Here’s a video that has been uploaded to the You Tube website of the East Anglian Division of the EDL abusing the staff at their local KFC outlet.
Please support the uploaders You Tube channel.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Councillor found guilty of racial harassment over 'coconut' jibe (UK)
Shirley Brown, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol city council, called Asian opponent a 'coconut' during heated debate, court told.
A black councillor has been found guilty of racial harassment after describing an Asian political opponent as "a coconut" during a heated debate today.
Shirley Brown, 48, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol city council, who employed the term about a Conservative, Jay Jethwa, denied committing an offence.
Bristol magistrates court heard the term was used to accuse someone of betraying their heritage by pandering to white opinion, just as a coconut was brown on the outside but white in the middle.
She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £620 in costs. The chairman of the bench, Simon Cooper, told her the remark had been "purely gratuitous" and could have stimulated racial hatred.
"You made a mistake for which you have to accept responsibility," he added. "It is a sad case."
Brown's remark came as she argued against a Conservative attempt in February 2009 to cut funds to the council's Legacy Commission, established in 2008, the year after the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British empire.
Jethwa had said spending £750,000 of taxpayers' money "righting the wrongs of slavery" did not make sense. Ian Jackson, prosecuting, said Brown "was heard to say: 'In our culture we have a word for you which many in this city would understand, a coconut.
"And at the end of the day I just look at you as that. And the water's either worth throwing away or drinking it'."
Jethwa, 42, did not hear the remark during the council meeting but watched it later on a webcast.
She wept as she told the court: "I was completely shocked and I was numb and had to rewind the footage to see if it was only me she had directed the comment to. I was very, very upset and distressed.
The word is doubly insulting as it insults both me and the white population."
She considered Brown's remarks about the water as "racist" and "to mean that my comments were worth throwing out.
The Conservative party lodged a formal complaint and a member of the public then complained to Avon and Somerset police, who launched a criminal investigation.
Brown was suspended for a month by the council's standards committee last summer for using "offensive and abusive language", although it did not judge the remarks racist.
The punishment was overturned in September after Brown appealed.
Brown, councillor for the ethnically diverse ward of Ashley, Bristol, denied racially aggravated harassment at a previous hearing.
Speaking after the hearing Jethwa said: "I am satisfied with the court's decision.
"It vindicates the decision to prosecute. It sends out a message that such calculated insults will not be tolerated from any quarter."
The Guardian
A black councillor has been found guilty of racial harassment after describing an Asian political opponent as "a coconut" during a heated debate today.
Shirley Brown, 48, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol city council, who employed the term about a Conservative, Jay Jethwa, denied committing an offence.
Bristol magistrates court heard the term was used to accuse someone of betraying their heritage by pandering to white opinion, just as a coconut was brown on the outside but white in the middle.
She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £620 in costs. The chairman of the bench, Simon Cooper, told her the remark had been "purely gratuitous" and could have stimulated racial hatred.
"You made a mistake for which you have to accept responsibility," he added. "It is a sad case."
Brown's remark came as she argued against a Conservative attempt in February 2009 to cut funds to the council's Legacy Commission, established in 2008, the year after the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British empire.
Jethwa had said spending £750,000 of taxpayers' money "righting the wrongs of slavery" did not make sense. Ian Jackson, prosecuting, said Brown "was heard to say: 'In our culture we have a word for you which many in this city would understand, a coconut.
"And at the end of the day I just look at you as that. And the water's either worth throwing away or drinking it'."
Jethwa, 42, did not hear the remark during the council meeting but watched it later on a webcast.
She wept as she told the court: "I was completely shocked and I was numb and had to rewind the footage to see if it was only me she had directed the comment to. I was very, very upset and distressed.
The word is doubly insulting as it insults both me and the white population."
She considered Brown's remarks about the water as "racist" and "to mean that my comments were worth throwing out.
The Conservative party lodged a formal complaint and a member of the public then complained to Avon and Somerset police, who launched a criminal investigation.
Brown was suspended for a month by the council's standards committee last summer for using "offensive and abusive language", although it did not judge the remarks racist.
The punishment was overturned in September after Brown appealed.
Brown, councillor for the ethnically diverse ward of Ashley, Bristol, denied racially aggravated harassment at a previous hearing.
Speaking after the hearing Jethwa said: "I am satisfied with the court's decision.
"It vindicates the decision to prosecute. It sends out a message that such calculated insults will not be tolerated from any quarter."
The Guardian
RACIST AND HOMOPHOBIC ATTACKS INCREASING IN DERRY (N. Ireland)
There has been a rise in racist attacks in the Foyle area over the last year. Police said there were 17 more incidents compared to the previous 12-month period. Homophobic attacks increased from eight to 10.The figures came to light after two men were assaulted in Londonderry at the weekend. They said they were targeted because they are gay. The couple, aged 22 and 38, were beaten by three men in the city centre at about 0200 BST on Saturday morning. The police are treating it as a homophobic attack. "I believe there are low-level hate incidents that happen on a day and daily basis," said Inspector Tony Callaghan. "Whether it's race based, religion based, sectarian, homophobic or relating to disabilities. People out there are suffering in silence." The men attacked on Saturday morning suffered cuts and bruising to their faces. One of the men, who did not want to be identified, said it had affected both of them badly. "I'm terrified of going to bed, I'm terrified walking down the street," he said. "I've got to walk my fella to his work because he's terrified. "It's just absolutely soul destroying and it's not on."
'Sinister'
David McCartney from gay support group Rainbow Project said the impact of a hate attack was "quite extraordinary". "It's not that random, violent assault," he said. "There is something more sinister and more hateful and hurtful to it and you're left feeling you don't belong. "You're left feeling you're not a part of this community, you're singled out, set apart and picked upon." Foyle MP Mark Durkan said the attack was "sickening". "Regardless of whether it expresses itself in the sort of wanton attack on this gay couple or in the subtle prejudice we see all too often, homophobia is inexcusable. "As a community we need to show our solidarity with those who suffer this awful prejudice. And we need to show those who attack them that it is they who are in the tiny minority in this society."
BBC News
'Sinister'
David McCartney from gay support group Rainbow Project said the impact of a hate attack was "quite extraordinary". "It's not that random, violent assault," he said. "There is something more sinister and more hateful and hurtful to it and you're left feeling you don't belong. "You're left feeling you're not a part of this community, you're singled out, set apart and picked upon." Foyle MP Mark Durkan said the attack was "sickening". "Regardless of whether it expresses itself in the sort of wanton attack on this gay couple or in the subtle prejudice we see all too often, homophobia is inexcusable. "As a community we need to show our solidarity with those who suffer this awful prejudice. And we need to show those who attack them that it is they who are in the tiny minority in this society."
BBC News
Nazi-sympathising teen targeted Birkenhead shop to assault Sri Lankan owners (UK)
Two Nazi-sympathising teens targeted a corner shop to assault the Sri Lankan owners.
Judge David Aubrey QC told Robert Phillips, 19, and Michael Walters, 18, their behaviour was “racist and it was despicable and it was upon vulnerable people” as he put them both behind bars.
He added: “You targeted these premises. You inflicted violence upon the proprietors and you shouted thoroughly offensive racist remarks at the proprietors.”
Liverpool crown court heard when the pair were arrested in the wake of the attack, police found offensive material including Nazi symbols and stickers at their homes and on their mobile phones. Philips even had a Adolf Hitler screen saver on his computer.
On the day of the attack, on November 15 last year, the skin-head pair were dressed in army fatigues and boots. They targeted Mathiyaparanam Kokularajan and his wife Komathy as they pulled the security shutters down on their shop, The Corner Store, on Argyle Street South, Birkenhead.
Eric Lamb, prosecuting, told how they ran over the street shouting racist insults. As the couple tried to flee the skin-heads chased them. Philips then pushed Mrs Kokularajan into her husband, before they rained blows on him.
Judge Aubrey, who described Philips as the “ring-leader”, then described how he kicked the couple.
He said: “You even kicked an innocent a woman who was going about her business.
“When I look at you now, it really is almost impossible to find the words for it.”
The judge sent Phillips, of East Prescot Road, Knotty Ash, to a Young Offenders' Institute for 14 months and Walters, of Sandon Road, Wallasey, for eight months after they both admitted common assault.
Gerald Pachter, defending Phillips, told the court there was a different side to his client, whose family were appalled by his actions.
Speaking after the court case Mr Kokularajan described the terrifying attack and said: “We had closed our shop for the evening when we noticed two boys walking straight towards us. They called my wife a p***, kicked her in to the street and hit me around the head. It was shocking because most people are friendly around here.”
Liverpool Echo
Judge David Aubrey QC told Robert Phillips, 19, and Michael Walters, 18, their behaviour was “racist and it was despicable and it was upon vulnerable people” as he put them both behind bars.
He added: “You targeted these premises. You inflicted violence upon the proprietors and you shouted thoroughly offensive racist remarks at the proprietors.”
Liverpool crown court heard when the pair were arrested in the wake of the attack, police found offensive material including Nazi symbols and stickers at their homes and on their mobile phones. Philips even had a Adolf Hitler screen saver on his computer.
On the day of the attack, on November 15 last year, the skin-head pair were dressed in army fatigues and boots. They targeted Mathiyaparanam Kokularajan and his wife Komathy as they pulled the security shutters down on their shop, The Corner Store, on Argyle Street South, Birkenhead.
Eric Lamb, prosecuting, told how they ran over the street shouting racist insults. As the couple tried to flee the skin-heads chased them. Philips then pushed Mrs Kokularajan into her husband, before they rained blows on him.
Judge Aubrey, who described Philips as the “ring-leader”, then described how he kicked the couple.
He said: “You even kicked an innocent a woman who was going about her business.
“When I look at you now, it really is almost impossible to find the words for it.”
The judge sent Phillips, of East Prescot Road, Knotty Ash, to a Young Offenders' Institute for 14 months and Walters, of Sandon Road, Wallasey, for eight months after they both admitted common assault.
Gerald Pachter, defending Phillips, told the court there was a different side to his client, whose family were appalled by his actions.
Speaking after the court case Mr Kokularajan described the terrifying attack and said: “We had closed our shop for the evening when we noticed two boys walking straight towards us. They called my wife a p***, kicked her in to the street and hit me around the head. It was shocking because most people are friendly around here.”
Liverpool Echo
Neo-Nazi White returns to court (USA)
William A. White, Roanoke's most vociferous racist and the self-proclaimed commander of a neo-Nazi organization, again faces criminal charges.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision released Monday, reinstated a charge that White encouraged violence against the foreman of a Chicago jury that convicted a fellow white supremacist years ago.
"Although First Amendment speech protections are far-reaching, there are limits," a three-judge panel from the court wrote.
The ruling reverses a judge's dismissal of the charge on free-speech grounds last July, before White was convicted of similar charges in Roanoke.
White, serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, now faces the prospect of being returned to Chicago. He is charged with posting the name, address and telephone number of the foreman of a jury that convicted neo-Nazi leader Matthew Hale in 2004 of plotting to have a federal judge killed.
Although White made no direct threats against the juror, prosecutors had argued that his words must be viewed in the context of other material on overthrow.com, the now-defunct website that carried his inflammatory rhetoric.
The court of appeals noted that White once wrote that "everyone associated with the Matt Hale trial has deserved assassination for a long time."
White, who moved to Roanoke in 2004 and created the American National Socialist Workers Party, is currently serving time in a federal prison in Beckley, W.Va.
After years of pushing the line between free speech and illegal conduct, he was convicted in December of making racially motivated threats against people in Missouri, Delaware and Virginia.
Nishay Sanan, a Chicago attorney who represents White, said he plans to ask the full court of appeals to review Monday's decision.
In dismissing the charge last July, U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman noted that White broke no laws when he dug up the publicly available contact information for the juror and posted it to overthrow.com.
As for the government's argument that White's intent to have the juror harmed was betrayed by other posts on a website viewed by violent racists, Adelman wrote: "An intimidating context alone does not remove the protection of the First Amendment."
That may be true, the higher court conceded. But such a question should be decided by a jury at trial, it said, not by a judge on a motion to dismiss.
Whether White is guilty of soliciting harm against the juror turns on his intent at the time he made the posts, which can best be determined once a jury hears additional evidence, the court ruled.
The ruling appears to open the door for prosecutors to bring up other posts on overthrow.com in which White has written that the "enemies" of the white supremacy movement should be harassed, intimidated and lynched.
Shortly before he was arrested in October 2008, White was preparing to distribute a magazine with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama on the cover. The illustration showed Obama's head in the sights of an assassin's rifle, with the cross hairs extended to form a swastika. Below the image was the headline:
"Kill this n-----?"
When White's appeal was argued earlier this year, appellate Judge Richard Posner picked up on the government's assertion that White's carefully selected words amounted to a coded solicitation.
Posner brought up the words of King Henry II of England, who supposedly once asked aloud, "Will no one rid me of this pestilent priest?" before his knights took the hint and killed Thomas Becket.
Queried by Posner about the case, Sanan said the king should be given the same protection today that White was afforded under the First Amendment.
"Not punishable?" Posner retorted. "You're kidding."
roanoke
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision released Monday, reinstated a charge that White encouraged violence against the foreman of a Chicago jury that convicted a fellow white supremacist years ago.
"Although First Amendment speech protections are far-reaching, there are limits," a three-judge panel from the court wrote.
The ruling reverses a judge's dismissal of the charge on free-speech grounds last July, before White was convicted of similar charges in Roanoke.
White, serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, now faces the prospect of being returned to Chicago. He is charged with posting the name, address and telephone number of the foreman of a jury that convicted neo-Nazi leader Matthew Hale in 2004 of plotting to have a federal judge killed.
Although White made no direct threats against the juror, prosecutors had argued that his words must be viewed in the context of other material on overthrow.com, the now-defunct website that carried his inflammatory rhetoric.
The court of appeals noted that White once wrote that "everyone associated with the Matt Hale trial has deserved assassination for a long time."
White, who moved to Roanoke in 2004 and created the American National Socialist Workers Party, is currently serving time in a federal prison in Beckley, W.Va.
After years of pushing the line between free speech and illegal conduct, he was convicted in December of making racially motivated threats against people in Missouri, Delaware and Virginia.
Nishay Sanan, a Chicago attorney who represents White, said he plans to ask the full court of appeals to review Monday's decision.
In dismissing the charge last July, U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman noted that White broke no laws when he dug up the publicly available contact information for the juror and posted it to overthrow.com.
As for the government's argument that White's intent to have the juror harmed was betrayed by other posts on a website viewed by violent racists, Adelman wrote: "An intimidating context alone does not remove the protection of the First Amendment."
That may be true, the higher court conceded. But such a question should be decided by a jury at trial, it said, not by a judge on a motion to dismiss.
Whether White is guilty of soliciting harm against the juror turns on his intent at the time he made the posts, which can best be determined once a jury hears additional evidence, the court ruled.
The ruling appears to open the door for prosecutors to bring up other posts on overthrow.com in which White has written that the "enemies" of the white supremacy movement should be harassed, intimidated and lynched.
Shortly before he was arrested in October 2008, White was preparing to distribute a magazine with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama on the cover. The illustration showed Obama's head in the sights of an assassin's rifle, with the cross hairs extended to form a swastika. Below the image was the headline:
"Kill this n-----?"
When White's appeal was argued earlier this year, appellate Judge Richard Posner picked up on the government's assertion that White's carefully selected words amounted to a coded solicitation.
Posner brought up the words of King Henry II of England, who supposedly once asked aloud, "Will no one rid me of this pestilent priest?" before his knights took the hint and killed Thomas Becket.
Queried by Posner about the case, Sanan said the king should be given the same protection today that White was afforded under the First Amendment.
"Not punishable?" Posner retorted. "You're kidding."
roanoke
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)