Sussex Police hit out at BNP over preferential treatment claims

Police bosses have hit out at BNP allegations that they give preferential treatment to “foreign religious centres”.
Senior Sussex officers said the claims were a deliberate attempt to create tension between communities, the police and the public.
Statements placed on the right-wing party’s website said a Horsham and Crawley branch meeting had discovered that police had agreed “special measures” to respond to alarms at Broadfield Mosque and Ifield Sikh temple.
The site added that a senior officer is automatically assigned to any callout to either of the religious sites.
It stated: “British people who may need the police are put behind the interests of the foreign religious centres and have to wait, even if they called first”.
Speaking to The Argus Chief Inspector Steve Curry dismissed the allegations as “without any foundation”.
Chief Insp Curry said: "These allegations are clearly designed to undermine relations between communities and between the police and the public we serve.
“Sussex Police remain committed to serving all the people of Sussex fairly and impartially.
"There is no truth to the allegation that each response to the temple is supervised by a 'senior police officer'; the response to any alarm activation at the temple site will be supervised by the duty inspector as with any other call of that type."
theargus

Former concentration camp vandalized in Austria

A former concentration camp in Austria has been vandalized with anti-Semitic and anti-Turkish graffiti by suspected far-right activists, police and officials said on Friday.
Abuse was scrawled on the outer wall of the Mauthausen camp near Linz overnight and no culprits had been found, Michael Tischlinger, head of the provincial anti-terrorism police, told the Austrian Press Agency.

"Such a desecration is not a prank, the culprits had a select target," said Willi Mernyi, head of the Mauthausen Committee which helps oversee the site where around 100,000 people died during Nazi rule in Austria in 1938-45.
"There is an active far-right scene in Upper Austria that does not even shrink away from vandalizing a former concentration camp," Mernyi said in a statement.

The case shows authorities need to clamp down more on the extreme right, local Social Democrat politician Josef Ackerl said. Local police and Austria's interior ministry were not available for comment.
Far-right parties together captured nearly a third of the vote in Austria's 2008 national elections and feed off xenophobia and anti-European sentiment in the insular Alpine Republic.
reuters

Belgium police launch operations against PKK

Some 300 Belgian police raided 25 addresses across the country on Thursday in an operation against a militant PKK group.

Residences in Brussels, Antwerp, Charleroi, Namur and Verviers were searched as well as the offices of Kurdish television broadcaster ROJ in the town of Denderleeuw.

The PKK, which launched an armed attacks against the Turkish state in 1984 for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey, is branded a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the European Union and the United States.

worldbulletin

Human rights group seeks freedom for religious converts

A new human rights group is mobilising people around the world to stand up for the freedom of religious converts to freely live out their faith.
Set My People Free to Worship Me is planning to stage simultaneous marches on April 3 in London, Frankfurt, Melbourne, Cairo, Stockholm and Sydney.

The group’s founder Kamal Fahmi said he was organising the protests to seek freedom, justice and equality for religious converts. The movement wants especially freedom for converts to worship, marry and raising their children according to their new faith.
“We want to advocate that all people, especially Muslims, have the freedom to change faith, to live out and practice their new beliefs,” he said.
Mr Fahmi stressed the movement was non-violent. hopes the marches will become an annual event.
He said: “We believe that it is time to support our suffering Christian brothers and sisters from Muslim background and raise awareness of the injustices that they face.”
The group has launched a petition demanding “freedom to worship in the Muslim world” and condemning apostasy laws.
It reads: “In our rapidly changing world, religious values and human rights are being challenged. Every year thousands die because of persecution, injustice and oppression by governments and religious institutions.
“If we don’t watch it, very soon justice and equality for all men and women will be usurped. In the Muslim world the Muslim people don’t have the freedom to choose their faith. We wish to speak out against the Muslim apostasy law worldwide.”
christiantoday

Caste prejudice 'may exist' in British workplaces

Discrimination on the grounds of caste - or historic social standing in Hindu and Sikh communities - may be happening in the UK, a government peer has said.
Ministers have previously said they did not think people from lower castes were treated unfairly in the workplace.
But Baroness Thornton said evidence may exist. She has ordered more research.
She was speaking as peers accepted an amendment to the Equalities Bill, paving the way for such discrimination to be made illegal if necessary.
Hindu campaigners have long argued that members of the lower caste - referred to as Dalits or "untouchables" - suffer unfair treatment at the hands of higher caste members, even in second generation UK Asian communities.
Baroness Thornton told peers the National Institute of Economic and Social Research was due to present its research in July or August.

"We have looked for evidence of caste discrimination and we now think that evidence may exist, which is why we have now commissioned the research," she said.
"The proportionate thing is to take the power to deal with that discrimination if and when that evidence is produced."
Lord Avebury, for the Liberal Democrats, who moved the amendment, said he believed the research would "conclusively prove that caste discrimination does occur in the fields covered by the bill".
If it becomes law, the bill will require organisations of all sizes and types to promote equality and avoid discrimination in the workplace.
It will clarify existing discrimination legislation concerning sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age, and ministers hope increased transparency will help tackle the pay gap between men and women.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said the decision to commission research represented "a historic moment".
"The blight of caste discrimination, under which millions in India are regarded as 'untouchable', has spread to this country virtually unnoticed."

CHILDREN AGED FIVE TO GO ON SCHOOL 'HATE REGISTERS'

PUPILS as young as five will soon be placed on school 'hate registers' for making playground taunts, it emerged last night.

Any form of racist or homophobic bullying will go down on record at the school and the pupil responsible could be monitored throughout their school life.
Details of any incidents, however minor, will then be kept on a database by the local authority and made available to ministers to inform future anti-bullying campaigns.
Children's charities last night expressed concern that youngsters may be criminalised for simple playground banter.

Michele Elliott, of charity Kidscape, said: "Children are being criminalised and singled out from a very early age when they don't know what they're doing."
The extent of the new measures came to light after 10-year-old Peter Drury was told his name would be placed on a register at his primary school in Somerset and his behaviour monitored. It followed an accusation that he called a friend "gay boy".
His mother Penny Drury said she was called into the school and informed the incident would be registered and that her son's file monitored while he remained at Ashcombe Primary School, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

She said: "He doesn't even understand about the birds and the bees, so how can he be homophobic?
"Peter is very naive boy who didn't know what he was doing and is now very upset that he is in trouble."
Many schools already voluntarily record any incidents of racist, homophobic or anti-disability bullying.

daily express

Dutch anti-Islamists makes key gains in local elections

Preliminary results in Dutch local polls suggest an anti-Islam party has made major gains and may pose a serious challenge in June parliamentary polls.

The Freedom Party (or PVV), led by Geert Wilders, is opposed to what it calls the country's "Islamisation".
General elections have been called following the collapse of the Dutch government in a dispute over the deployment of troops in Afghanistan.
Last year, the PVV came second in the country's polls to the EU parliament.

'Springboard' situation
The PVV fielded candidates in municipal elections in two cities: Almere, a city of some 200,000 inhabitants east of the capital Amsterdam, where its looks set to be the biggest party, and The Hague, where it was in second place.
Preliminary results show that in Almere, it has won 21% of the vote, while in The Hague, it has won eight seats, behind the Dutch Labour Party which had 10 seats.

"What is possible in The Hague and Almere is possible all over the country. It's a springboard for our victory," Mr Wilders told supporters in Almere.
Last year, the PVV came second in European elections in the Netherlands, winning 15% of the vote.

BBC News

BNP 'blocked' Asian man's application to join party

THE BNP have told an Asian businessman that his application to join the party will be blocked, he said today.

Mo Chaudry, 49, had wanted to join the far-right party to "fight them from the inside".
The businessman, from Newcastle-Under-Lyme in Staffordshire, said he was seeking to take advantage of the enforced change to the party’s constitution to expose them.
BNP members voted to admit black and Asian people last month when the party was threatened with an injunction by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
Pakistan-born Mr Chaudry, who is worth £60 million, runs a string of businesses around Stoke-on-Trent, which has eight BNP members on the city council. He is a star of the Channel 4 programme The Secret Millionaire, in which rich benefactors go undercover to find good ways of using their money.

He said today: "I debated with the BNP’s deputy leader Simon Darby on BBC Radio 5 Live and he told me that my application would be blocked. How can you be more discriminatory than that?"
He added: "People are not racist in Stoke-on-Trent and I have never experienced racism in my time here but the city council has eight BNP members. The good people that don’t vote need to get off their backside and change things."
The EHRC is considering the changes the BNP have made to their membership rules and will be back in court on March 9.
EHRC has threatened legal action if the rules are still considered discriminatory.

Huddersfield Examiner

BNP party activist Mark Walker has lost his case for unfair dismissal

A BRITISH National Party activist and former North-East teacher who was sacked for absenteeism has lost his case for unfair dismissal.
A judgement against former Sunnydale Community College teacher Mark Walker was issued by an employment tribunal last month.
Mr Walker, 39, was suspended from the school, in Shildon, County Durham, in March 2007, and claimed he was the subject of a political witch hunt.
Twenty months later, he was officially sacked over his sickness record and took the school’s governing body to an employment tribunal.
The Newcastle tribunal, which was met in January, unanimously dismissed Mr Walker’s case, but has not yet published its reasons.
Patrick Harrington, a spokesman for Mr Walker’s union, Solidarity, said there could be further action against his employers, Durham County Council.
Mr Harrington said he would be studying the tribunal’s reasons with a view to a potential appeal, but an appeal was not the only option.
He said: “What we would point out is that Mr Walker’s ill health was largely contributed to by the employer and, in particular, the way they handled the disciplinary process.

“There may be a personal injury claim for the stress caused.”
Mr Harrington also cited an NSPCC report about Mr Walker, who is from Rievaulx, Spennymoor, County Durham, that was leaked to The Northern Echo.
The report reveals the disciplinary inquiry uncovered a large number of emails indicating a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old former pupil.
It makes it clear that no illegal content was found on Mr Walker’s school laptop or desktop computers.
It concludes: “There is sufficient evidence from the emails, and from previous matters concerning his professional conduct, to conclude that Mr Walker’s behaviour has resulted in his conduct being less than one would expect of a teacher placed in a position of trust.”
Mr Harrington said: “This report was very damaging to Mr Walker and there is a duty of confidentiality and a question of damages for the breach. The report was in the hands of the county council and the NSPCC and has to have been leaked by staff.”
Durham County Council declined to comment because of legal reasons.

■A tribunal into the case of Mr Walker’s brother, Adam Walker, also a BNP activist, has been adjourned until the end of May.
The General Teaching Council, in Birmingham, is considering allegations he posted inappropriate comments on the internet

The Northern Echo

BNP leader Nick Griffin to be given TV platform by BBC again

The BNP's Nick Griffin is to be given a new TV platform by the BBC, it was revealed yesterday.
Despite the row in the wake of Griffin's appearance on Question Time last year, he will appear again at the height of the general election campaign in the spring.
The BBC said "alongside" the TV debate between leaders Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, they are to hold a "minor parties debate".
The corporation's website said: "There will be arrangements in the programming around the BBC debate, a week before polling day, to ensure other parties which have demonstrated they have some electoral support - UKIP, the Green Party and the BNP - will have their say."
Bnp activists hailed it as a victory for the far-right group. Deputy leader Simon Darby said it was a "good idea to go head to head with the Greens and UKIP".

After the Question Time bust-up, Darby also claimed the BBC are taking a softer line with the BNP in programmes.
He said an edition of Panorama will feature the far right in the next few months and added: "Unlike some of the previous encounters between the two bodies I think this will be relatively straightforward. But with these guys you never really know."
Anti-fascist group Searchlight called the plan an outrage. A spokesman said: "Executives at the BBC have become obsessed with giving the BNP national publicity at the licence fee payer's expense.
"These are supposed to be serious debates allowing people to make an informed choice. Nick Griffin has no place there." Griffin's BBC Question Time spot turned into a disaster for the Beeb and the BNP.
Riots broke out in front of the corporation's HQ after Griffin boasted it would "propel the BNP into the big time".
But once the cameras began rolling nervous Griffin, 50, squirmed and bizarrely claimed EU laws meant he "could not explain" why he once denied the Holocaust. Justice Minister Jack Straw said: "We've seen that the moment anyone puts an uncomfortable quote to him he wriggles. He wants to wriggle out of it."
Cambridge-educated Griffin was elected as a Euro MP last July.
Mirror

Three men assaulted in Cornwall ‘homophobic’ attack

Police are treating an attack on three men in Padstow, Cornwall, as a hate crime because one of the men was trans.
The friends, who were on holiday from the Plymouth area, had gone out on Saturday night and were attacked as they returned to an address on Broad Street.
It is thought they were followed into the house by two men, one of whom attacked them.
Police were called to the property at just after midnight on Sunday morning and two of the victims required hospital treatment for cuts. One of the two, a man in his fifties, was knocked unconscious.
A police spokesman told the Cornish Guardian: “We have recorded this incident as a hate crime after one of the victims made a claim that the assault could have been a homophobic attack because one of the party was a transsexual.
“We are following all lines of inquiry including checking the local pub’s CCTV camera footage.
“If anyone has any information we would encourage them to please come forward.”
The first suspect is described as white, between 5ft 7in and 5ft 8in tall, in his late 20s, with a bald head and a stocky build. He was wearing a long-sleeved black t-shirt.
The second man was described as white, 5ft 9in, slim, with short tight curly hair and a local accent.

More Attacks on Minorities in Barnaul, Russia

Two more attacks on ethnic minorities have been reported in Barnaul, Russia (Republic of Altay), a city that made international headlines earlier this month after a South Korean exchange student was killed in a racist attack.
According to a February 24, 2010 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center, three of the suspects in the killing of the Korean student are now suspected of attacking a citizen of China and an ethnic Tuvan at the beginning of February. There were no details in the report about the extent of the victims' injuries.
 
UCSJ

Egypt blogger military trial criticised

Egypt has been strongly criticised by Human Rights Watch for trying a blogger, Ahmed Mustafa, before a military court.
The 20-year-old is accused of publishing false information in a blog a year ago, alleging a case of nepotism at Egypt's premier military academy.
Egypt's emergency law, in place since 1981, allows indefinite detention and trials of civilians in military courts.
Egyptian officials have denied that the power is much used.
The only evidence presented at his trial this week is the post on his blog.
The trial has been adjourned to 7 March to give defence lawyers more time to review the evidence.

There has been no investigation into Mr Mustafa's allegation of corruption, namely his claim that a teacher's son was pushed out of the academy, to make way for the son of a more influential individual who could make financial contributions, Christian Fraser, the BBC correspondent in Cairo says.
Under two international human rights accords, both ratified by Egypt, the government is required to protect freedom of expression.
Yet Human Rights Watch draws attention to a growing list of bloggers who remain in detention.
Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006, for writing about sectarian tensions in Alexandria and criticising President Mubarak.
Another blogger, Hany Nazeer, was detained in October 2008 under the country's emergency law that was designed to fight terrorism for expressing forthright views on Christianity and Islam.
Last year after a visit to Egypt, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on human rights reiterated that the trial of civilian suspects in military courts raised concerns about the independent administration of justice.
"The Egyptian government says one thing in Geneva and then immediately makes a mockery of the Human Rights Council's review process," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"No civilian should be tried before a military court, and no government that claims to respect human rights should be prosecuting someone solely for writing about corruption," he added.

BBC News

Police probe anti-Muslim website attacking Wrexham Mosque plan

POLICE are investigating a sick anti-Muslim website set up on Facebook to stir up tensions over fake claims a ‘super-mosque’ was being built in Wrexham.
The site “No to the super mosque in Wrexham” on the social network site wrongly claims permission has been given for a mosque at the Miners Institute in North Wales’s largest town.
And the website, which bears the Welsh Defence League logo, is also filled with hateful messages against Muslims, which North Wales Police are now investigating.
The web group has more than 2,800 members and this follows a march by the Welsh Defence League designed to stir up tensions in the town.
A counter group “Yes to the Super Mosque in Wrexham” has also been set up on Facebook.
The Wrexham Muslim Association (WMA) has denied there are any plans to convert the town’s Miners Institute building into a mosque but said there were plans to lease a small building in the town for worship.
A spokesman for the WMA said: “There is nothing in this rumour we are setting up a mosque at the Miners Institute.
“We simply do not have enough money to do anything like that.
“But we are hopeful of leasing a place from the council next to St James’ Church in Wrexham.”
Commenting on the anti-Muslim remarks on the webpage on Facebook the spokesman added: “They are upsetting and annoying and I don’t want to pay any attention to such remarks.”
Ian Tetherington, secretary for anti-fascist group Searchlight Cymru, said: “A mosque is not something to be scared of, it would be something to be proud of.
“Wrexham has a history of tolerance and should be proud of that.
“These people are Welsh, they just happen to be Muslims, instead of Christians or Hindus, but they are still Welsh and just want somewhere to worship like other faiths.

“I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with them worshipping in a safe, dry place.
“The idea this is a ‘super-mosque’ is a complete fabrication made up to stir things up and create tension.
“There are a few hundred Muslims in Wrexham so why would they want a huge place of worship, this is simply not the case.
“Like other faiths in the town they just want somewhere to meet rather than the temporary building where they are currently having to meet.
“I live close to a mosque myself in Cardiff and do not understand why people would have an issue with it.”
A North Wales Police spokesman said: “We are aware of the site and are investigating.
“We are also liaising with members of the local community.”
Daily Post

Immigrants cleaning Swedish cities

In Stockholm, 80 percent of people working as office or hotel cleaners were born outside of Sweden, the new report from Statistics Sweden (SCB) for 2008 shows. In Gothenburg the equivalent figure was 59 percent and in Malmö 66 percent.
Foreign born staff account for 12 percent of all employees aged 16-64 in Sweden and make up 16 percent of the population.
While big city areas have slightly higher populations of immigrants - with 18 percent in Malmö and Stockholm, and 16 percent in Gothenburg, foreign born workers were over-represented in a series of professions such as nurses, hospital orderlies, personal assistants and child minders.
Of the ten categories of profession presented in the statistics, sales staff was the group with the lowest proportion of foreign-born workers - with only 6 percent.
The military, police, fire fighters and air-traffic controllers had a very low proportion of immigrants staff, the statistics show.
Bus and tram drivers, choreographers, dancers and language professionals were all groups with a high proportion of foreign-born workers.
 
posted by Peter Vinthagen Simpson thelocal

Hitler abortion poster sparks anger in Poland

A Polish anti-abortion group has sparked controversy by using pictures of Hitler and a bloody and torn foetus in a billboard campaign designed to ensure Poles adhere to the country's strict abortion laws.

The provocative images, which appeared in the western city of Poznan as a part of a promised nationwide campaign, also carry the slogan "Abortion for Poles: introduced by Hitler, March 9, 1943."

Fundacja Pro, the organisation behind the billboard, said that it wanted to remind Poles that abortion was first introduced to Poland during the Second World War by the country's Nazi occupiers as a means of limiting the population of a people they deemed inferior.
One of Europe's most devoutly Catholic countries, Poland now has some of the strictest abortion laws in the EU, and any attempt to have them liberalised arouses furious and passionate debate.

"It was Hitler who first introduced abortion to Poland, and in several days it will be the anniversary of that event.
"In this context it is worth recalling the words of Pope John Paul II: 'History teaches us that democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism'," Fundacja Pro said in a statement.
But the use of Hitler, along with the torn foetus pictures, has already incurred the wrath of critics.
Nazi Germany inflicted horrific levels of death and destruction on Poland, so any perceived attempt to hijack that suffering for the sake of a political or ethical agenda can be viewed with distaste.
"I understand that this campaign is designed to shock but there are limits to the use of shock," said Elzbieta Streker-Dembinska, an MP and member of the Polish parliament's health committee.
"A foetus and Adolf Hitler is unjustified comparison. The design of the billboard is unacceptable and crosses the boundaries of decency."
She added that she suspected the billboard campaign was designed to coincide with International Women's Day on March 8, a day which often sees pro-abortion demonstrations in Poland.

The Telegraph

Irish punk rocker Feargal Sharkey spoke at the annual Hope, Not Hate rally

A Cabinet minister and a punk have visited the region to join forces against racism.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson and Irish punk rocker Feargal Sharkey spoke at the annual Hope, Not Hate rally at Trimdon Labour Club, in County Durham, on Saturday.
The group campaigns against far right parties such as the BNP and National Front, which have targeted the region with renewed vigour since Labour’s slide in the polls.
Mr Sharkey, who found fame with Seventies punk outfit The Undertones, said he did not back any political party, but supported multiculturalism.

The Teenage Kicks singer and chief executive of UK Music said: “What makes up the whole fabric of this wonderful place we live in is the extraordinary mixture, that we have – different ideas, cultures, colours and religions.

“We have had people coming to this country for the last By Rachel Wearmouth rachel.wearmouth@nne.co.uk 4,000 years and if it wasn’t for that, we would not be what we are today.”

Councillors, trade union members and residents turned out in force to air their views and discuss ways of counteracting far right politics and racism.
Mr Johnson said far right parties offered simple solutions to complicated problems such as immigration and that Labour was working to deal with the issue.
He said: “The trouble with the immigration debate at the moment is we do not have a soundbite.”
He arrived at noon at the club, famous for being where former Prime Minister and MP for Sedgefield Tony Blair celebrated his party’s landslide victory in 1997.
Mr Johnson commended Hope, Not Hate for its work and said: “In this country, people have consistently refused to pick up the message of hatred and intolerance.
“I think the BNP is popular across the country at a time when unemployment is high, and their message is to say it is the fault of people with brown faces or this person.
“We need to spread the message of Hope, Not Hate and face up to them in a united way.”
Clare Williams, chairwoman of the Northern TUC Race Advisory Group, said the economic climate was also a problem.
She said: “The current recession and the burdens felt by ordinary working people are being used by these parties to try and persuade us that (the BNP’s) solutions are the best answer.”
Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson said campaigners against far right parties needed to do more work.
He said: “We may not have the sense of community that we used to have, but it is still there and there are community groups that we need to support.”

written by Rachel Wearmouth thenorthernecho

Israel angry over anti-Semitic postcards sent by Spanish schoolchildren

Rafi Shotz, Israel's ambassador to Spain, received dozens of postcards from elementary school students bearing statements including "Jews kill for money," "Leave the country to the Palestinians" and "Go somewhere where they will accept you."

A Foreign Ministry official said the handwriting appears typical of children six to nine years old.

"Some had very disturbing messages," an embassy spokesman said. "They asked things such as: 'Why do you kill children?' or said that 'money is not everything' and that if someone should leave, it should be the Israelis 'because it is not your land'.
"These are messages about a political situation that they do not understand. Most of these children probably do not even know where Israel or Palestine are."
The Foreign Ministry considered summoning Spain's ambassador to Israel, Alvaro Iranzo, to complain, but ultimately spoke to the envoy by telephone instead, Haaretz reported.
"Apparently there are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel individuals who get permission to operate within schools," the official said. "Each time, the embassy has received several dozen postcards from a different school. And it seems as though whoever is doing this is moving from school to school."
Naor Gilon, the ministry's deputy director for Europe, called Mr Iranzo and said "Israel is greatly distressed" by the postcards. The envoy insisted the letters are not part of any Spanish Education Ministry program, but the initiative of private citizens.
Joan Malonda, the head teacher of El Castell primary school in Almoines, confirmed that the hand-drawn cards had come from his pupils, the Guardian reports.

He denied the children were being indoctrinated.
"A lot of this work was done at home and reflects the atmosphere in their own social environment. They were simply asked to write a postcard on the subject.
"We try to teach the children to have a critical attitude, but we also want them to contrast their criticism against other points of view."
telegraph

Man sentenced for phone call anti-Semitic threats (USA)

A brain-injured man was sentenced to five years of supervised federal court probation Tuesday for making anti-Semitic phone threats to burn down the home of former University of Oregon President David Frohnmayer.
Assistant Oregon U.S. Attorney Frank Papagni joined Gregory Paul Freeman’s defense lawyer in recommending the relatively light sentence because Freeman has had diminished mental capacity since he was struck by a train while intoxicated in 2005.
According to Papagni and federal public defender Craig Weinerman, Freeman made the threatening calls to Frohnmayer and allegedly to several other victims after consuming alcohol, which interacted with his anti-seizure medication.
Frohnmayer, who is not Jewish, has said in the past that he nonetheless took the threats seriously.
Freeman, 56, was convicted in December on a single charge of using a telephone to threaten arson. He had never before been convicted of a crime.
He agreed not to challenge facts alleged by the government in the Frohnmayer case, in exchange for no charges being filed in connection with similar threatening messages he phoned to a Eugene Planned Parenthood clinic, the Eugene Masonic Lodge and to his former psychiatrist.
In court Tuesday, Papagni told Freeman he should “take great comfort” in knowing that his victims’ compassion helped keep him out of jail.
Though none chose to appear at the sentencing, all supported the probationary sentence because of Freeman’s mental circumstances, the prosecutor said.
Papagni also noted Freeman’s compliance with a “no alcohol” condition of his pretrial release. Given that he will continue to be closely monitored under court probation, Freeman should pose little risk of making future threats, the prosecutor said.
“As long as he continues not to drink and has no contact with (the victims), he should be free to live his life as he wishes,” Papagni told U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, who imposed the recommended sentence.
According to court records, Freeman told a court risk and treatment evaluator that drinking exacerbated his “impulsive expression of his negative attitudes toward authority figures” and “individuals of certain faith and political persuasion.”
According to an FBI agent’s sworn statement to obtain an arrest warrant for Freeman last year, the messages included statements such as “Listen, you Jews” and “I’m going to burn your abortion clinic down because you are a baby killer and you hate babies.”
registerguard

Racist incidents, protests spread at UC campuses (USA)

A firestorm over racially and ethnically charged incidents at several University of California campuses spread Tuesday as UC San Diego announced a KKK-style hood was found on campus and students in Los Angeles and Irvine demonstrated against intolerance.
"What kind of campus promotes an environment that allows people to think it's acceptable to target people for their ethnicity, gender or sexuality?" said Corey Matthews, one of about 200 mostly minority UCLA students who held a lunchtime rally. "It's something about the tone of the environment that allows this."
At UC Irvine, about 250 people gathered for a "student solidarity speakout" to condemn the recent spate of racist incidents at UC San Diego that targeted black students and another incident last month at UC Davis, which targeted a Jewish student with a swastika carved on her door, said Marya Bangee, an event organizer.

The protests came on the same day UC San Diego announced the discovery of a white pillowcase fashioned into a KKK-style hood — the third racist incident around the campus in as many weeks — and a day after UC Santa Cruz officials found an image of a noose scribbled on the inside of a bathroom door.
Officials found the hood, which bore a hand-drawn circle and cross, on a statue of children's book author Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, outside the main campus library late Monday. A rose had been inserted between the statue's fingers.
Detectives were analyzing the pillowcase for fingerprints and DNA evidence, a university statement said.
UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox vowed to punish the culprits to the fullest extent of the law. "We will not tolerate these despicable actions," she said in the statement.
The hood came on the heels two other UC San Diego incidents: a February off-campus, student-organized "Compton Cookout" party that mocked Black History Month with ghetto stereotypes; and a noose found hanging from a library bookshelf last week.
UC San Diego campus police said they had completed their investigation into the noose incident and turned their results over to the city attorney on Tuesday for possible hate crime charges.
One of the students responsible for the noose apologized to the university community in an anonymous letter published Monday in the campus newspaper. She said the noose was formed while she and friends were playing around with a piece of rope and had no meaning as a lynching symbol.

The student said she is not black, but is a minority.
The incident also is under investigation by law enforcement agencies, campus spokeswoman Judy Piercey said.
Although UCLA students said no racial incidents had occurred recently on their campus, in 2007, a fraternity held a "Tijuana Sunrise" party that mocked Mexican-Americans with stereotyped images, they said.
The incidents are disturbing and most likely the work of "outliers" using offensive and outrageous behavior to gain notoriety, said Brian Levin, director of California State University's Center for Study of Hate and Extremism in San Bernardino.
He said surveys show young people are less prejudiced than ever, but "these things touch a nerve, and these folks know it."
UCLA demonstrators called on administrators to institute a required ethnic studies course that would teach students about other cultures.
"It would be a very strong and powerful statement for diversity," said Kent Wong, a speaker at the rally and director of UCLA's Center for Labor Research and Education.
At UC San Diego, officials were already moving to create a more tolerant environment after meeting with black student leaders, Piercey said.
Initiatives include recruiting more minority faculty, instituting a mentoring program, creating an African American Resource Center, and ensuring funding for the diversity office, Piercey said.

The Guardian