BNP member guilty of racial abuse on Asian woman (UK)

A British National Party organiser has narrowly escaped jail for racially abusing an Asian woman in a supermarket.

Peter King told stunned Sajida Islam "go back to your own country" when he saw her in the aisles of Hartlepool's Tesco Extra store, in Burn Road.

He followed with a tirade of racist abuse.

In another unrelated incident he threatened a student with a medieval weapon in another outburst.

John Gillette, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said: "He just passed an Asian lady in an aisle in the store and said 'get home to your own country'.

"It was just abuse out of nowhere, and left the victim upset.

"She contacted store security who in turn brought in police.

"Although the incident was not caught on CCTV he was seen leaving the store and was identified from that."

The incident happened on October 14 last year.
King, who the BNP's own website describes as regional organiser, was arrested again on Christmas Eve.

Police were called following a row with his neighbour, 20-year-old student Nicholas Thompson, who he confronted with an ornamental mace for revving his mini-moto bike.

Mr Gillette said: "There had been an argument over some noise from a vehicle exhaust being revved and he went and got what is described as an ornamental medieval mace.

"The weapon had a wooden handle with a chain and a couple of metal balls."

King, 38, was at risk of going to jail after he admitted racially aggravated harassment and possessing an offensive weapon.

However, he walked out of court after he was given a suspended prison term.

Nigel Herrmann, mitigating, said King, of Bluebell Way, Hartlepool, had experienced personal problems in the last year. He added there had been no further incidents since.

Judge Peter Bowers sentenced King to 10 months prison suspended for 18 months with supervision.

He warned King to curb his temper in future.
King was accompanied at court by Cheryl Dunn, who unsuccessfully ran for the BNP in the Hartlepool mayoral election and also in the Easington parliamentary election.

Hartlepool Mail

Four US teens have killed themselves after anti-gay bullying, this month

A total of four US teenagers have now taken their own lives after being bullied over their sexuality, this month.

Last week, Tyler Clementi, 18, killed himself after his roommate allegedly recorded him having sex with another man. He is presumed dead after jumping off the George Washington Bridge.

Since then, Dharun Ravi, 18, and Molly Wei, 18, who are alleged to have hidden a camera inside Clemente’s bedroom and streamed his sex session live over the internet, have been arrested and charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy.

But this is only the latest in a spate of suicides. During the last month, three other teenagers have killed themselves following bullying from their peers.

On 23 September, Asher Brown, from Houston, Texas, shot himself in the head after reportedly being bullied, the Daily Mail report.

In Indiana on 9 September, Billy Lucas hanged himself at his grandmother’s home.

And in Minnesota, 13-year-old Seth Walsh died nine days after hanging himself from a tree in his garden.

No charges are to be pressed against the pupils though after the police said their actions did not constitute a crime.

TV talk-show host Ellen Degeneres called for America to "wake up" to the problem.

"I am devastated over the death of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi," DeGeneres said. "He was outed as being gay on the Internet and he killed himself." "Something must be done. This needs to be a wake-up call to everyone that teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic in this country, and the death rate is climbing.
"We have an obligation to change this."

Pink News

New equality rights in workplace come into force (UK)

New rules aimed at banning discrimination by employers, covering areas such as age, disability and pay, have come into force across Britain.

The Equality Act covers many workplace areas and draws nine separate pieces of legislation into a single Act.
Equalities Minister Theresa May says it will now be easier for firms to comply with anti-discrimination rules.
However, some business groups argued the new legislation will impose a heavy burden on employers.
The new law applies in England, Wales and Scotland.

'Challenging times'

The new law restricts the circumstances in which employers can ask job applicants questions about disability or health prior to offering them a position, making it more difficult for disabled people to be unfairly screened out.
"In these challenging economic times it's more important than ever for employers to make the most of all the talent available," said Ms May.

There are also new powers for employment tribunals.

The Act will also stop employers using pay secrecy clauses to prevent employees discussing their own pay, which means men and women can compare pay.
But the Act will not make employers reveal how much they pay men compared with women, as had been planned by the Labour government.

Some campaigners argued that this revision undermined the new legislation.

"Rowing back on the requirement for big business to publish and take action on any differences in pay between men and women employees is tantamount to endorsing the shocking gender pay gap," said Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality.

Business cost
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said: "Everyone is protected by the new law.
"It [the Act] covers age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex (meaning gender) and sexual orientation.

"Under the act people are not allowed to discriminate, harass or victimise another person because they belong to a group that the Act protects, they are thought to belong to one of those groups or are associated with someone who does."

But some business groups argued that the new rules place an extra burden on companies at a time when they are still trying to recover from the recession.

"Businesses are really concerned," Abigail Morris from the British Chambers of Commerce told the BBC.
"The government's own impact assessment shows that this is going to cost £190m just for businesses to understand the legislation, and this at a time when we really need them to be concentrating on creating private sector jobs and driving economic recovery."

During the summer there were some concerns about the new rules expressed by shipping companies.
Some claimed the laws could force them to quit the UK because they would have to pay UK rates to foreign-based seafarers who do not have the burden of British living costs.

BBC News

Anti-Semitism charge mars debate in run-up to Italy confidence vote (Italy)

An ally of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi drew criticism Thursday for an apparent anti-Semitic insult he directed at dissident members of the premier's party during a parliamentary debate.

Speaking ahead of a confidence vote on a set of government proposals presented by Berlusconi, Senator Giuseppe Ciarrapico accused the dissidents and their leader, Gianfranco Fini, of being 'traitors.'
'Has Fini's grouping already ordered the kippah?' Ciarrapico asked, sarcastically referring to the traditional Jewish skullcap.

'He who has betrayed once always betrays,' Ciarrapico added.

Members of the centre-left opposition condemned the remarks.

The Democratic Party's Senate leader, Anna Finocchiaro, called on Berlusconi 'to dissociate himself in an official and clear way from the unacceptable anti-Semitic remarks made by Senator Ciarrapico in the Senate chamber.'

The Senate leader from Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, Maurizio Gasparri, described Ciarrapico's remarks as 'unpleasant.'

'Is this enough to expel him (Ciarrapico) from the PdL (People of Freedom)? Ask the party,' Gasparri was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

Fini, a former neo-fascist who over the last two decades has shifted towards more traditional right-wing views, is accused by former comrades of selling out.

In particular, neo-fascists cite a 2003 visit by Fini to Israel during which he denounced Nazi and Fascist crimes from World War II and visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

Posters subsequently appeared in Rome showing a photograph of Fini wearing the kippah at Yad Vashem and branding him a traitor.

A 2008 co-founder of the People of Freedom with Berlusconi, Fini was effectively expelled from the party in July after repeated disagreements, including over proposed legislation to limit the use of wiretapping in investigations.

However, on Wednesday, some 35 parliamentarians loyal to Fini supported the government in a lower-house Chamber of Deputies confidence vote on the same set of proposals presented by Berlusconi to the Senate on Thursday.

The confidence vote in the Senate is scheduled for later Thursday.

Monsters and Critics

FRANCE FINGERPRINTS ROMA DEPORTEES TO PREVENT RETURN

he French Immigration Ministry is to fingerprint Roma (Gypsies) who get financial aid after being deported. From Friday, biometric records will be created on Roma who receive up to 300 euros (£259; $409) after they leave France. Most of them are repatriated to Bulgaria and Romania. Authorities say some expelled Roma make return trips to France to benefit several times from the humanitarian aid they get for going home. In 2009 more than 15,200 return aid payments were made to immigrants, mostly Roma, who were expelled from France. The French government classes the majority as "volunteers", who are given a cash payment of 300 euros per adult or 150 euros for each child. The expulsion fund cost the French government 9m euros last year. There is suspicion in France that some of the Roma flown home to eastern Europe have used the cash handouts to come back under false identities. The French government hopes taking a biometric record of everyone who is expelled will cut back on fraud. The decision to fingerprint the Roma has led to concerns by human rights groups, who already accuse the French government of targeting a minority group. And France was warned by the European authorities this week that it will face disciplinary proceedings and possible court action if EU freedom of movement is not enshrined in French law by next month. Commission officials said the onus is on Paris to prove that it is not targeting Roma as an ethnic group. France believes it has law on its side. President Sarkozy said his country has every right to expel foreign Roma who are living in France without a job or any means to support themselves.

BBC News

Czech singer of neo-Nazi band gets 3-year prison term for neo-Nazism promotion in his songs

An appeals court in the Czech Republic has upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a prominent member of the country's neo-Nazi movement to three years in prison for racist song lyrics.

Michal Moravec, lead singer of the band Imperium, received the prison term from a court in the southern city of Ceske Budejovice in July 2009 for the promotion of neo-Nazism on the album "Triumph of the Will." Moravec appealed the verdict.

The album's name is the same as a Nazi propaganda film shot by filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl.
Supreme Court spokesman Petr Knotig said Friday the court upheld the previous verdict but gave no details. The ruling by the Brno-based court is final.

Google News

CNN’s Rick Sanchez Fired for Jon Stewart Comments, Racism(USA)

Anchor for CNN Rick Sanchez was fired just one day after he leveled a very serious and ungrounded insult against Emmy Award winner Jon Stewart calling him a “bigot” on Sirius radio. Sanchez also said that “CNN is run by Jews,” and one can only imagine that such ignorant and racist remarks were not appreciated by his former employers!

Stewart, who happens to be Jewish, was accused by Cuban-American Stewart of having grown up in the suburbs and being from a middle-class background and thus, according to ignoramus Sanchez, Stewart is bigoted against anyone who is not like him.

Imagine that, Sanchez, with one racist comment has determined that people who happen to be from a decent background are discounted from understanding other cultures and having any empathy for those from lower income brackets. What an absolutely disgusting comment to make – how hateful to imply that Stewart and Jewish people in general are by dint of their parent’s hard work and success in America somehow bigoted and consider themselves to be ‘above’ other Americans.
Not to make generalizations or imply stereotypical meanings but interestingly, suburbs in which Jews make up a substantial portion of the population tend to vote Democrat while the Hialeah suburb of Miami where Sanchez grew up is staunchly Republican, hmmm. Who can’t understand other people??
Anyway, I am so glad that Sanchez is gone from CNN. I always found him to be an arrogant commentator who did not uphold the generally high standards of CNN. I felt that he got his job primarily due to affirmative action, not on his own merit, and now that he has shown his true racist anti-semitic colors he is thankfully gone.

But here is something you should know about the jerk.  On December 10, 1990, Sanchez struck a pedestrian, Jeffrey Smuzinick, with his car on a residential street and left the scene, returning two hours later. Smuzinick was paralyzed and eventually died in an assisted living facility on November 2, 1995. Sanchez had just left the NFL football game between the Dolphins and the Eagles with his father when the accident occurred. Police breathalyzer test results determined that Sanchez’s blood alcohol level was above the legal limit for driving. He was not charged with causing the accident, but was charged with and pleaded no contest to DUI.

So let’s clarify – a drunken Sanchez hit a pedestrian and fled the scene – and this pedestrian later died as a result of what Sanchez did. Maybe Rick Sanchez should shut his mouth and keep his anti-semitic racist comments to himself?

Opposing Views