Friday, May 27, 2005
Racist Right Wingers Grow Bolder. 3 Crosses Burned in Durham.
As the racist vitriol from right wingers continues without consequence, be it Rush Turdball saying to a black caller to his radio show to "take that bone out of your nose and call me back" or when he said, "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?", or Dildo O'Reilly saying "Thank god we'll all be dead when whites are no longer a majority in the U.S." or Ann Bone-Devil Coulter saying anything she wants about Arabs and Muslims. Even going so far as to call for their mass murder and forced conversion to Christianity and also claiming that Asians, North Koreans in particular, should be "nuked for fun."
I have to ask again, why is it conservatives and republicans support these people? Do you think the heartland is getting the message that racism is in vogue?
I think they have.
Three Crosses Burned in Durham
By ERIC OLSON : The Herald-Sun
May 26, 2005 : 12:51 am ET
DURHAM -- Three large crosses were burned in separate incidents across Durham Wednesday night, the first time in recent memory that one of the South's most notorious symbols of racial hatred has been seen in the city.
Yellow fliers with Ku Klux Klan sayings were found at one of the cross burnings.
The Durham Police Department is investigating the burnings. After the third one was reported, the department ordered that any suspicious cargo truck or large pickup truck be stopped.
"At this day and time, I thought we'd be beyond that," said Mayor Bill Bell. "People do things for different reasons, and I don't have the slightest idea why anyone would do this."
Bell, who said he couldn't recall a cross burning in Durham since he arrived here in 1968, said he hadn't received any calls, letters or e-mails that would "remotely" suggest someone would target the city with cross burnings.
The first burning was reported at 9:19 p.m. outside St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Hillandale Road at Interstate 85.
As police and firefighters were finishing their work there, a second cross burning was reported at 9:54 p.m. along South Roxboro Street, about a quarter-mile south of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Someone had positioned the cross atop a large pile of dirt near an apartment complex construction site to the west of South Roxboro Street.
"This is ridiculous," Durham police Sgt. A.M. Batte said as she stood over the smoldering cross around 10:20 p.m.
Then the third burning was reported at 10:28 p.m. at Peachtree Place and Holloway Street downtown.
The crosses were about 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide, police said. They were wrapped in burlap and doused in a liquid that smelled like kerosene.
The crosses were made of four 2-by-4s. They were screwed flat together with grooves cut at the intersections of the beams.
Batte said it would not have been difficult to place the cross atop the mound because streetlights in the area were out and large construction equipment shielded the view of passing traffic on South Roxboro Street.
Burning a cross without the permission of the property owner is a misdemeanor in North Carolina. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that, under the First Amendment, cross burning could be barred only when done with the intent to intimidate.
Cross burnings have been associated with the Ku Klux Klan since the early 20th century, and the first known cross burning in the country occurred as a Georgia mob celebrated a lynching, the Supreme Court noted in its decision. The Klan often burned crosses in the yard of people who supported the civil rights movement.
Batte said police were trying to determine if May 25 held any significance to white supremacist or other radical groups, and fire investigators also are looking into the cross burnings.
"I cannot think of any reason that any insider or anyone outside would be angry with us," said Bill Gutknecht, senior warden at St. Luke's. "I don't know what kind of point they're trying to make. ... I certainly hope and pray it had nothing to do directly with our church."
Gutknecht noted that on May 9, members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., picketed outside St. Luke's, among other churches, as part of a protest against the performance of "The Laramie Project" at Durham School of the Arts. The play is about the murder of a gay man, and the Westboro protesters carried anti-gay signs with slogans including "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for 9/11."
"That's the only thing of any kind of conflict, and it wasn't really a conflict," Gutknecht said, explaining that church members ignored the protesters.
Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 683-1200. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.
****
I have to ask again, why is it conservatives and republicans support these people? Do you think the heartland is getting the message that racism is in vogue?
I think they have.
Three Crosses Burned in Durham
By ERIC OLSON : The Herald-Sun
May 26, 2005 : 12:51 am ET
DURHAM -- Three large crosses were burned in separate incidents across Durham Wednesday night, the first time in recent memory that one of the South's most notorious symbols of racial hatred has been seen in the city.
Yellow fliers with Ku Klux Klan sayings were found at one of the cross burnings.
The Durham Police Department is investigating the burnings. After the third one was reported, the department ordered that any suspicious cargo truck or large pickup truck be stopped.
"At this day and time, I thought we'd be beyond that," said Mayor Bill Bell. "People do things for different reasons, and I don't have the slightest idea why anyone would do this."
Bell, who said he couldn't recall a cross burning in Durham since he arrived here in 1968, said he hadn't received any calls, letters or e-mails that would "remotely" suggest someone would target the city with cross burnings.
The first burning was reported at 9:19 p.m. outside St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Hillandale Road at Interstate 85.
As police and firefighters were finishing their work there, a second cross burning was reported at 9:54 p.m. along South Roxboro Street, about a quarter-mile south of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Someone had positioned the cross atop a large pile of dirt near an apartment complex construction site to the west of South Roxboro Street.
"This is ridiculous," Durham police Sgt. A.M. Batte said as she stood over the smoldering cross around 10:20 p.m.
Then the third burning was reported at 10:28 p.m. at Peachtree Place and Holloway Street downtown.
The crosses were about 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide, police said. They were wrapped in burlap and doused in a liquid that smelled like kerosene.
The crosses were made of four 2-by-4s. They were screwed flat together with grooves cut at the intersections of the beams.
Batte said it would not have been difficult to place the cross atop the mound because streetlights in the area were out and large construction equipment shielded the view of passing traffic on South Roxboro Street.
Burning a cross without the permission of the property owner is a misdemeanor in North Carolina. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that, under the First Amendment, cross burning could be barred only when done with the intent to intimidate.
Cross burnings have been associated with the Ku Klux Klan since the early 20th century, and the first known cross burning in the country occurred as a Georgia mob celebrated a lynching, the Supreme Court noted in its decision. The Klan often burned crosses in the yard of people who supported the civil rights movement.
Batte said police were trying to determine if May 25 held any significance to white supremacist or other radical groups, and fire investigators also are looking into the cross burnings.
"I cannot think of any reason that any insider or anyone outside would be angry with us," said Bill Gutknecht, senior warden at St. Luke's. "I don't know what kind of point they're trying to make. ... I certainly hope and pray it had nothing to do directly with our church."
Gutknecht noted that on May 9, members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., picketed outside St. Luke's, among other churches, as part of a protest against the performance of "The Laramie Project" at Durham School of the Arts. The play is about the murder of a gay man, and the Westboro protesters carried anti-gay signs with slogans including "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for 9/11."
"That's the only thing of any kind of conflict, and it wasn't really a conflict," Gutknecht said, explaining that church members ignored the protesters.
Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 683-1200. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.
****
# posted by The Punisher @ Friday, May 27, 2005 
