanover, a spokesman for IDOT, If we find out who did this and what their intent was, our response will be immediate and severe."

REMEMBER OCTOBER 17, 1961?

A movie titled CACHE recalls that incident when Police slaughtered over 200 Algerians in Paris.

Director, Michael Haneke, an Austrian who makes films in France looks at the incident through the character of Georges Laurent who receives anonymous video tapes.

Georges begins to understand the anonymous tapes reveal his part in that insidious day of carnage.

Director Haneke believes that the big dirty secret of Western civilization is racism and tries to how difficult it is, even for a man like Georges, finds it difficult to confront his complicity in it.

STP HTE BY TXT MSG

By Staff Writer

Police in Surrey, England are posting signs in neighborhoods to curb a 66% rise in hate crimes.

The post reads H8 B4 ITS 2 L8.

Doctors offices, libraries, churches and community centers are being given the posts.

POPULATION DECLINE STIRS UP DIVISION

By Tera Hodges

In Russia, groups like skinheads are gaining momentum from poverty and lack of job opportunities for targeting immigrants and ethnic minorities for their troubles.

According to the report, the Russian population is declining by 750,000 people annually.

However, economists argue that immigrants, with college educations and willing to work for cheaper pay, are needed to help combat the massive numbers of Russians leaving every year.

HATE SPARKS FEAR IN PHILLY FIREHOUSE

Lt. Joseph Montague, who is white, said he found a folded up pillowcase hanging on his locker, with the words KKK and CAFFA written on it, as well as a pair of eyes that were drawn on the pillowcase.

Montague is vice president of CAFFA, which stands for the Concerned America Firefighters Association, which is a group that opposes racial quotas in hiring.

Commissioner Lloyd Ayres said, I was notified of the situation immediately after it happened, and we are in the middle of a very serious joint investigation with Philadelphia police. We believe this is an isolated incident, and we will take appropriate action pending the outcome of the investigation.

VICTIM SUES EMT OVER ROUGH TREATMENT

by Mark Jewell

Robert Perry, attacked by homophobic Nazi wanna be 18 year old Robida, is pursuing a claim New Bedford paramedics took too long taking him to a hospital, were physically and verbally abusive, and shared private medical information with his family without his permission.

Ironically, victim Perry, 52, is clinical services director at an ambulance service in Boston.

Steve Arruda, acting deputy director of the New Bedford emergency medical services, declined to comment because of an ongoing investigation.

HATE DEBATE HEATS UP

by Norbett L. Mintz, opinion

According to Jeff Jacoby, a writer from Boston.Com on February 15, 2006 - Ten arson attacks against 10 churches -- all of them Baptist, all in small Alabama towns, all in the space of eight days: If anything is a hate crime, obviously this is. Or is it?

In 1996, a spate of fires in the South was wildly and falsely trumpeted in the media as an eruption of racism. ''We are facing an epidemic of terror," said Deval Patrick, the Clinton administrations assistant attorney general for civil rights. But as it turned out, there was no racist conspiracy. More than a third of the arsonists arrested were black, and more than half the churches burned were white. So perhaps it is progress of a sort that, this time around, the media are keeping in check the urge to cry Racism!

Mr. Jacoby goes on to say: But real progress will come only when we abandon the whole misguided notion of hate crimes.

Mr. MINTZ, one of the Founders of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, disagrees. The crime of premeditated murder is viewed by the law as different from manslaughter, since one involves intent and the other does not. Likewise, hate crimes are different from other crimes. The first crime is an anti-social act, and the victim just happened to be a gay man. The second act is a political statement; it happened precisely because the victim was a gay man.

But is it a political crime?

HATE CRIME VICTIMS ALLOWED FINANCIAL COMPENSATION

by Andrew Davis, writer

House Bill 4134 amends the Crime Victims Compensation Act to allow victims of hate crimes to file for economic assistance from the state.

Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, who sponsored the bill, says: "Victims of hate crimes are put under terrible emotional and psychological strain."

The measure now moves to the Illinois Senate for further consideration.

ATTORNEY AWARDED $65,000 FOR PROSECUTING BIGOTRY

by AP Connecticut

A mixed-race family won a bigotry lawsuit against its former neighbors deserves to be paid more than $65,000 it spent on legal fees.

Justice Christine S. Vertefeuille, writing for the court in the unanimous decision, said the award of attorney fees was reasonable

MUSLIMS LOSE TEMPER AGAINST HATE CRIME CARTOONS

By Scott Haggert, writer

A Canadian magazine is reprinting Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, prompting Muslim groups to press for hate-crime charges against the publication.

Canadian law prohibits the willful incitement of hatred toward any identifiable group, based on ethnicity, region or sexual orientation.

It is the third time Calgary police have been asked to bring charges over the cartoons. The first came after the images were tacked to utility poles in a downtown neighborhood and the second came after they were published in the Jewish Free Press, a tiny local paper that printed three last week.

STUDENTS TEST COMMUNITY LAW

In December, Chamberlain, Riha, Moore and Cochacki allegedly vandalized the Ogg Hall residence-hall door of a UW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison.

According to the police report, the four students allegedly wrote offensive, anti-homosexual comments on the dry-erase board, ripped down LGBT posters and spit on his door.

Using a blog across several web pages students debate the question of hate crimes is to some Orwellian prosecution of thought.

FAMILY COURT HELPS TEENAGERS FALL THROUGH CRACKS AVOIDING HATE CRIMES LAWS

Thomas Tracy, staff writer

Charles Curia, chief of the Civil Rights and Police Integrity Bureau of the Kings County District Attorneys office says: We hear about a case and we think that it will be coming to us, but the case is instead sent to Family Court because juveniles are sent to Family Court and the lawyers that handle these cases are members of the city Corporation Counsel.

According to officials, up to six of the major bias crimes in the borough last year were committed by juveniles.

According to recent statistics, 75 percent of the suspects arrested for hate crimes are males between 16 and 21 years old, said members of the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, although last year saw an odd increase in the number of juvenile suspects.

FBI STATISTICS SHOW INFIDELITY BY UNDERSTATING HATE CRIMES

Hate Crimes Reported by Victims and Police, found an average annual total of 191,000 hate crimes. That means the real level of hate crime runs between 19 and 31 times higher than the numbers that have been officially reported for almost 15 years.

The revealing new report, compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and published in November, was based on an analysis of three and a half years of detailed survey data from the biannual National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

BAPTIST CHURCHES CONSUMED BY FIRES IN ALABAMA

By Megan Tench, Globe Staff writer

A 10th church fire in rural Alabama was ruled an arson by investigators yesterday, striking anxiety among members of Baptist churches around the region.

Unlike a string of black church burnings in Alabama in 1996, only one of the churches set aflame Friday has a predominantly black congregation. Investigators have said that they do not have a motive for the string of fires, but that there is no racial pattern. Five of the churches had white congregations, and five were made up of black members. All were Baptist, the dominant faith in the region, and most were in country settings.

The FBI has said it is examining whether the fires could be considered hate crimes under the Church Arson Prevention Act. That law, signed in 1996, makes it a crime to intentionally damage or destroy houses of worship or to use threats or violence to halt the exercise of religion.

DOING WHAT'S RIGHT...ACCEPTING CONTRIBUTIONS TO STALL HATE CRIME LAWS

by Howard J. Bayless, III. Special writer

According to the National Coalition Against Violence, 10 percent of all hate crimes are committed against heterosexuals who were perceived by the perpetrator as gay, lesbian, transgendered or bisexual.

Passing a bill adding two words, sexual orientation, to a law that is already on the books will save lives -- and not just the lives of your gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered neighbors, but also the lives of the straight ones.

There is a cloud hanging over this session of the Alabama Legislature, a cloud of fear. If legislators support this bill, they may not receive money from their favorite PACs, such as the Christian Coalition or even groups such as ALFA.

ALABAMA LYNCH'S HATE CRIME BILL FOR GAYS

by John Davis

Rep. Alvin Holmes will push a bill to extend hate crime protections to gays died a quick and unceremonious death on the House floor Thursday. It failed to clear a procedural hurdle 37-40, with 45 representatives not voting.

Republicans say they oppose the concept of hate crimes laws for any group. All we are saying is, why is it not everyone treated equally under the law? said Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster.

COMMUNITY SOCIAL CENTERS TAKE REPORTS ON HATE CRIMES

by Keith Hall

Hate crimes can now be reported to social centers within the community the victim lives.

The centers will allow people from minority community groups to report racial harassment in a safe, confidential and familiar environment with no language barriers.

Once the report is lodged, with the consent of the victim it will be sent to police and other agencies that may be able to help, for example the councils housing department, or victim support services. The police will then make contact with the victims and progress the cases.

TEENS SENTENCED FOR VERBAL AND HATE ASSAULT

By Lee Sensenbrenner and Steven Elbow

Police said Charles Stokes and Maurice Fox, both of Madison, were making offending comments to the victims about their sexual orientation before they followed them around East Towne Mall on Monday evening and eventually began striking them.

In addition to the hate crime battery charges both face, Stokes was also tentatively charged with bail jumping, underage drinking and disorderly conduct. Fox was charged with obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct.

EXPANSION OF HATE CRIMES LAW MOVES FROM COMMITTEE TO SENATE

By Phillip Rawls, Associated Press Writer

Legislation expanding hate crimes law in Alabama to include the sexual orientation of a victims sexual orientation narrowly won approval from a state Senate committee Wednesday after a lively discussion about whether gays should be covered.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-3 for the bill by state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma. The bill now goes to the Senate, where similar legislation has died in past years. An identical bill by Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, won approval from the House Judiciary Committee last month and is awaiting a vote in the House.

HATE CRIME GOES ON TRIAL TODAY

BY Jennifer A. Bowen

Alleged suspect Harold Stufflebean is charged with a hate crime and mob action, both felonies, in connection with a fight in June between Stufflebean, two of his juvenile sons, several other neighbors and a Hispanic family living near his home.

According to police, Stufflebean used racial slurs and threatened the Hispanic family during the fight. Herain Espinoza and Sergio Viviano were injured during the fight. Espinoza was treated for a dislocated shoulder and Viviano had seven stitches after being hit on the head with a bicycle wheel.

Stufflebean is being held at the St. Clair County Jail on a $30,000 bail.

FIVE CHURCHES DEFACED WITH HATE SYMBOLOGY

By Cathy Smith

Vandals struck five Santa Cruz churches, a Christian bookstore and the historic Santa Cruz Mission Adobe on Saturday night in what police are calling a hate crime.

The vandals used a stencil to leave specially crafted messages and images about a half-foot across. One depicted a cross with an equal sign followed by a swastika. Church leaders said another stated "Abort Christ," a message one minister called "stunning and distressing."

Santa Cruz police Lt. Rick Martinez called it a calculated act that included designing stencils. "We are very concerned," he said. We are definitely investigating this as a hate crime, and it is definitely prioritized as such."

LONDON HATE CRIMES FALLING

Faith hate crimes in London have fallen below their level a year ago for the first time since last the July London bombings, police figures suggest.

A Met police spokeswoman said the drop reflected efforts to reduce such crime in the wake of the bombings. But a spokesman for the Muslim Safety Forum said the drop could be due to under-reporting.

WANNA-BE NAZI ATTACKS GAY IN MASSACHUSETTS.

by Matthew Nelson

According to the Boston Globe (John Ellement and Raja Mishra), February 3, 2006, Jacob D. Robida, an 18-year-old of New Bedford, MA entered Puzzles Lounge, a gay bar, with the intent to perpetuate a queer blood-bath. At about midnight, according to the article, Robida entered the establishment, verified that it was patronized by gays, walked over to the pool table and began hacking away at one of the patrons with a hatchet. He then went after a second man at which time Robida was hit over the head with a pool cue and a struggle ensued.

AFTER POLITE SESSIONS, LETTERS FILLED WITH ANTI-SEMITISM

By Ronald Pies, M.D.

Each day, I would dread checking my office mailbox, wondering if another of the overstuffed envelopes with their huge scrawled addresses would turn up.

It was hardly funny at the time, but my patient gave new meaning to the phrase "insane bigotry." There was no question that that he suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia.

I was the first Jewish psychiatrist to treat him and this had fueled a psychotic fire that seemed truly infernal.

But my patient was far too clever to make any direct threats against me. He knew that if he did so, we would have grounds to petition the court for an involuntary commitment. No, his threats were allusive, oblique and sometimes baroquely ingenious.

I developed a peculiar fondness for this brilliant and tortured man. I never replied to any of his threatening letters, and he, in turn, ever lifted a finger against me. (It is, after all, a myth that psychiatric patients are a dangerous and violent lot.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ASSEMBLY APPROVES LIMIT ON USE OF "GAY PANIC" STRATEGY.

For More Information, Contact: Cory Jasperson at (916) 319-2022

California State Assembly

District Office, 274 Castro Street Mountain View, CA 94041

Phone: 408.277.2003; Fax: 408.277.208

(Sacramento, CA) - Assembly Bill 1160, authored by Assemblywoman Sally J. Lieber (D-San Jose), which limits the use of the gay panic strategy, passed the California Assembly along party lines. The gay panic strategy is a term used to describe a strategy or excuse employed by some murder defendants who argue that they did not intentionally kill their victim. Rather, the defendant asserts that he or she flew into such a rage upon learning that the victim was gay or transgender that the killing was actually the lesser offense of manslaughter.

A.B. 1160 declares that it is against public policy for a defendant to play upon the bias of the jury, or for a jury to allow bias against the victim to enter into its decision-making. The bill further mandates a revised jury instruction to ensure that a jury duty to operate free from bias is clearly stated to each juror.

The Assembly approved the measure on a vote of 45 to 32, with 2 members not voting and one member absent. The bill now moves to the Senate.

RIVERSIDE CALIFORNIA COP DOWN FOR 65 COUNTS OF INTERNET PEDOPHILIA

By Lance Pugmire, Times Staff Writer

Former Riverside police Officer Adam James Brown was sentenced to 495 years to life on Friday for sexually assaulting four boys, as a victim and his mother lashed out, calling Brown an "animal" who put his sick needs first.

Brown had known the boy and his family for years and began abusing the boy shortly after the death of the father.

Last month, Brown pleaded no contest to 65 felonies for sexually assaulting the boys from 1998 - the year he became a police officer - through at least 2002.

As bailiffs escorted Brown out of the courtroom, Brown made an obscene gesture with his middle finger to a news photographer.

PSYCHIATRY EXAMINES CASE STUDIES AND FINDS EXTREME BIAS CAN BE ILLNESS

By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post Staff Writer

The 48-year-old man turned down a job because he feared that a co-worker would be gay. He was upset that gay culture was becoming mainstream and blamed most of his personal, professional and emotional problems on the gay and lesbian movement.

These fixations preoccupied him every day. Articles in magazines about gays made him agitated. He confessed that his fears had left him socially isolated and unemployed for years: A recovering alcoholic, the man even avoided 12-step meetings out of fear he might encounter a gay person. He had a fixed delusion about the world.

DIAGNOSTIC STUDY OF RACE CRIMES IS UNDER FUNDED

By Dominic Casciani, BBC News community affairs

Researchers claim that the government takes race crime seriously but not enough is done to prevent it happening. The Runnymede Trust, a think tank, spent two years studying how British society tries to prevent racism and prejudice.

PUPILS CONDUCT HATE SHOCK THERAPY AGAINST PSYCHOLOGIST

By Richard Edwards, Leeds Evening Post, Yorkshire, UK

Vicious schoolboys forced a senior psychologist from Leeds to run the gauntlet of horrendous homophobic abuse and attacks.

Peter McParlin, 50, from Shadwell, told an employment tribunal that while working as an educational psychologist, he was subjected to homophobic abuse

Dr McParlin said no action was taken about the abuse, despite the head teacher, Andrew Anderson, saying he took the issue seriously. Despite Mr. Anderson's assurances that the abuse would be dealt with.

Dr McParlin claimed he later discovered Mr Anderson held anti-gay attitudes. Dr McParlin is claiming discrimination or victimization on grounds of sexual orientation.

Dr McParlin said that since he has been employed by North Yorkshire County Council he has been unsuccessful in five separate internal job applications, with anti-gay prejudice behind the non-appointments.

A director of Dr. McParlin, Mr. Chris Shelley, was also implicated in harassing the psychologist and has quit his job in 2003. Yet, other colleagues show misogynistic and homophobic attitudes towards Dr. McParlin.

IRANIAN JUSTICE IMPOSES DEATH UPON GAY TEENAGERS

IRIN News Agency

It is entirely unacceptable that people are actually killed because of their sexuality, Kursad Kahramananoglu, head of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), the oldest and only membership-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organization in the world, maintained from Istanbul

These comments follow the public hangings of Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, on 19 July in Mashad, provincial capital of Iran's northeastern Khorasan province, on charges of homosexuality. Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy, though Outrage believed those allegations were trumped up to undermine public sympathy for the two youths, both of whom maintain they were unaware homosexual acts were punishable by death, an AP news report said on Sunday.

The judiciary has trampled its own laws, Asgaris lawyer, Rohollah Razez Zadeh, was quoted as saying, explaining that Iranian courts were supposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years in jail, but the Supreme Court of Iran allowed the hangings to proceed.

Citing Iranian human rights four thousand lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Iranian revolution of 1979. In total, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last 26 years of clerical rule, including women who had sex outside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government