Branded with a Swastika

An unidentified 22-year-old native American man from the Navajo Indian reservation was brutally attacked on April 29 by three white men: Jesse Sanford, 24, William Hatch, 28, and Paul Beebee, 26 in what prosecutors in Farmington, northwestern New Mexico, are calling a hate crime. The three were accused of kidnapping and branding the 22-year-old, mentally challenged man with a swastika.

"We'll explore every conceivable available avenue in charging them with a hate crime because what happened to the victim was so horribly wrong," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Sarah Weaver. "The U.S. Attorney's Office is very interested in taking the case."

Police believe the men heated a wire hanger fashioned in the shape of a swastika to burn the victim's flesh. The suspects are also accused of shaving a swastika symbol on the back of the 22-year-old victim's head and drawing degrading pictures and words on the man's body with red and black permanent markers, Farmington Police Sgt. Robert Perez said.

The words "White Power" were written on the back of the victim's neck and two horns were drawn with red marker on the victim's face above his eyebrows, an electric beard trimmer was used to shave the swastika into his hair. Video and photographs were also taken on a cellular phone to record the incident. Police took the victim to San Juan Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released.

Jesse Sanford, one of the accused men, told police that on April 29 the victim came into the McDonalds restaurant on East Main Street, where all three suspects work, looking for a place to stay. Sanford claimed the victim, who wanted a haircut and a tattoo, "wanted the swastika design because it was a tribal symbol," according to court records.

Investigators believe the victim was coerced into a vehicle and taken to an apartment on 28th Street where the attack occurred. After the incident they kicked the victim out of the residence and he went to the 7 to 11 convenience store at 710 E. 30th St., for assistance and a store clerk there called 911.

Police obtained search warrants to search the apartment and vehicle. They found evidence to suggest that the accused were white supremacists.

"We haven't identified this as a gang-related crime, that is still under investigation," Perez said. "But they appear to be associated in some fashion to the white supremacist movement."

Sanford was being held at the San Juan County Adult Detention Center for misdemeanor charges related to a motor vehicle crash at the time the warrants were issued. Beebe and Hatch were arrested Friday night. All three men were charged with: First-degree felony kidnapping, Second-degree felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping, Third-degree felony aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and Fourth-degree felony conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, according to Sgt. Robert Perez. Beebe also faces fourth-degree felony tampering with evidence. All three men are being held on a $150,000 cash-only bond.

The hate crime law in New Mexico results in a sentencing enhancement of one year for each charge. The suspects face 35.5 years in prison, including a mandatory 18 years for the first-degree felony kidnapping charges, if convicted of all the charges and the hate crime enhancement. Beebe faces an additional 18 months for the tampering with evidence charge. Federal charges may also be filed.

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Jose Pacheco Pleads Guilty

Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant was stabbed and killed on Nov. 8, 2008. His attackers were 7 teenagers - all between 16 and 17 at the time. They were all students at Patchogue-Medford High School in Long Island, NY and were out ''beaner jumping,'' a derogatory term used as a euphemism for attacking Hispanics.

Jeffrey Conroy is being held on charges that include second-degree murder as a hate crime, manslaughter and gang assault. Prosecutors have said that it was Jeffrey Conroy who did the actual stabbing leading to Marcelo Lucero's death.

See the details here and here

Charged were: Jordan Dasch, Nicholas Hausch, Kevin Shea, Anthony Hartford, Christopher Overton, Jose Pacheco and Jeffrey Conroy. See the indictment here

Jose M. Pacheco has followed the lead of Nicholas A. Hausch and pleaded guilty to gang assault as a hate crime, conspiracy and three counts of attempted assault as a hate crime. He faces 5 to 25 years behind bars when sentenced. The others have all pleaded not guilty.

Jose Pacheco, the son of a black mother and a Puerto Rican father, is the only Hispanic in the gang of 7 and, as part of his plea deal, will be expected to testify against the others. Pacheco admitted that he had participated in other attacks on Hispanics. He said they often used racial epithets when confronting victims.

Dressed in a dark suit, with his hands shackled behind him, the 18-year-old Pacheco was asked by prosecutor Megan O'Donnell, "Were all seven of you walking the streets looking for an Hispanic man?" "Yes," Pacheco responded, his head bowed.

"These were marauders," Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said, "bent on attacking Hispanics."

"It confounds me," Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said of Pacheco's involvement in attacks on Hispanics. He was one of the ring leaders, I can't understand why or how he could possibly do this."

Joselo Lucero, the brother of Marcelo Lucero, was in court when Pacheco admitted to participating in the racially-motivated attack. He said the second confession made the case against the others much stronger. Speaking of Pacheco he also said:

"This is unspeakable," Joselo Lucero said in broken English. "I don't understand how you can attack someone of your own kind. Just because you were born here doesn't make you no better than nobody."

Suffolk County has seen thousands of Hispanics settle there in recent years. U.S. Census figures show the number of Hispanics has nearly doubled, from 7.1 percent of the population in 1990 to 13.7 percent in 2008. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report in September titled "Climate of Fear; Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County," cataloguing a litany of anti-immigrant attacks dating back a decade. they found “a pervasive climate of fear in the Latino community” in Suffolk County.

Many victims have been reluctant to contact the police, fearing that they would be asked about their immigration status. However, at the Marcelo Lucero funeral, the preacher encouraged any other victims of these kinds of attacks to come forward. Many did. Prosecutors were able to charge the gang of 7 with eight additional charges because of their cooperation.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer has said officers don’t ask victims whether they’re illegal immigrants. He assigned a Hispanic officer to command a local precinct after the killing.

Pacheco will be sentenced in January and faces 5 to 25 years in prison. His lawyer said Pacheco has "deep regrets" about what happened.

"There are only losers here, no winners," said attorney Christopher Brocato.

 Joselo Lucero agrees but says he will be present for all future court dates for the remaining five defendants.

"I need to be here for my brother," Lucero said. "To see justice."

 

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Racist or Innocent Vanity Tag

Richard Macaulay of Muskegon, Michigan is a Harley-Davidson lover. He takes pride in his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide motorcycle, which he keeps in immaculate condition. His other love is the Harley-Davidson Soft Tail Springer.

7 years ago he ordered vanity plates which combined the names of his two favorite bikes: DYNGR.

Macaulay said he was  shocked to receive a letter from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office recently, stating that his personalized license plate of seven years had been revoked. The letter went on to say that a complaint had been received claiming the personalized tag was racially insensitive.

That complaint came from Tiffany Gilmore, who is black. According to Tiffany she was in the Walmart parking lot on Sherman Avenue when she came across a motorcycle with a personalized license plate that sent chills down her spine. She said the license plate included an abbreviation for a racial slur that encourages hatred toward blacks.

Gilmore, of Muskegon Heights, said that at the time she saw the license plate, she “went from awe to disbelief to sadness and then anger because I had my 11-year-old son with me and I had to explain it to him.”

She said she called the Secretary of State’s office in Lansing when she got home. After Gilmore spelled the license plate, the employee responded: “Excuse me? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Kelly Chesney, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State, said her agency conducts extensive screening of applications for personalized license plates. She said a committee reviews the proposed text to avoid offensive language and objectionable content.

The committee includes representatives from ethnic groups and students who know texting lingo. With the evolution of a texting generation that uses abbreviations for almost everything, a license plate with objectionable content occasionally slips through, Chesney said.

After an investigation of Gilmore’s complaint, the Secretary of State’s office decided to pull the license plate, Chesney said. She would not elaborate on whether state officials agreed that the plate was racially insensitive. The plate’s owner has been notified of the decision. The owner has the right to appeal, she said.

After he received the complaint letter, Macaulay said it took him several minutes to figure out what the fuss was about.

“I don’t think that way,” he said. “It took me awhile to figure it out.”

Macaulay's brother-in-law thought it was an abbreviation for “danger.” But, he said, no one ever thought it was racially motivated....Until last month.

“I agree with the lady in one respect, and that is that I don’t know what it’s like to be picked on racially,” Macaulay said. “But she immediately took umbrage without accepting that it could mean something else.”

Upon hearing Macaulay’s explanation Gilmore said she still believes it’s racially motivated.

“When you look at the abbreviation and try to put it together, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “I’m sorry, it just doesn’t.”

Macaulay said he can’t believe the controversy his license plate has kicked off.

“There are so many other things going on, like the war,” he said. “People have nothing better to do than spend their lives being pissed off.”

Macaulay said he has applied for a new personalized license plate similar to the one that has been recalled. But it lacks the letter “N” so nobody gets confused.

“I would like to apologize to this lady for offending her, but that was not my intention,” Macaulay said of Gilmore. “People who know me know that I’m not a racist. But she didn’t really know what the plate meant. I didn’t ask for any of this, and I wish it would all just go away.”

 

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Keith Bardwell Resigns and Faces Lawsuit

In the face unanimous and universal condemnation from politicians to civil rights organizations, Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell did what everyone was telling him to do – he resigned. Read the background story here.

The office of Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said it had received a statement from Mr Bardwell saying: “I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009.”

Keith Bardwell was the JP who refused to marry an interracial couple in Louisiana because of his concern for the kids of such a union. He was unapologetic about his attitude and genuinely did not seem to realize what all the fuss was about, as seen in this interview with CBS:

Bardwell was first elected in 1975 as justice of the peace in Ponchatoula, La., a town 55 miles north of New Orleans. His term was set to run through 2014, and he had said that even before the flap, he hadn’t intended to run for re-election.

The couple Mr Bardwell refused to issue a license for – Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32 – have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against him.

“We’re saddened that it took national attention to this issue, which was decided back in 1967 by the Supreme Court, and also that it took public admonishment from other elected leaders in order for him to resign,” said Laura Catlett, a lawyer for Humphrey and McKay.

The Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal who had previously called for Bardwell to resign, said Bardwell made the right decision.

“What he did was clearly wrong and this resignation was long overdue,” the governor said in a statement.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said Bardwell’s refusal to marry the couple reflected terribly on the state.

“I am deeply disturbed by Justice Bardwell’s practices and comments concerning interracial marriages,” she said. “Not only does his decision directly contradict Supreme Court rulings, it is an example of the ugly bigotry that divided our country for too long.

“By resigning … and ending his embarrassing tenure in office, Justice Bardwell has finally consented to the will of the vast majority of Louisiana citizens and nearly every governmental official in Louisiana … We are better off without him in public service,” she said.

Catlett said the resignation won’t stop the lawsuit, which also names Bardwell’s wife as a defendant.

“This does not in any way change the fact that he, with his wife’s help, discriminated against an interracial couple while he was a public official,” Catlett said.

 

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