Four men from Southport have been convicted following a racist attack on a doctor at the town’s hospital.
Dr Romio Shwahna was walking with his brother Rabea, who was visiting him on holiday, when they were set upon by a gang-of-four.
The group of drunks hurled racial insults before one of them, Daniel Rigby, began to punch the junior medic to the side of the face, causing him to lose consciousness.
Dr Shwahna woke to find Rigby beating him.
But the ordeal did not stop there – after fleeing into A&E the brothers were chased down after having traffic cones hurled at them, and assaulted.
Edmund Haygarth, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court: “All four males began to violently attack Romio and his brother, by kicking and mostly punching to the head and body.
“The two brothers were in defensive positions, hunched down with their arms up attempting to block the punches to their heads.”
The attack only came to an end when police arrived at the scene.
The gang, Rigby, 19, Gary Evans, 18, Jason Lynch, 21, and Craig Morgan, 18, initially claimed they were defending themselves. But they all later admitted racially aggravated common assault on April 24, 2009.
Judge Adrian Lyon said: “The national health service in this country has the benefit of a number of people who come from foreign countries and who serve the people of this country by providing them with medical care.
“This doctor was faced by four drunken young men who proceeded to assault him and his brother.
“It is perhaps surprising that the doctor feels able to serve the people of this country. We ought to be grateful to him, you ought to be grateful to him.”
He sentenced all of the men to 12-months behind bars but suspended for two years with supervision. Rigby, of Jane’s Brook Road, was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work. Lynch, of Southport Road, was put on an anger management programme and Evans, of Duke Street, and Morgan, of Kew Road, were told to attend a promoting human dignity course.
Alan Lee, risk manager at Southport hospital, said: “We have a zero tolerance towards both physical and verbal abuse of our staff.
“They are here to help people in their hour of need, not to be a victim of such an attack.”
Southport Visitor
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Report: French synagogue gets letter with death threats, bullets
Synagogue in Drancy, former transport site of over 65,000 French Jews to death camps during WWII, is often subject to anti-Semitic vandalism.
A Paris synagogue received a letter marked with a swastika containing bullets and death threats against Jews, French News Agency AFP reported on Wednesday.
“Dirty Jews, we’ll get you all,” read the letter, which, accompanied by nine bullets and a swastika, was received at the synagogue. The anonymous package, which was reportedly delivered on Aug. 14, was discovered Tuesday by synagogue workers.
The synagogue in Drancy was erected in place of an infamous transit camp from which Jews were sent to death camps during World War II.
More than 65,000 Jews were deported from Drancy during the Holocaust, of whom 63,000 were murdered.
The train station at Drancy, which was turned into a memorial site in 196, has been the target of anti-Semitic attacks over the years. In April last year a swastika was spray painted on one of the train cars used to transport the French Jews.
On July 27, gravestones at Jewish cemetery Wolfisheim in eastern France were smashed or overturned by vandals.
Jewish grave sites around France are attacked sporadically by vandals, who leave gravestones broken or sprayed with anti-Semitic slogans.
In 2004, vandals painted swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, an act that drew the swift condemnation of the government.
During the last decade France has suffered a wave of violence against Jewish schools, synagogues and cemeteries that coincided with fighting in the Middle East. Many of the attacks have been blamed on young Muslims.
France is home to western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations, and there are occasional attacks on their schools, cemeteries or places of worship.
Haaretz
A Paris synagogue received a letter marked with a swastika containing bullets and death threats against Jews, French News Agency AFP reported on Wednesday.
“Dirty Jews, we’ll get you all,” read the letter, which, accompanied by nine bullets and a swastika, was received at the synagogue. The anonymous package, which was reportedly delivered on Aug. 14, was discovered Tuesday by synagogue workers.
The synagogue in Drancy was erected in place of an infamous transit camp from which Jews were sent to death camps during World War II.
More than 65,000 Jews were deported from Drancy during the Holocaust, of whom 63,000 were murdered.
The train station at Drancy, which was turned into a memorial site in 196, has been the target of anti-Semitic attacks over the years. In April last year a swastika was spray painted on one of the train cars used to transport the French Jews.
On July 27, gravestones at Jewish cemetery Wolfisheim in eastern France were smashed or overturned by vandals.
Jewish grave sites around France are attacked sporadically by vandals, who leave gravestones broken or sprayed with anti-Semitic slogans.
In 2004, vandals painted swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti on headstones at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, an act that drew the swift condemnation of the government.
During the last decade France has suffered a wave of violence against Jewish schools, synagogues and cemeteries that coincided with fighting in the Middle East. Many of the attacks have been blamed on young Muslims.
France is home to western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations, and there are occasional attacks on their schools, cemeteries or places of worship.
Haaretz
Aryan Nations member with Longview ties accused of racially motivated attack (USA)
The man whose neo-Nazi recruitment meeting prompted a huge "diversity march" through Longview has been indicted by a federal grand jury in a racially motivated attack in Vancouver.
Zachary Loren Beck, 31, and Kory Boyd, 25, both of Vancouver, are accused of attacking a black man Jan. 7 at a Vancouver sports bar. They were arrested Wednesday morning and made their first appearance Wednesday afternoon at U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
The grand jury returned the indictment last week charging Beck and Boyd with conspiracy to violate civil rights and interference with a federally protected right. Beck also was charged with witness tampering.
According to the indictment, Beck told the bartender at Captain's Sports Bar that the lone black patron at the bar "had to leave."
After allegedly stepping outside with others to discuss physically attacking the man, Beck and Boyd came back in, and Beck told the black man he "needed to leave the bar or there would be a problem," the indictment said.
Beck tried to hit the man and Boyd threw a glass bottle at the man, showering him with broken glass, the indictment said. The victim and his friends stood up to the attackers, and Beck, Boyd and a third conspirator then left the bar, the indictment said.
The third man has been convicted in state court of trying to stab the victim, the indictment said.
The witness tampering charge stems from Beck's attempts to get his former girlfriend to provide an alibi for the night of the attack, the indictment said.
If convicted as charged, each man faces up to 10 years in prison.
The case is being investigated by the Vancouver Police Department and the FBI.
Beck, a member of the Aryan Nations neo-Nazi organization, moved to Longview from Hayden, Idaho, in February 2004. Shortly after he moved here, a few local churches received mailings of neo-Nazi literature that included Beck's business card.
In December 2007, Beck rented the McClelland Arts Center to hold a recruitment meeting for the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, a white supremacist church.
"Our goals aren't violent at all," he told The Daily News at the time. His church promotes racial purity and "anti-mongrelism," he said.
Before the meeting, in a counterdemonstration to Beck's efforts, more than 400 people marched through Longview in near-freezing weather holding signs saying "Celebrate Diversity" and similar sentiments. The march is believed to be the city's largest-ever demonstration. About 30 white supremacists attended Beck's recruitment meeting.
Beck ran unsuccessfully for the Hayden City Council on the Aryan Nations ticket in 2003. That year he was charged with punching a man in a parking lot after asking him if he was Mexican.
Charged in 2004 of shooting at Longview police during a standoff, Beck entered an Alford plea in 2005 to burglary and assault charges. He continued to maintain his innocence, claiming he was framed.
In June 2008 a jury found him guilty of possessing cocaine.
tdn.com
Zachary Loren Beck, 31, and Kory Boyd, 25, both of Vancouver, are accused of attacking a black man Jan. 7 at a Vancouver sports bar. They were arrested Wednesday morning and made their first appearance Wednesday afternoon at U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
The grand jury returned the indictment last week charging Beck and Boyd with conspiracy to violate civil rights and interference with a federally protected right. Beck also was charged with witness tampering.
According to the indictment, Beck told the bartender at Captain's Sports Bar that the lone black patron at the bar "had to leave."
After allegedly stepping outside with others to discuss physically attacking the man, Beck and Boyd came back in, and Beck told the black man he "needed to leave the bar or there would be a problem," the indictment said.
Beck tried to hit the man and Boyd threw a glass bottle at the man, showering him with broken glass, the indictment said. The victim and his friends stood up to the attackers, and Beck, Boyd and a third conspirator then left the bar, the indictment said.
The third man has been convicted in state court of trying to stab the victim, the indictment said.
The witness tampering charge stems from Beck's attempts to get his former girlfriend to provide an alibi for the night of the attack, the indictment said.
If convicted as charged, each man faces up to 10 years in prison.
The case is being investigated by the Vancouver Police Department and the FBI.
Beck, a member of the Aryan Nations neo-Nazi organization, moved to Longview from Hayden, Idaho, in February 2004. Shortly after he moved here, a few local churches received mailings of neo-Nazi literature that included Beck's business card.
In December 2007, Beck rented the McClelland Arts Center to hold a recruitment meeting for the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, a white supremacist church.
"Our goals aren't violent at all," he told The Daily News at the time. His church promotes racial purity and "anti-mongrelism," he said.
Before the meeting, in a counterdemonstration to Beck's efforts, more than 400 people marched through Longview in near-freezing weather holding signs saying "Celebrate Diversity" and similar sentiments. The march is believed to be the city's largest-ever demonstration. About 30 white supremacists attended Beck's recruitment meeting.
Beck ran unsuccessfully for the Hayden City Council on the Aryan Nations ticket in 2003. That year he was charged with punching a man in a parking lot after asking him if he was Mexican.
Charged in 2004 of shooting at Longview police during a standoff, Beck entered an Alford plea in 2005 to burglary and assault charges. He continued to maintain his innocence, claiming he was framed.
In June 2008 a jury found him guilty of possessing cocaine.
tdn.com
Neo-Nazi Bill White faces financial hit in civil trial (USA)
In a civil trial that began today in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, a group of black tenants from a Virginia Beach apartment complex is claiming that White harassed them in May 2007 after learning of a discrimination lawsuit they had filed against their white landlord.
As the leader of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party, White sent the tenants letters adorned with swastikas and addressed to "Whiney Section 8 N-----."
Following a rant about blacks on welfare, White concluded: "You may get one over on your landlord this time, and you may not. But know that the white community has noticed you, and we know that you are and never will be anything more than a dirty parasite — and that our patience with you and the government that coddles you runs thin."
After hearing testimony about White’s actions in December, a federal jury convicted him of threatening several residents with the intent of intimidating them into dropping their lawsuit.
White, 33, is serving a 2½-year prison term for that and two other threats. He also faces charges in Chicago of encouraging violence against the foreman of a jury the convicted a fellow white supremacist, a charge that was dismissed on free-speech grounds and later reinstated on appeal.
The civil trial that began today is scheduled to last three days. The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
Roanoke
Police officers sacked over racist emails (Australia)
The Victorian Police Association says two officers have been sacked over the distribution of pornographic and racist emails.
Two other officers have been fined and another was demoted after internal disciplinary hearings.
Police are expected to make a statement later today.
Yesterday Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland described the material as "extreme" and "shocking".
The emails were allegedly distributed over the Victoria Police email server.
The Police Association says the problem is not a pandemic and the two sacked officers are considering their options regarding an appeal.
The internal disciplinary hearings are expected to continue until the end of the week.
It is believed as many as 30 police officers were involved in distributing the emails.
abc
Two other officers have been fined and another was demoted after internal disciplinary hearings.
Police are expected to make a statement later today.
Yesterday Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland described the material as "extreme" and "shocking".
The emails were allegedly distributed over the Victoria Police email server.
The Police Association says the problem is not a pandemic and the two sacked officers are considering their options regarding an appeal.
The internal disciplinary hearings are expected to continue until the end of the week.
It is believed as many as 30 police officers were involved in distributing the emails.
abc
West Bromwich Albion fans hit back at 'racist' banner (UK)
West Bromwich Albion legend Cyrille Regis has hit out at this offensive banner directed at the club’s £2 million new striker, Peter Odemwingie.
A huge white sheet sprawled behind goals at the ground of the 29-year-old player’s former Russian club, Lokomotiv Moscow, depicted a banana with the words “THANKS WEST BROM”.
The picture reference is believed to be a spiteful throwback to the abuse suffered by black players, such as Liverpool winger John Barnes, who broke through in the English game in the last century. It was also suffered by Albion legend Regis, who also played for Villa and Wolves.
Famously, he teamed up with two other black players, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson, to tear through defences in the late 1970 and early 1980s.
Today, he branded the banner “cowardly” and said Odemwingie, who has a Russian mother and a Nigerian father, would be treated with respect by Black Country fans.
“It’s not only racist but cowardly,” said Regis. “Did they ever target him when he was there or did they wait until he was gone?
“How will we ever get rid of racism in football when things like this happen?
“Peter has come to the right club, where he will be judged on his ability to play football.”
Baggies fans have also hit back at the banner and set up a Facebook page supporting Odemwingie.
Hawthorns regular Martin Greenwood, 25, from Oldbury, said: “I thought the banner in Russia was disgusting and there’s a general feeling that we should do something about it because racism shouldn’t be tolerated in the sport.”
A spokesman for West Bromwich Albion said: “We deplore any suggestion of racism, both in football and every walk of life.
“Beyond saying this, we do not intend to dignify these reports with any further comment.
“Peter made a fine debut for Albion on Saturday, scoring the winning goal against Sunderland, and has become an instant hit with our supporters, who have welcomed his signing with enthusiasm,” he added.
Lokomotiv Moscow declined to comment.
Birmingham Mail
A huge white sheet sprawled behind goals at the ground of the 29-year-old player’s former Russian club, Lokomotiv Moscow, depicted a banana with the words “THANKS WEST BROM”.
The picture reference is believed to be a spiteful throwback to the abuse suffered by black players, such as Liverpool winger John Barnes, who broke through in the English game in the last century. It was also suffered by Albion legend Regis, who also played for Villa and Wolves.
Famously, he teamed up with two other black players, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson, to tear through defences in the late 1970 and early 1980s.
Today, he branded the banner “cowardly” and said Odemwingie, who has a Russian mother and a Nigerian father, would be treated with respect by Black Country fans.
“It’s not only racist but cowardly,” said Regis. “Did they ever target him when he was there or did they wait until he was gone?
“How will we ever get rid of racism in football when things like this happen?
“Peter has come to the right club, where he will be judged on his ability to play football.”
Baggies fans have also hit back at the banner and set up a Facebook page supporting Odemwingie.
Hawthorns regular Martin Greenwood, 25, from Oldbury, said: “I thought the banner in Russia was disgusting and there’s a general feeling that we should do something about it because racism shouldn’t be tolerated in the sport.”
A spokesman for West Bromwich Albion said: “We deplore any suggestion of racism, both in football and every walk of life.
“Beyond saying this, we do not intend to dignify these reports with any further comment.
“Peter made a fine debut for Albion on Saturday, scoring the winning goal against Sunderland, and has become an instant hit with our supporters, who have welcomed his signing with enthusiasm,” he added.
Lokomotiv Moscow declined to comment.
Birmingham Mail
Women jailed for attacking disabled man in Gloucester (UK)
Zena-Cheri Gormley, 21, and Laura Ramsey, 23, admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent at a previous hearing at Gloucester Crown Court.
The court heard Gormley, of Lorne Street in Kidderminster, and Ramsey, of The Green, Ashleworth, Gloucester, had been on a night out with the victim.
It heard the 43-year-old was left with life-changing injuries.
Both women had been drinking heavily and said they had little memory of the assault, which took place in Pitt Street in the early hours of 17 June.
Det Ch Insp Rachel Williams said: "The CCTV from this case was one of the most disturbing pieces of footage I have seen.
"These women launched a totally unprovoked and vicious attack on a vulnerable man who was not able to defend himself.
"The impact on the victim and the list of the injuries he received is shocking - he currently needs permanent care and can't remember anything from the last few years, let alone the night of the attack."
BBC News
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