A man who the District Attorney's Office claims is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for raping his girlfriend's teenage daughter.
Rodney Wayne Price, 43, could spend up to the rest of his life on parole as a registered sex offender after he is released from prison.
The sentence, handed down by 3rd Judicial District Court Judge Fernando Macias, was filed Tuesday.
The 15-year-old victim told her mother of the attack, but her mother refused to believe her and insisted the girl was lying so she could break up the couple, said senior trial prosecutor Michelle Pickett.
It wasn't until the girl returned to O-ate High School and confided in the school's resource officer that Las Cruces police were called and a subsequent sexual assault examination found the man's semen inside the girl.
Read more Las Cruces Daily News
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Sweden targets religious prejudice
Sweden's government has announced plans to chart the extent of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the country, as it attempts to counteract the spread of intolerance towards minorities.
The government is to task the state-run Living History Forum (Forum för levande historia) with preparing a report on the issue by August 19th. The public agency will compile all relevant data and examine the possible causes of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Sweden.
Integration minister Erik Ullenhag, from the centre-right Liberal Party (Folkpartiet), told newspaper Dagens Nyheter that upgrading the status of history as a school subject was one possible step that could be taken to arrest the development of religious prejudices in the country.
“Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are particularly serious, since they are forms of ideologized hatred,” Ullenhag told The Local.
The minister said he had noted a tendency in the Swedish debate whereby both Jews and Muslims in Sweden were held collectively accountable for matters over which they had no control.
“Jews in Sweden are held accountable for what the Israeli government does, and the Muslim group has been met with suspicion ever since the 11th of September as potential terrorists,” said Ullenhag.
“What worries me an awful lot is that, in my conversations (with both groups), I’m receiving signals that both Jews and Muslims are testifying to being the subject of harassment because of their religious symbols.”
Ullenhag met with representatives from the Swedish Muslim community in January in an attempt to develop a strategy for combating Islamophobia in the wake of a Stockholm suicide bombing that terrified Christmas shoppers and left the attacker dead.
The suicide bombing risked resulting in suspicions being cast against hundreds of thousands of Swedish Muslims, Ullenhag explained at the time.
The minister also cited a recent study from the Forum for Living History which found that the level of tolerance among Swedish youth for Muslim, Jews, and Roma had decreased in recent years.
The Local Sweden
The government is to task the state-run Living History Forum (Forum för levande historia) with preparing a report on the issue by August 19th. The public agency will compile all relevant data and examine the possible causes of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Sweden.
Integration minister Erik Ullenhag, from the centre-right Liberal Party (Folkpartiet), told newspaper Dagens Nyheter that upgrading the status of history as a school subject was one possible step that could be taken to arrest the development of religious prejudices in the country.
“Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are particularly serious, since they are forms of ideologized hatred,” Ullenhag told The Local.
The minister said he had noted a tendency in the Swedish debate whereby both Jews and Muslims in Sweden were held collectively accountable for matters over which they had no control.
“Jews in Sweden are held accountable for what the Israeli government does, and the Muslim group has been met with suspicion ever since the 11th of September as potential terrorists,” said Ullenhag.
“What worries me an awful lot is that, in my conversations (with both groups), I’m receiving signals that both Jews and Muslims are testifying to being the subject of harassment because of their religious symbols.”
Ullenhag met with representatives from the Swedish Muslim community in January in an attempt to develop a strategy for combating Islamophobia in the wake of a Stockholm suicide bombing that terrified Christmas shoppers and left the attacker dead.
The suicide bombing risked resulting in suspicions being cast against hundreds of thousands of Swedish Muslims, Ullenhag explained at the time.
The minister also cited a recent study from the Forum for Living History which found that the level of tolerance among Swedish youth for Muslim, Jews, and Roma had decreased in recent years.
The Local Sweden
Nowhere man; a Searchlight report into BNP leader wannabe Eddy Butler.
Nowhere man
As part of our series looking at the wider British right, Searchlight assesses the prospects for Eddy Butler.
After Eddy Butler failed last summer to surmount the impossibly high hurdles that Nick Griffin placed in the way of anyone hoping to challenge his leadership of the British National Party, the big question among Butler’s supporters was whether to keep on fighting within the BNP or form a new party.
Butler was against a new party. He had been there before and in surprisingly similar circumstances. Shortly after Griffin replaced John Tyndall as BNP leader in 1999, the party’s treasurer and deputy chairman accused Griffin of financial wrongdoing. Griffin responded as he always does, by expelling his accusers. Butler and several others left the BNP in disgust and in December 2000 formed the Freedom Party.
Apart from getting one councillor elected in South Staffordshire in 2003 the Freedom Party made little impact and by 2006 was dead. Butler had already returned to Griffin’s side in 2003 after realising that the BNP, which had won three councillors in Burnley in May 2002, had the better prospects.
Butler’s opposition to forming a new party proved prescient. In October 2010 some of his former supporters, together with others who had fallen foul of Griffin, set up the British Freedom Party. They soon fell out with each other publicly and nastily, its leadership went through a number of changes and although it may field a few candidates in this year’s local elections, it has zero public profile and no attractive personalities.
Butler and many of his supporters believed that the future for the far right remained in the BNP. Whereas many disillusioned members were leaving the party, Butler urged supporters to renew their membership so they could vote in a future leadership election. He went to great trouble to contribute to a “consultation” on changes to the party’s constitution, only to have his effort rejected.
However, if Butler thought he could carry on agitating against Griffin inside the BNP, he must have been very naïve, surprisingly so for someone who has been active on the far right for 30 years and has an honours degree in history and politics. Butler was first suspended from the BNP, then expelled, though he retains his employment on the European Parliament payroll with Andrew Brons MEP, who has maintained a somewhat uncomfortable fence-sitting position between Butler and Griffin.
On 24 December Butler changed his view on whether party members should renew. Reminding his readers of Griffin’s financial mismanagement, which had left the party with debts of over £500,000, Butler declared that members get: “No chance to vote on anything, no chance to decide anything. He [Griffin] will never allow anyone any chance to vote on anything.” Griffin had to be “starved out” said Butler, adding: “This is harsh but it is the only way.”
Since then Butler has continued waging war on Griffin from the comfort of his blog. Many of his articles, and those of a handful of guest writers, contain insightful analysis and plenty of useful information for anti-fascists. But it is unclear quite where Butler hopes to go. Constant calls for Griffin to be removed are not accompanied by any strategy for achieving that aim.
The BNP constitution, which requires a challenger to obtain the support of 20% of all party members of at least two years’ standing, remains in place and it is unclear when changes discussed at last year’s BNP conference might be put to a vote. The first problem a challenger faces is to find out which members to canvass, as the party does not supply a list.
Nevertheless a group of party members grouped under the banner of BNP Reform 2011 has said a leadership challenge will be mounted this summer, although: “To protect the candidate and ensure he/she is not expelled or suspended before the period for leadership nominations we shall not be revealing his/her identity at this time.”
BNP Reform 2011 is independent of Butler, though many of its members supported him last year and Butler has condemned Griffin’s moves against the group. Several prominent party activists have been suspended recently by Griffin’s henchman Adam Walker, the BNP’s national organiser, simply for attending reform meetings.
Read more Searchlight
As part of our series looking at the wider British right, Searchlight assesses the prospects for Eddy Butler.
After Eddy Butler failed last summer to surmount the impossibly high hurdles that Nick Griffin placed in the way of anyone hoping to challenge his leadership of the British National Party, the big question among Butler’s supporters was whether to keep on fighting within the BNP or form a new party.
Butler was against a new party. He had been there before and in surprisingly similar circumstances. Shortly after Griffin replaced John Tyndall as BNP leader in 1999, the party’s treasurer and deputy chairman accused Griffin of financial wrongdoing. Griffin responded as he always does, by expelling his accusers. Butler and several others left the BNP in disgust and in December 2000 formed the Freedom Party.
Apart from getting one councillor elected in South Staffordshire in 2003 the Freedom Party made little impact and by 2006 was dead. Butler had already returned to Griffin’s side in 2003 after realising that the BNP, which had won three councillors in Burnley in May 2002, had the better prospects.
Butler’s opposition to forming a new party proved prescient. In October 2010 some of his former supporters, together with others who had fallen foul of Griffin, set up the British Freedom Party. They soon fell out with each other publicly and nastily, its leadership went through a number of changes and although it may field a few candidates in this year’s local elections, it has zero public profile and no attractive personalities.
Butler and many of his supporters believed that the future for the far right remained in the BNP. Whereas many disillusioned members were leaving the party, Butler urged supporters to renew their membership so they could vote in a future leadership election. He went to great trouble to contribute to a “consultation” on changes to the party’s constitution, only to have his effort rejected.
However, if Butler thought he could carry on agitating against Griffin inside the BNP, he must have been very naïve, surprisingly so for someone who has been active on the far right for 30 years and has an honours degree in history and politics. Butler was first suspended from the BNP, then expelled, though he retains his employment on the European Parliament payroll with Andrew Brons MEP, who has maintained a somewhat uncomfortable fence-sitting position between Butler and Griffin.
On 24 December Butler changed his view on whether party members should renew. Reminding his readers of Griffin’s financial mismanagement, which had left the party with debts of over £500,000, Butler declared that members get: “No chance to vote on anything, no chance to decide anything. He [Griffin] will never allow anyone any chance to vote on anything.” Griffin had to be “starved out” said Butler, adding: “This is harsh but it is the only way.”
Since then Butler has continued waging war on Griffin from the comfort of his blog. Many of his articles, and those of a handful of guest writers, contain insightful analysis and plenty of useful information for anti-fascists. But it is unclear quite where Butler hopes to go. Constant calls for Griffin to be removed are not accompanied by any strategy for achieving that aim.
The BNP constitution, which requires a challenger to obtain the support of 20% of all party members of at least two years’ standing, remains in place and it is unclear when changes discussed at last year’s BNP conference might be put to a vote. The first problem a challenger faces is to find out which members to canvass, as the party does not supply a list.
Nevertheless a group of party members grouped under the banner of BNP Reform 2011 has said a leadership challenge will be mounted this summer, although: “To protect the candidate and ensure he/she is not expelled or suspended before the period for leadership nominations we shall not be revealing his/her identity at this time.”
BNP Reform 2011 is independent of Butler, though many of its members supported him last year and Butler has condemned Griffin’s moves against the group. Several prominent party activists have been suspended recently by Griffin’s henchman Adam Walker, the BNP’s national organiser, simply for attending reform meetings.
Read more Searchlight
White supremacist group linked to murder (Harding County, USA)
The Hardin County sheriff says four people arrested on charges of murdering a man, putting his car in a trunk and setting the vehicle on fire, have admitted to their roles in the crime.
According to Sheriff Ed Cain, the suspects take pride in the crime and the fact they belong to a white supremacist group.
The sheriff says Kenny Don Stanley, 29, of Vidor, confessed to pulling the trigger and killing the 25-year-old victim.
He says three other people have admitted to taking part in the crime: Kristopher Guidry, 26, of Humble, Vickie Fitts, 47, of Hull, and Tanner Bourque, 31, of Bridge City.
Investigators aren't releasing the name of the victim because they're trying to positively identify him and notify his relatives.
During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Cain revealed the four suspects are members of the Southern White Soldier gang. It's a spin-off of the Aryan Brotherhood.
Read more at KFDM News
According to Sheriff Ed Cain, the suspects take pride in the crime and the fact they belong to a white supremacist group.
The sheriff says Kenny Don Stanley, 29, of Vidor, confessed to pulling the trigger and killing the 25-year-old victim.
He says three other people have admitted to taking part in the crime: Kristopher Guidry, 26, of Humble, Vickie Fitts, 47, of Hull, and Tanner Bourque, 31, of Bridge City.
Investigators aren't releasing the name of the victim because they're trying to positively identify him and notify his relatives.
During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Cain revealed the four suspects are members of the Southern White Soldier gang. It's a spin-off of the Aryan Brotherhood.
Read more at KFDM News
Bill to outlaw neo-nazi activities submitted in Ukraine
The Donetsk Regional Council has sent an appeal demanding the adoption of a law prohibiting nationalist activities to the Ukrainian Parliment.
Itar-Tass reports that the initiator and author of the document, is a deputy of the regional council of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Irina Popova. According to her, in twenty years of independence, Ukrainian nationalism has been transformed into neo-fascism. It acquired a special impetus during the presidency of Victor Yushchenko, when they made heroes of Nazi henchmen and torturers, Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich.
Their followers throughout Ukraine began to carry out neo-nazi marches and other activities.
The Voice of Russia
Itar-Tass reports that the initiator and author of the document, is a deputy of the regional council of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Irina Popova. According to her, in twenty years of independence, Ukrainian nationalism has been transformed into neo-fascism. It acquired a special impetus during the presidency of Victor Yushchenko, when they made heroes of Nazi henchmen and torturers, Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich.
Their followers throughout Ukraine began to carry out neo-nazi marches and other activities.
The Voice of Russia
Nazi soldiers given highly addictive crystal meth to fight longer, harder
Even though Adolf Hitler's Nazi party rules stressed the importance of keeping fit by abstaining from drink and tobacco to keep the Aryan race strong and pure, it has emerged that his soldiers were taking addictive and damaging chemicals to fight longer and harder.
A study on the medicines used by the Third Reich revealed how Nazi doctors and officers issued recruits with pills to help them fight without rest.
The German army's drug of choice, as it overran Poland, Holland, Belgium and France, was Pervitin, pills made from methamphetamine, commonly known today as crystal meth.
Hundreds of thousands soldiers were addicted to the pills by the time the invasion of the Soviet Union was launched in 1941, and records of the Wehrmacht, the German army, show that some 200 million Pervitin pills were doled out to the troops between 1939 and 1945.
Research by the German Doctors' Association also showed the Nazis developed a cocaine-based stimulant for its front-line fighters that was tested on concentration camp inmates.
"It was Hitler's last secret weapon to win a war he had already lost long ago," the Daily Mail quoted criminologist Wolf Kemper, author of a German language book on the Third Reich's use of drugs called Nazis On Speed, as saying.
The drug, codenamed D-IX, was tested at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, where prisoners loaded with 45lb packs were reported to have marched 70 miles without rest.
The plan was to give all soldiers in the crumbling Reich the wonder drug - but the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, coupled with crippling Allied bombing, scotched the scheme.
"The Blitzkrieg was fuelled by speed. The idea was to turn ordinary soldiers, sailors and airmen into automatons capable of superhuman performance," a pharmacologist said.
Medical authorities say the downside of the plan was that many soldiers became helplessly addicted to drugs and were of no use in any theatre of war.
Otto Ranke, a military doctor and director of the Institute for General and Defence Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military Medicine, was behind the Pervitin scheme.
DNA
A study on the medicines used by the Third Reich revealed how Nazi doctors and officers issued recruits with pills to help them fight without rest.
The German army's drug of choice, as it overran Poland, Holland, Belgium and France, was Pervitin, pills made from methamphetamine, commonly known today as crystal meth.
Hundreds of thousands soldiers were addicted to the pills by the time the invasion of the Soviet Union was launched in 1941, and records of the Wehrmacht, the German army, show that some 200 million Pervitin pills were doled out to the troops between 1939 and 1945.
Research by the German Doctors' Association also showed the Nazis developed a cocaine-based stimulant for its front-line fighters that was tested on concentration camp inmates.
"It was Hitler's last secret weapon to win a war he had already lost long ago," the Daily Mail quoted criminologist Wolf Kemper, author of a German language book on the Third Reich's use of drugs called Nazis On Speed, as saying.
The drug, codenamed D-IX, was tested at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, where prisoners loaded with 45lb packs were reported to have marched 70 miles without rest.
The plan was to give all soldiers in the crumbling Reich the wonder drug - but the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, coupled with crippling Allied bombing, scotched the scheme.
"The Blitzkrieg was fuelled by speed. The idea was to turn ordinary soldiers, sailors and airmen into automatons capable of superhuman performance," a pharmacologist said.
Medical authorities say the downside of the plan was that many soldiers became helplessly addicted to drugs and were of no use in any theatre of war.
Otto Ranke, a military doctor and director of the Institute for General and Defence Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military Medicine, was behind the Pervitin scheme.
DNA
Half of Lancashire disabled people victims of crime (UK)
Half of Lancashire’s disabled population have been victims of crime because of their condition, a shock study has revealed.
A major report has found ‘an incredibly high’ number of people in the county were ‘living in fear’ of disability hate crime.
Campaigners said problems included assaults, criminal damage and verbal abuse.
In one incident a man was pushed from his wheelchair ‘for fun’.
Now a campaign has been launched to support victims because the current system was found to be ‘failing’.
The report, by Lancashire Police and the county council, was compiled after questionnaires were sent to the county’s top 60 disabled people’s organisations.
It found:
* Two thirds of people were frightened of being targeted
* 13 per cent had moved house to avoid hate crime
* Nearly half believed they had been a victim of crime because of their disability in the past six months
The study, released for the first time today, also found 46 per cent of people feared being a victim of crime at least once a month, adding: “This is an incredibly high number of people that are living in fear.”
Many cases were not being reported, it said, because victims felt nothing would be done, were confused by paperwork and feared revenge attacks.
People who gave evidence to the inquiry reported a range of physical and verbal abuse.
One said: “I’ve been told that I’m no good…I’ve been shot at and I’ve been burgled five times.”
There was also a report of youths regularly stealing a man’s walking stick and demanding money before it was returned.
One person said they were abused because their white stick had clipped passers-by, while another kept having their scooter stolen.
Another said: “Police were not helpful, suggested I stay in to prevent it happening.
"This is an infringement on my liberty.”
Their accounts were echoed by Stephen Brookes, of Blackpool, who is coordinator of the national Disability Hate Crime Network.
Mr Brookes, who works with Lancashire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Hate can be verbal abuse, pushing and shoving and general intolerance.
“I'm used to being told to get out of the way.
"I've had a fractured spine, two heart attacks and strokes, so occasionally I don't feel like standing, but the aggression you meet asking people to move from a disabled seat on a bus is quite intense.
“At the worst level you get cases like David Askew, the man who was hounded to death in Manchester.
“The police were notified in his case, but so were social services and housing associations.
"Everybody knew but nobody did anything. If people work together like this, things could get sorted.”
Steve Allen, 57, of Burrell Avenue, Colne, has been campaigning for disabled people’s rights for several years.
He said: “More often than not young kids come banging on our windows and doors, shouting foul language because they know we can’t chase them.
“Something needs to be done and this does need clamping down on, but I believe these things happen because there isn’t enough for young people to do.”
Barry Whittle, 44, a disabled cyclist from Padiham who has suffered from spina bifida since birth, said he had encountered abuse when he was younger but was now more confident.
He said: “When I was a teenager I got the odd word called at me but I expected it.
"I don't look disabled, but for somebody in a wheelchair or who happens to look disabled it can be very hard.
Denise Baker, a wheelchair user and chief executive of the charity Access Lancashire, said she often received verbal abuse when using her wheelchair, often from young men in passing cars.
She said: “We're trying to raise awareness that disabled people don't need to put up with being abused, verbally or physically.
“If it's reported, to the police, to the council, or to organisations like us, something can be done about it.”
Police Superintendent Stuart Noble, chairman of the Safer Lancashire Board's Hate Crime Group, said: "Hate crime is something we just won't tolerate and we want to work together to tackle it.
"We're also looking at the reporting process to ensure it is accessible.
"We now have a better understanding of the issues that disabled people face because of hate crime and we are looking forward to working with our partners on this important project.
"We will also be running a wider hate crime campaign to make people aware of the problem so they have the confidence to report it and know we will take action to help them out."
Lancashire Telegraph
A major report has found ‘an incredibly high’ number of people in the county were ‘living in fear’ of disability hate crime.
Campaigners said problems included assaults, criminal damage and verbal abuse.
In one incident a man was pushed from his wheelchair ‘for fun’.
Now a campaign has been launched to support victims because the current system was found to be ‘failing’.
The report, by Lancashire Police and the county council, was compiled after questionnaires were sent to the county’s top 60 disabled people’s organisations.
It found:
* Two thirds of people were frightened of being targeted
* 13 per cent had moved house to avoid hate crime
* Nearly half believed they had been a victim of crime because of their disability in the past six months
The study, released for the first time today, also found 46 per cent of people feared being a victim of crime at least once a month, adding: “This is an incredibly high number of people that are living in fear.”
Many cases were not being reported, it said, because victims felt nothing would be done, were confused by paperwork and feared revenge attacks.
People who gave evidence to the inquiry reported a range of physical and verbal abuse.
One said: “I’ve been told that I’m no good…I’ve been shot at and I’ve been burgled five times.”
There was also a report of youths regularly stealing a man’s walking stick and demanding money before it was returned.
One person said they were abused because their white stick had clipped passers-by, while another kept having their scooter stolen.
Another said: “Police were not helpful, suggested I stay in to prevent it happening.
"This is an infringement on my liberty.”
Their accounts were echoed by Stephen Brookes, of Blackpool, who is coordinator of the national Disability Hate Crime Network.
Mr Brookes, who works with Lancashire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Hate can be verbal abuse, pushing and shoving and general intolerance.
“I'm used to being told to get out of the way.
"I've had a fractured spine, two heart attacks and strokes, so occasionally I don't feel like standing, but the aggression you meet asking people to move from a disabled seat on a bus is quite intense.
“At the worst level you get cases like David Askew, the man who was hounded to death in Manchester.
“The police were notified in his case, but so were social services and housing associations.
"Everybody knew but nobody did anything. If people work together like this, things could get sorted.”
Steve Allen, 57, of Burrell Avenue, Colne, has been campaigning for disabled people’s rights for several years.
He said: “More often than not young kids come banging on our windows and doors, shouting foul language because they know we can’t chase them.
“Something needs to be done and this does need clamping down on, but I believe these things happen because there isn’t enough for young people to do.”
Barry Whittle, 44, a disabled cyclist from Padiham who has suffered from spina bifida since birth, said he had encountered abuse when he was younger but was now more confident.
He said: “When I was a teenager I got the odd word called at me but I expected it.
"I don't look disabled, but for somebody in a wheelchair or who happens to look disabled it can be very hard.
Denise Baker, a wheelchair user and chief executive of the charity Access Lancashire, said she often received verbal abuse when using her wheelchair, often from young men in passing cars.
She said: “We're trying to raise awareness that disabled people don't need to put up with being abused, verbally or physically.
“If it's reported, to the police, to the council, or to organisations like us, something can be done about it.”
Police Superintendent Stuart Noble, chairman of the Safer Lancashire Board's Hate Crime Group, said: "Hate crime is something we just won't tolerate and we want to work together to tackle it.
"We're also looking at the reporting process to ensure it is accessible.
"We now have a better understanding of the issues that disabled people face because of hate crime and we are looking forward to working with our partners on this important project.
"We will also be running a wider hate crime campaign to make people aware of the problem so they have the confidence to report it and know we will take action to help them out."
Lancashire Telegraph
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