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Nov 16th, 2008


Obama Election Spurs Race Threats, Crimes

From California to Maine, ‘hundreds’ of incidents reveal racism

Image: Obama racisim
University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston posted a message against racism on Thursday after someone defaced a previous poster of President-elect Barack Obama and his family with a death threat and racial slur in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Photo credit: Jay Reeves / AP)


November 15, 2008

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been “hundreds” of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: “I hope Obama gets assassinated.” That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law’s front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said. …

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, [said]: “I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

“If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama’s) church being deported,” he said.

‘Shaking the foundations’

Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is “the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War,” said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. “It’s shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries.” …

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama’s victory.

Other incidents

  • Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head.”
  • Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.*
  • University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. “It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork,” Houston said.
  • Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. …
  • Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
  • A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted ‘Obama.’
  • In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying “now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house.” …

Full story

———

11/19/08 Update

Mayor Sorry for Kids’ “Assassinate Obama” Chant


November 19, 2008

BOISE, Idaho — The mayor of an eastern Idaho town where second- and third-grade students on a school bus chanted “assassinate Obama!” after the Nov. 4 election has publicly apologized, saying there’s no excuse for such behavior.

Rexburg Mayor Shawn Larsen wrote in a guest editorial sent Tuesday to local newspapers that he was saddened by the notoriety his community had received over the incident, both across the United States and abroad. …

“When people don’t stand up and say, ‘That’s not appropriate, that’s wrong, and those are hateful remarks,’ it’s almost like they are saying that it’s an OK thing to do. ” …

In his editorial, Larsen recounted seeing Barack Obama speak in Washington, D.C., in early 2006 about his faith and how his upbringing had influenced his policies and his priorities. Larsen said he left the event inspired.

Idaho voters overwhelmingly favored Republican John McCain in the presidential election. In Madison County, where Rexburg is located, 85 percent of voters chose McCain over the Democratic candidate, and some claim it’s the “reddest county” in America. …

But Larsen wrote that is no explanation for “hateful and vile comments” about a man about to lead the nation. …

After Obama’s election, a northern Idaho man erected a sign advertising a “free public hanging” of the president-elect and several other political figures, prompting the U.S. Secret Service to investigate. …

Full story

———

1/19/12 Update

Arsonists Jailed for Torching Black Church Only Hours After Obama’s Election Victory

Image: The Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Mass., burns on Nov. 5, 2008
The Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Mass., burns on Nov. 5, 2008. (Photo credit: U.S. Attorney’s Office via Reuters)

The Associated Press and Reuters via MSNBC.com
January 19, 2012

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The last of three Massachusetts men charged in the burning of a predominantly black church to protest President Barack Obama’s election was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in federal prison on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors said Thomas Gleason was also ordered to pay $1.7 million in restitution. The 24-year-old pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy against civil rights and other charges for what prosecutors called a racially motivated arson. …

Prosecutors said Gleason and two friends burned down the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield on Nov. 5, 2008, hours after Obama was elected as the nation’s first black president.

The church was under construction at the time and no one was inside. However, some firefighters were injured battling the blaze.

Michael Jacques was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison. Benjamin Haskell received a nine-year sentence. All three men are white. …

Full story

———

Related reports on this site

Economy and Obama Volatile Mix (April 16, 2009)

Obama, Economy Fuel Hate Groups (Feb. 28, 2009)

———

IRAQ UPDATE

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 15, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – A U.S. military OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed in the northern city of Mosul after striking overhead cables, the military said. Information about casualties was not immediately available.

BAGHDAD — A car bomb killed three people and wounded 23 civilians in central Baghdad’s Nidhal Street, police said. A Reuters TV crew at the scene after the bomb said many cars were destroyed.

ANBAR PROVINCE – The U.S. military said a U.S. Marine had died of wounds received in a roadside bomb attack on Friday.

TAL AFAR – A car bomb killed 10 people and wounded around 30 others when it exploded outside a car dealership in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, police said. The U.S. military gave the same death toll but said around 20 people were wounded.

RAMADI – A U.S. Marine died of wounds on Friday inflicted by a roadside bomb that had struck his vehicle earlier in the day in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a man in a drive-by shooting on Thursday in northern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded a child and his mother in their car in eastern Mosul on Friday, police said.

———

Military and Civilian Deaths in Iraq


November 16, 2008

A U.S. military OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday after striking overhead cables, the military said, killing two U.S. soldiers.

A U.S. Marine died of wounds on Friday inflicted by a roadside bomb that had struck his vehicle earlier in the day west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Two other U.S. soldiers died in vehicle accidents on Thursday the U.S. military reported on Friday.

Following are the latest figures for soldiers and civilians killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003:

U.S.-led coalition forces

United States 4,201
Britain 176
Other nations 138

Iraqis

Military: Between 4,900 and 6,375#

Civilians: Between 88,951 and 97,092*

# = Think-tank estimates for military under Saddam Hussein killed during the 2003 war. No reliable official figures have been issued since new security forces were set up in late 2003.

* = From Iraq Body Count (IBC), run by academics and peace activists, based on reports from at least two media sources. The IBC says on its website the figure underestimates the true number of casualties.





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