Free Republic

Supporters of Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriage in California, are running their first television ad.The commercial features San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom making a celebratory speech. The state Supreme Court had just invalidated a law overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2000 that declared "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Following is a text of the ad and an analysis by Aurelio Rojas of The Bee's Capitol Bureau: The ad Newsom: This door's wide open now. It's going to happen whether you like it or not.Narrator: Four judges ignored 4 million...

A federal "hate crimes" plan to criminalize speech or thoughts critical of homosexuality – dropped from Congress' agenda earlier because of a veto threat from President Bush – may be resurrected before the election, according to an opponent of such advocacy laws. "Here's ultimately what we expect," Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University School of Law, told WND today. "The hate crimes plan is to be offered as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2009 Department of Defense reauthorization bill. That's what the word is, that it's going to be offered as an amendment."...

MINNEAPOLIS—A Hennepin County Medical Center volunteer and nurse were separately attacked by the same three suspects. Reiner Schonolling was attacked Tuesday morning by three Somali teenagers on bikes. The suspect who hit him said he does not like white Americans. Just one hour before the attack, the suspects punched Robin Cooper who is a nurse at HCMC. The attacks happened at Elliot Park in downtown Minneapolis along 8th Street. “I believe they picked on someone they thought they can get away with,” says Cooper.

On Sunday, July 27, 2008 a man named Jim David Adkisson walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, killed two worshipers, and wounded seven before being subdued by church-goers. At first, the story seemed like another case of a disturbed individual wanting to create mayhem for no particular rhyme or reason. These types of occurrences have almost become commonplace in our society. From attacks in schools, churches, and the workplace, it is evident in today's culture that no place is safe from those who seek fame by killing their fellow man. However, the Knoxville, Tennessee shooting, from...

OAKLAND -- The former head of Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland and an associate of the now-defunct business pleaded no contest today to vandalism in connection with the trashing of two liquor stores in the city in 2005. Yusuf Bey IV, 22, the son of the bakery's late leader, Yusuf Bey, pleaded no contest to all eight charges against him, including vandalism, false imprisonment, hate-crime and civil-rights violations. He is expected to be sentenced to three years in state prison.Bakery associate Dyamen Williams, 21, pleaded no contest to vandalism and could face up to a year in county jail.On...

By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 25, 2008 Hate crimes in Los Angeles County rose to their highest level in five years last year, led by attacks between Latinos and blacks, officials said Thursday. The annual report by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission showed hate crimes rose by 28%, to 763, with vandalism and assault leading the way. Robin S. Toma, executive director of the... Boy, 6, critically hurt as gunfire...The Homicide Report Bratton walks a fine line on race Video: Surveillance tape: anti-Semitic graffiti on synagogue In what commission Executive Director Robin Toma called...

On Wednesday the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a short per curiam order, in which it agreed with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania that the state legislature violated the Pennsylvania Constitution when it added "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to Pennsylvania's "ethnic intimidation" law. Eleven Christians of the evangelical group Repent America were arrested due to that same law in 2004 for reading the Bible and singing hymns at Outfest, a homosexual rally. Though the case was eventually dropped, Repent America filed legal action in 2005 against the act, citing its unconstitutional nature. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania agreed last...

Usually, when a journalist is censored in a Western nation, American news organizations respond with collective outrage. But as a major attack on press freedom unfolds in Canada, America’s mainstream media are silent. Neither the TV networks nor the major newspapers have reported on hearings last week at what amounts to a Stalinesque show trial in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mark Steyn, a Canadian journalist who now lives in New Hampshire and whose column appears in National Review magazine as well as several U.S. and Canadian newspapers, is facing charges before British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal. His crime? Spreading “hatred.” The...

Maureen Monks, about to become the newest judge of the Middlesex Probate and Family Court, is a long-time radical lesbian activist attorney. She specializes in "gay" family issues. Last week, when her nomination hit some rocky waters getting through the Governor's Council, Governor Deval Patrick simply ignored their official vote and announced he will swear her in. Monks' nomination - and the governor's action -- was strongly supported by both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald on their editorial pages.

Ardmore, OK — An Ardmore man who told authorities last week he was the victim of an attempted lynching near Milo, has admitted the story was a hoax. Sheriff Ken Grace said Glynis Davis made the admissions Monday in a formal statement that the lynching incident he had described was untrue. “His wife was with him when he made the statement and corroborated the statement,” Grace said. Davis’ admissions came when the Carter County Sheriff’s Department and FBI investigation into his May 28 report that four white men tried to lynch him indicated the story was not factual. “The injuries...

The FBI (web) and Carter County Sheriff's Department are investigating a claim by a black Ardmore man who says a group of men tried to lynch him in southern Oklahoma. The man's name hasn't been released. Deputies say he told them he was traveling to Milo in northwestern Carter County on May 25th when he stopped to help a farmer round up stray cattle from the road. He says as helped move the cattle four white men appeared and accused him of stealing the and began trying to lynch him. The man says another man then drove up in a...

Some of those who rail against illegal immigration can dish it out, but they can't take it. Since most illegal immigrants come from Mexico or other parts of Latin America, critics sometimes say the sort of crude things that give the debate its anti-Latino flavor. But let someone call them on it and do they ever get defensive. Speaking to supporters in Palm Beach last week, Barack Obama blasted a couple of media personalities by name. “A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There's a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year,” Obama...

SUBOTICA -- A Bosniak man in northern Serbia is under arrest for staging and then reporting incidents made to look like hate crime. Serbian police (MUP) in Subotica say they yesterday detained Samir K., 35, on suspicion that he threw a Molotov cocktail at his own house, in addition to spraying nationalist graffiti, and then reported this. The suspect was further found in illegal possession of firearms and explosives, and will be charged with causing ethnic, racial and religious hatred and intolerance, as well as with attempted murder in an unrelated incident. His claims started to unravel when the suspect...

The Metropolitan Police Service has this morning 21 May 2008 carried out raids across London to tackle domestic, homophobic and race hate crime. In a scene right out of the "Nazi Times," or "Stalin's Purge," Bobbies arrested 200 Londoners in a pre-dawn raid across 29 burroughs this week in their 8th annual Operation Athena. The operation tackles domestic, homophobic and race hate crimes. While this year's arrests are not yet detailed, in the past raids have rounded up journalists who wrote positively about fox hunting (a racial crime),..

To Hate or Not to Hate? by: Bethany Stotts, May 20, 2008 With the Sean Bell and Rodney King scandals elevating public concern about racially-motivated violence, support for federal hate-crimes legislation has intensified. Some scholars worry that such proposals use dangerously vague language. “One thing you have to keep in mind with the hate-crimes statute is that it is drafted extremely broadly. You hear it referred to as a ‘hate crime’ statute—it is therefore natural to believe it must require hatred. It does not,” argued Professor Gail Heriot. She believes that H.R. 1592 masks lawmakers’ long-standing desire to radically expand...

GENEVA (Reuters) - A special U.N. human rights investigator will visit the United States this month to probe racism, an issue that has forced its way into the race to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. The United Nations said Doudou Diene would meet federal and local officials, as well as lawmakers and judicial authorities during the May 19-June 6 visit."The special rapporteur will...gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," a U.N. statement said on Friday.His three-week visit, at U.S. government invitation, will cover eight cities -- Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Omaha,...

MSNBC will rebroadcast a documentary about the crimes that got the Carr brothers on death row in Kansas at 11:00-12:00 PM EDT. That is 10:00-11:00PM CDT where I live. I'm not sure when the Mountain and Pacific time zones will see it.

"Hate crimes" laws were defeated in Congress just a few months ago. Just a few weeks ago, Frank Wright of the National Religious Broadcasters Association warned, "We must be one in Christ to face the days ahead" because "hate crimes" laws would create untold new liability for Christians. Now a major Christian ministry has confirmed that such "hate crimes" laws already are setting limits on what it can broadcast. The issue is "hate crimes" laws in Canada, and they are affecting U.S. Christian ministries that broadcast into that nation. WND reported just a week ago on a Christian ministry based...

Hate crimes commission set to fail Blagojevich hasn't appointed anyone to panel By NGUYEN HUY VU THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published Tuesday, March 25, 2008 After religious divisions paralyzed a state commission on hate crimes, Illinois lawmakers wanted a fresh start. They created a new version of the Governor’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes, designed to promote tolerance within the state’s diverse population. But seven months later, Gov. Rod Blagojevich hasn’t appointed a single person to the overhauled commission, which will fail to accomplish its first major goal — presenting a report by March 30. Meanwhile, the old version of...

Anglican priest, Canon Michael Ainsworth, beaten up in 'faith hate' incident Jonathan Milne, The Sunday Times AN Anglican priest has been beaten up and insulted in what appears to be a “faith hate” assault by Asian youths. Police are looking for three men after the attack in east London in which Canon Michael Ainsworth, 57, rector of St George-in-the-East, Shadwell, was attacked in his own churchyard after approaching the youths, who were behaving rowdily. Two of the three attacked him, inflicting cuts, bruises and two black eyes. The assailants are also alleged to have insulted the cleric for his occupation....

The FBI believes its agents still aren't sensitive enough to Muslims and their culture, so the bureau has extended by "a few weeks" its Islamic cultural "enrichment" training program, WND has learned. During a recent outreach event at a Washington-area mosque, FBI officials also reassured a large turnout of concerned Muslims that the bureau is not profiling Arabs and Muslims for terrorism, and has made investigating alleged "hate crimes" against them and other minorities "the second-highest priority in the criminal division of the FBI." Among the officials who attended the Feb. 8 "town hall meeting" at the large ADAMS Center...

Hate crimes rose by 52 percent against blacks and 35 percent against Jews in New York City last year, according to statistics provided by police at a Bronx forum Tuesday. In the lone bit of positive news, anti-gay crimes dropped, though only by 2 percent. Experts attributed the increase in part to the economic downturn and to racial unrest following last summer's Jena Six incident, as well as recent events such as the Howard Beach assaults and the Sean Bell shooting. However, police and prosecutors emphasized their efforts to combat bias attacks. "We want to make sure we send a...

Behind the School Safety Movement by: Bethany Stotts, February 27, 2008 Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations believe that promoting school safety is essential to their organization’s mission. Ally Action, the Anti-Defamation League, Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Out for Equity, Safe Schools Coalition, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation all consider fostering safe gay-accepting schools a high priority.... The SSC’s “Guidelines on Bias” (pdf) eschews the term “minority” for “non-majority” and considers language labeling minorities as disadvantaged or needy “patronizing” and biased. In an ideal situation, “The right of non-majority people to decide what is...

A message posted January 20, 2008 on the Islamist forum Al-Hesbah (hosted by NOC4Hosts Inc. in Florida, USA), by a member calling himself Al-Jawfi, suggests stirring up racial tension between African-Americans and whites in the U.S. by spreading inflammatory materials on the Internet. In the discussion thread, other members proposed posting racist materials against African-Americans (such as insulting jokes and pictures) on sites frequented by African-Americans, in order to arouse anger and bitterness in their community. Another suggestion was to post, on white supremacist sites, materials that present African-Americans as a threat to American society. The following are excerpts from...

US, February 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the same time that news has come out that the Toronto Catholic School board has refused to participate in pro-homosexual activities, homosexual activists are making significant inroads in US schools, as a booklet titled, "Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth," is set to be distributed to all 16,000 school districts in the country. The 24-page booklet by the National Education Association and American Psychological Association, tells students that homosexuality is a "normal expression of human sexuality". "What's so scary and dogmatic about this report is that it communicates that religious-based viewpoints...

New Jersey will soon become the latest state to legally honor a person's so-called "gender expression."Homosexual activists are praising New Jersey lawmakers for adding cross-dressers to the list of those protected by the state's supposed "hate crimes" law, and for allowing judges to impose "sensitivity training" on those accused of violations. Bob Knight of the Culture and Media Institute is surprised that mainstream media outlets have not given the story more play. "It's really quite a coup for the gay activists in New Jersey," he states. "Because when you put these hate crimes laws on the books, you're putting into...

New Jersey makes transgender-inclusion unequivocal in its hate crimes and safe schools laws “New Jersey has long been a national leader on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, but today rises to the top with two of the strongest hate crimes and safe schools laws in the country and unequivocal protections for transgender people.” — Matt Foreman, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — By a 65-10 vote, the New Jersey Assembly today approved legislation making the state’s anti-bullying and hate crimes laws two of the strongest in the country by making transgender-inclusion...

Excerpt from NJ101.5 "The legislature can't cure the problem," says State Senator Loretta Weinberg, "The only thing we can cure with legislation is to make sure that people know they can't act on those biases." Weinberg sponsors a bill scheduled for a vote today in the full Senate that would amend the law concerning the crime of bias intimidation to specifically provide that "gender identity or expression" and "national origin" are within the protected classes set forth in the statute. Currently a bias crime based on gender identity or expression or national origin can be prosecuted using the protected classes...

According to a 46-count indictment, suspects Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, all blacks, are charged with committing rape, including sodomy against Christian and Newsom, both of whom are white. After being raped, Newsom was shot several times and his body was found burned along nearby railroad tracks. Christian was forced to witness her boyfriend's rape, torture and subsequent murder before she was ultimately raped, tortured and murdered. The police discovered her body inside a large trash can in the kitchen of the home where the murders took place. Before disposing of her body, the murderers poured...

The Jena 6 case exploded over night when the Media imagined they had a “race hate” issue on their hands. They did the same with the Duke Rape case. Both cases were later proven not to be a case of a “hate crime” at all and, in the end, weren’t even real crimes. Yet, the media rushed to get these stories on the front pages and on every TV screen. Contrast that coverage with a reported crime that occurred near Princeton University that perfectly fits the definition of a “hate crime” and we found a media that stayed mum not...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Two separate Eugene families whose Nativity scenes were desecrated last week when a vandal replaced the baby Jesus figures with severed pigs' heads say they were targeted because of their religious faith. The culprits left other, more secular decorations untouched and focused only on the families' religious displays. "To me, they definitely wanted to make a religious statement," said David Stahl of Eugene, who discovered a pig head in his front yard Thursday. "This takes definite thought and too much anger." Eugene police are investigating the cases as possible bias crimes, a classification that could lead to...

If you're like I am, you've heard scores of media reports about the 2006 Duke University rape case, in which three white lacrosse players were falsely accused of raping a black stripper at a wild party at the home of one of the team members. These guys, convicted by the news media and Duke faculty, were later found innocent. It turned out that Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong was running for re-election. In seeking the black vote, he concealed DNA evidence that would have exonerated the lacrosse players. You might remember hearing scores of stories about the 1998 murder...

(CNSNews.com) - With Dec. 25 only days away, a central image in the celebration of Christmas - the manger scene featuring replicas of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus - has become the focus of attacks by vandals and leaders of "the secular Left," Christian groups charged on Wednesday. While the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights was erecting a nativity scene in New York City's Central Park, the group issued a news release condemning three dozen instances in which manger scenes were vandalized or stolen from Antioch, Calif., to Leesburg, Va., this Christmas season. "In perhaps the sickest...

Francisco Nava '09 has admitted to fabricating an alleged assault on him that he said occurred Friday evening and also to sending threatening emails to himself, other members of the Anscombe Society and prominent conservative politics professor Robert George, Princeton Township Police said today. "He fabricated the story," Det. Sgt. Ernie Silagyi said. Nava was released to Public Safety and charges "have not been filed pending further investigation," according to a statement from Township Police. — More to come.

Last May, firefighters at a Baltimore, Md., fire station came under scrutiny for displaying a deer with an afro wig, gold tooth, gold chain and a cigarette hanging from its mouth. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, went ballistic, charging, "There is now and has been a culture of racism and white supremacy within the Baltimore City Fire Department." As it turns out, it was a black fireman who dressed up the critter. Cheatham refused to apologize for his accusations of fire department racism, maintaining "there is now and has been a culture of racism...

<p>Congressional leaders, who have disappointed frequently this year, have done it again. This time, the House leadership has failed to find a way to get a bipartisan law against hate crimes passed and signed into law. Racial, religious, sexual and other minorities have waited long enough. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has to do more than just express her support for the bill; she must find a way to make it the law.</p>

A Boston firefighter is mending from what could have been deadly stab wounds he suffered early yesterday morning when he was allegedly jumped in East Boston while off duty by a group of Hispanic males who told him they "don't want any gringo here." Though police are not classifying the incident as racially fueled, the Boston Police Department's Community Disorders Unit is investigating. The 32-year-old jake, whose name officials were not releasing, is white. Ironically, the firefighter's life was likely saved because he sought refuge from his alleged assailants at Engine 5 on Saratoga Street - the station house he's...

Please call Senator and House members of the Defense Authorization conference committee and urge them to remove the Hate Crimes provision in the Defense spending bill. Down to the Wire on Hate (Thought) Crimes December 4, 2007 - Tuesday In an attempt to force the veto pen of President Bush, liberals on Capitol Hill have inserted the hate (thought) crimes language into the Defense Authorization bill expanding both the definition of hate crimes and of those who can be found culpable under these provisions. The definition is broadened to include sexual orientation among the protected classes, elevating sexual attraction...

A firefighter who reported finding a knotted rope and a threatening note with a drawing of a noose in an East Baltimore station house last month had placed the items there himself, city officials said yesterday. The man was suspended last week for performance-related issues and will likely face additional punishment, fire officials said. Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the Police Department and for Mayor Sheila Dixon, said the man admitted to the hoax and will not face criminal charges. Officials identified the firefighter who they say acknowledged writing the note as Donald Maynard, a firefighter-paramedic apprentice who is black....

The Church of England and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have commented on the Government’s proposed amendment to the Public Order Act 1986 to create a new offence of incitement to hatred on grounds of sexual orientation. Focussing on the use of threatening words or behaviour which are used with the intention of stirring up hatred goes a considerable way towards meeting the Churches’ concerns, they say in a memorandum to the parliamentary committee responsible for the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. Supporting the protection of people vulnerable to attack on grounds of their sexuality or gender...

Thousands of people march around the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007, during the "March Against Hate Crimes" to protest hate crime issues. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) WASHINGTON (AFP) - Almost 10,000 people in the United States were victims last year of hate crimes targeting them because of their skin color, religious belief, sexual orientation or ethnic origins, the FBI reported Monday. Sixty percent of the 9,642 hate crimes reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeted individuals or a collective of people, such as businesses or institutions, the statistics showed, while 39 percent were directed at property,...

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued its hate-crimes report this morning, a document which indicated a nearly eight percent increase in 2006 in such crimes compared with the year before, more than a few suspicions were aroused. Why did the agency wait until the Monday morning of Thanksgiving week to issue the report and not do it last week when Congress was still in town, as were thousands of mostly African American marchers led by Rev. Al Sharpton marched around the Justice Department to demand more federal action against hate crimes? Was the FBI trying to keep from further...

The Court of Appeals for the U.S. Ninth Circuit upheld this summer an Oakland, Calif., city government declaration that the phrase "marriage is the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values" was inflammatory and promoted harassment based on so-called sexual orientation. The phrase was also deemed to be homophobic and disruptive. It seems a few Christian women working for Oakland's city government formed a Good News Employee Association, and in promoting the club, included the aforementioned phrase on a flier. Later, a lesbian worker complained that the flier made her feel "targeted" and "excluded." Most recently, hate crimes...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- Twenty years after her allegations of a racially charged rape became a national flash point, Tawana Brawley's mother and stepfather want to reopen the case, a newspaper reported Sunday.</p> <p>Glenda Brawley and Ralph King want to press New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to re-examine the November 1987 incident, which a state grand jury ultimately concluded was a hoax, the Daily News reported.</p>

07:02 PM CST on Thursday, November 8, 2007 By Rosa Flores / 11 News A sensitive issue at Hightower High School had police giving 11 News a hard time. Watch Rosa Flores' 11 News report. The reporter covering the story was not allowed to talk to anyone on the public sidewalk nor the public street that faces the school. The district e-mailed 11 News a picture and said that an 11th grade student posted the words “white” and “colored” over two water fountains. Those two words evoked a racially charged message. Mark Cominsky is the director of the Anti-Defamation League....

A student at George Washington University recently complained that swastikas were scrawled on her dormitory door. Thanks to cameras hidden by university police, they have a suspect: The student who filed the complaint. I was shocked but not surprised, just as I am shocked but not surprised when, with thousands of cars on the road, some get into accidents. Similarly with the recent upsurge in national attention to swastikas, nooses and other racial vandalism in public places, I am shocked but not surprised that at least one case of racial-ethnic vandalism turns out to be phony. The young woman's sad...

During the week of October 22-26, David Horowitz and his Freedom Center held a series of events at 100 campuses for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, intended to counter standard academic nitwitery about the war on terrorism ("America is evil," "We brought it on ourselves," "9/11 was a Republican conspiracy"). Admirable though this was, attention must be called to an even more imminent threat. By the authority vested in me (by myself), I hereby designate the week of November 5th Left-Fascism Awareness Week -- a time to consider the clear and present danger to free speech emanating from the left, from academic...

(R)acial hoaxes can cut both ways. The flurry of hanging nooses around the country may be a case in point. Hate crime experts and civil rights leaders say, and the media spin is, that the nooses are a white racist backlash to the firestorm of black protest over the Jena 6 case involving black teens in Louisiana accused of battering a white student. Others go further and issue dire a warning that that the nooses are a grim sign of a new racist hate upsurge in America. A hanging noose found dangling on the office door of Madonna Constantine, a...

By nature, a crime against an individual or private property is an act of hatred and contempt. In our free society, the purpose of our system of justice is to mete out punishment appropriate to the crime committed. To quote Gilbert & Sullivan in The Mikado “To let the punishment fit the crime - The punishment fit the crime.” In a totalitarian society a crime is defined as an act that runs contrary to the perceived interests of the dictator, an act that threatens state power. In such a society, punishment is meted out at the whim of the government...

(AXcess News) Washington - The House Judiciary Committee will be schooled about the Jena Six incident and youth hate crimes Tuesday.