Tuesday, August 09, 2011 12:36:04 AM
Skinheads Hunt Native American Family: Guess Who Gets Arrested?
by betson08 for Native American Netroots
Sun Jul 10, 2011 at 09:14 AM PDT
Warning: the information below is likely to make your blood boil.
A hate crime happened a few weeks ago in Fernley, Nevada that is just becoming known to the wider public. A family has lost its car, is bankrupt and cannot return to their home because of it.
You should know about it. When you do, you will want to take action. At the end, there is a change.org petition, information for press contacts, and a Facebook Page where you can find more information and express your solidarity. Please leave any other ideas you may have in the comments.
It all happened when Johnny, Lisa and Alyssa Bonty, and their son-in-law, all from the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, stopped at the Quick Stop to get some gas in Fernley NV on May 24th.
According to Indian Country Today [ http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/06/native-family-attacked-by-skinheads/ ], this is what happened:
The Attack
Johnny Bonta got out of the car to pump some gas when a carload full of skinheads pulled up alongside him. One of them got out of the car with a baseball bat and tried to pick a fight. Johnny told him he didn't want to fight and got back into the car. The family then drove off, with his son-in-law, Shane Murray, behind the wheel. But now the skinheads were in pursuit.
As the Bonta family was heading for the freeway ramp, the skinheads cut them off and jammed on the brakes, causing a crash. The three skinheads then all got out of their car with baseball bats, knives and a crowbar and attacked the family.
Here's how Lisa Bonfa described the vicious assault that followed:
“They all jumped out of the car with baseball bats, knives and a crowbar, and we knew they were going to hurt us,” said Lisa Bonta, in an interview from Washoe Medical Center, where she was in treatment for seizures she suffers.
...snip...[even though this happened at 1pm, nobody passing by would stop to help them]...
“I saw one of them hit my husband in the head with a bat, and the other one was trying to cut off his braid with a knife. Johnny was covered in blood and they just kept hitting him with a crow bar. They even tried to slit his throat,” she added.
“Jacob Cassell had my son-in-law on the ground in a chokehold and Shane was turning blue. My daughter was sobbing ‘they’re killing him’ and somehow she found the strength to hit Jacob in self-defense so he would release Shane.”
It was then, Lisa said, that Cassell turned his anger on her and her daughter, jumping on the hood of their car while swinging a baseball bat and cursing at them.
“I’m a 46 year-old woman with serious health problems, and I tried to defend myself, but he hit me across the lower back with his bat, calling us ‘niggers and river monsters,” said Lisa, who is Anglo. “He pointed at Alyssa and said he would rape her the next time he saw her in Fernley, where she lives.”
Johnny was knocked out by the bat, which had broken his nose and sinus cavities.
Turns out that Jacob Caswell's father is a police officer in town, and after they tired of assaulting the family, Caswell taunted them with that fact:
“You hear those cops coming? They’re not going to help you. My daddy is a cop in this town, and nothing is going to happen to me. You fucking niggers are going to jail.”
The Police Response
And sure enough, the police arrive and they DON'T TAKE ANY STATEMENTS FROM THE VICTIMS, JUST THE SKINHEADS!!!! They completely ignored the family until Lisa suffered a seizure.
This despite the fact that Johnny had a broken nose, nasal cavity, and could barely stand from being hit with the bat. Shane had a crushed elbow and a broken hand, among other things.
Three ambulances responded arrived on the scene and took Lisa, Murray and Alyssa for medical treatment. Lisa assumed Johnny had been taken in another ambulance, but he had not. Johnny was taken to jail and received NO medical attention for SIX days!!!!!!!
"Why?" you ask?
First they told Lisa that he had an outstanding $367 fine.
When the family arranged to pay it, they charged Johnny with battery with a deadly weapon, even though he had NO weapon.
The police wouldn't even let in an IHS doctor to treat Johnny in the jail. He only got medical attention after tribal police pursued his release, six days later.
The family also lost its car in all of this, and the police would NOT help them locate it, even though they were the ones who towed it. TWO WEEKS later they finally found it in a small impoundment yard, with its tires flat.
The family cannot afford to get the car out since Johnny was out of work due to his injuries. Family members now are walking to their doctors' appointments.
The Brag on Facebook
These morons always have to brag. They incriminate themselves, that is if anyone's listening (or, in this case, reading):
Two hours after attacking the Bontas, Josh Janiszewski of Fernley wrote, “Just laid the fists and boots to some 6' 5” tongan dude. what you got on little guys?” at 3:13 p.m. When asked if they gave them hell, Josh responded. “Oh we did. That’s for sure!” at 3:48 p.m. “Amen,” said Jacob Cassell at 4:07 p.m.
Jacob’s mother Dee Cassell also commented, “So…who has blood? You guys need to come home to mom?” at 4:48 p.m. She later added that she gave them First Aid. “Better have ur asses at home after I did 1st aid. Don’t piss off women – they r worse than men!” she wrote at 8:00 p.m.
When asked if they got “some good licks” in, Josh said, “sent em to the hospital, they got fucked up man, thats for sure.”
The Pattern
Since this crime occurred, the family has found out that skinheads have attacked other Native American families in nearby towns as well, but nobody reports the crimes because they feel the police won't help them. AND THEY'RE RIGHT!!!!!
FBI Investigation
I was relieved to learn at the end of the article that the FBI is investigating this as a hate crime, and has taken statements from the family. The Justice Department should also be investigating the Fernley police department as well, but the article doesn't provide any information on that.
The family has contacted the ACLU and is trying to get a lawyer through them.
For more information:
The story has also been covered by Forbes blog [ http://blogs.forbes.com/erikkain/2011/07/06/did-police-turn-a-blind-eye-to-attack-on-native-american-family-in-nevada/ ](!),and RT [ http://rt.com/usa/news/nevada-bonta-family-lisa/ ], which originally drew attention to the situation.
UPDATE (Monday): Credit where credit is due. Brenda Norrell at Censored News, was the first one to cover this [ http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/reno-sparks-indian-beaten-in-nevada.html ]. We find out in that article that the attackers also attempted to slit Bonta's throat, which is attempted murder. Brenda also reported on the complicity of the Reno Gazette Journal [ http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/07/reno-gazette-journal-promotes-attackers.html ], which copied police tactics of NOT INTERVIEWING THE VICTIMS!!!! (one thing you may want to do is write a complaint to the editor - just go to the link), and wrote about the Facebook bragging [ http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/attackers-in-nevada-hate-crime-talked.html ]. You can also listen to an interview Brenda did with Lisa over at Blogtalk Radio here [ http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brenda-norrell/2011/06/06/hate-crime-nevada-indian-bordertown ].
Tiokasin Ghosthorse also interviewed the family live on First Voices Indigenous Radio, broadcast over WBAI Thursdays at 9am EST, on July 9. The archives from that interview aren't on the website yet [ http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives ], but I'm expecting them to be.
What you can do to help.
If your blood hasn't boiled all away at this point there are a couple of things you can do to help.
UPDATE (Sun 5:15pm EST): It seems that there's just one ChipIn over at the Facebook page and it's just for $50 to someone we don't know. There is now a bank account set up to help the family. Here's the address you can send your checks to:
To help the Bontas:
There is an account set up at US Bank.
Acct. 153754887328 "The Bonta Family HATE CRIME Victim Fund"
1. There is a petition over at Change.org [ http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-governor-of-nevada-brian-sandoval-to-investigate-law-enforcement-in-fernley-nv ] that you can sign. That's a no-brainer.
2. A Facebook page has been created [ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Johnny-Bonta-and-Family/142824812459997 ] to help the family. There is a link on it to donate [ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Johnny-Bonta-and-Family/142824812459997?sk=app_18015191938 ], and you can also leave words of support (and please do). The FB page also shows that the story is getting some attention over at reddit, so if you can add to this, please do as well.
3. There's also a Facebook page aimed at Burning Man attendees [ https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139136192833169 ] - apparently Fernley is on the way to BM festivities, and people are pledging not to spend money there. Interesting action. Like it.
4. A woman named Karen over on the FB page also provided a list of contacts.
5. Thanks for this suggestion: you can also report this to the Southern Poverty Law Center [ http://www.splcenter.org/contact-us ] for investigation. Morris Dees is a hero. If they pay attention to the story, things tend to change.
If you have any other ideas or suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
I also wanted to add that this kind of virulent racism and violent behavior goes on around reservations throughout the country, not just the southwest. I sat in on a tribal council meeting on the Standing Rock Reservation two summers ago, and was simply aghast at a group of former-UND students testifying about why they had dropped out. Tensions had been especially high during the mascot controversy (fueled by a racist donor who had given money for a sports arena only on condition that the name Fighting Sioux be retained) but it was common for the Lakota kids to be called "Prairie Niggers" (nope, no typos, that's what I wrote) and otherwise be harassed. Sometimes things like eggs would be thrown at them. This story should be part of a larger expose of the racist behavior of people around the reservations in this country. Prior to getting involved with these issues, I just was not aware at all how sickeningly bad it is.
UPDATE: in the conversation below, cacamp lets us know more of these terrible regionalisms:
Around here in South Dakota it's "prairie niggers" over in Minnesota it's "tree niggers" and down in Arizona it's "sand niggers". Fucking racists aren't too original are they?
This was in response to Northern Lights' comment:
In Alaska they call us snow niggers.
I am speechless.
*
An ongoing series sponsored by the Native American Netroots team [ http://nativeamericannetroots.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=373 ] focusing on the current issues faced by American Indian Tribes and current solutions to those issues.
*
© Kos Media, LLC (emphasis in original)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/10/993043/-Skinheads-Hunt-Native-American-Family:-Guess-Who-Gets-Arrested [with comments]
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Student sues schools for homecoming week ‘wigger days’
By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – Wed, Aug 3, 2011
A former student at Red Wing High School in Minnesota is suing school officials for failing to stop a group of students from celebrating what they called "Wigger Day" during homecoming week in 2009.
The federal class action suit, available on Courthouse News, says that the school failed to protect Quera Pruitt, a black student who graduated in 2010, from discrimination by ignoring the racially-charged way of celebrating homecoming week.
The student council officially designated Sept. 30 as "Tropical Day." But Pruitt alleges that more than 60 upperclassmen instead declared it "Wigger Day," around a pejorative term formed by combing the words white and nigger. Those students wore "oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball hats cocked to the side, and 'doo rags' on their heads," according to the suit.
Though the school is predominately white, Pruitt's lawyers say about 40 students suffered from the "racially hostile" environment created by "Wigger Day." The suit claims that Red Wing's principal knew that Wednesday of homecoming was "historically" called "Wigger Day" but didn't stop the students.
Pruitt says she felt extreme stress and depression, to the point that it led her to drop out of cheerleading and the student council, and almost made her stop going to school altogether. She is suing for damages. Her lawyer, Joshua Williams, tells The Lookout that Pruitt is now living in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attending community college. He added that the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights "imposed several remedial measures" on the district.
Red Wing School District Superintendent Karsten Anderson, who is named as a defendant in the suit, said in a statement to The Lookout that the district "denies the allegations that it has created a racially hostile environment and looks forward to meeting these allegations in court." He added that he couldn't comment further since the litigation is pending.
Department of Education Spokesman David Thomas says its Office for Civil Rights entered into an agreement with Red Wing School District to "take all steps necessary to ensure that African American students enrolled in the District are not subjected to a hostile environment on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and includes several specific actions by the District." They are still monitoring the district for compliance.
Copyright 2011 The Lookout / Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/student-sues-schools-homecoming-week-wigger-days-151717544.html [with comments]
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The disturbing copy-and-paste habits of Russell Pearce
Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce
AP/Salon
Exclusive: Arizona's infamous state senator regularly employs the words of extremists
By Jeff Biggers
Wednesday, Aug 3, 2011 07:45 ET
As President Obama and congressional leaders wrangled over the debt ceiling last Saturday evening, Russell Pearce, Arizona's controversial state Senate president, turned to Facebook to express his own personal outrage.
"Folks," he wrote, "if there was ever an argument for NO to raising the debt limit and YES to stop the reckless socialist spending in this Gangster Government in DC. Watch this video."
The video showed an "Elaborate Welfare Housing Project" built for "illegal immigrants" and funded through alleged "refugee pay."
Just one problem: The five-month-old viral video -- which was created by a far-right gadfly from Tacoma, Wash. -- had already been thoroughly debunked [ http://blog.thenewstribune.com/street/2011/07/26/william-mounts-salishan-youtube-video-debunked/ ] by the Tacoma News Tribune. By Sunday morning, Pearce had deleted the post from his Facebook site.
But this was hardly the first time that Pearce, whose ultraconservative immigration views have won him national attention and who will face a historic recall election [ http://www.thenation.com/article/161049/arizona-turns-tide-voters-demand-recall-russell-pearce ] in his Arizona district on Nov. 8, associates himself with the work of a fringe character.
For several years, media outlets in Arizona [ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/authors/stephen-lemons/ ] and at the national level [ http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/04/27/4210613-racist-roots-of-arizonas-immigration-law ] have explored links between Pearce and extremist groups, and in 2006 he was caught circulating [ http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-12-race-supremacy_x.htm ] a Holocaust-denying article from a West Virginia-based white supremacist group. In issuing an apology, Pearce claimed to not have known about the National Alliance's views.
But a new examination of Pearce's website and public statements reveals that the self-proclaimed architect of Arizona's "papers please" immigration law [ http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/summary/s.1070pshs.doc.htm ] has regularly borrowed significant portions of text from the writings of hard-line white nationalists, fringe anti-immigrant activists, and others whose views far fall outside the mainstream and presented them as his own.
Pearce, for instance, seems particularly fond of the right-wing American Constitution Party, which champions "sovereign" states' rights and opposes immigration. (Former Rep. Tom Tancredo, who is now chairing a national group that supports Pearce [ http://www.azsos.gov/cfs/FilerDetail.aspx?id=201200140 ] in the recall campaign, ran as the party's gubernatorial nominee in Colorado last year.)
In an Aug. 31, 2010, press release [ http://www.russellpearce.com/text/08302010.pdf ] that chastised the Obama administration for including Arizona's SB 1070 law in a United Nations report on Human Rights, Pearce borrowed whole paragraphs from an essay that had been written in 2009 by Tim Baldwin [ http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/12/21/what-is-the-u-s-constitution/ ], a prominent Constitution Party activist (and the son of Chuck Baldwin, who previously ran for president under the party's banner). Here is one of the passages that Pearce appears to have lifted without attribution:
Particular to the United States, the U.S. Constitution was voluntarily formed as a compact by existing sovereign states with existing state constitutions. Despite the deceptive proposition that the States were created by Congress, the States existed prior to and independent of any Congress, as confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1783 (which, by the way, was not overturned by any subsequent legal action of the states). The states authority is not delegated; it is inherent authority and has inherent responsibility to its citizens. "The State governments, by their original constitutions, are invested with complete sovereignty." Alexander Hamilton, FP 31. And, "Each State, in ratifying the constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act." James Madison, FP 39.
Pearce has done the same thing on his personal website [ http://russellpearce.com/ ]. Under the tab for his three main constitutional issues -- "Birth Right," "14th Amendment," "Supreme Court Decisions" -- he borrows wholesale from the writings of Fred Elbel [ http://colorado.mediamatters.org/items/200703280002 ], an anti-immigrant extremist who has been linked to [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2004/fall/white-supremacy ] various white supremacist organizations. In a section on the "Original intent of the 14th Amendment, Pearce has reprinted a passage from Elbel's own site without any acknowledgment (save for an HTML link over a few of the words). Here's how it looks on Pearce's site:
And on Elbel's:
According to a Southern Poverty Law Center report [ http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2007/10/03/today-at-the-national-press-club-hate-group-co-hosts-immigration-news-conference/ ] in 2007, Elbel
"is, in effect, the house webmaster for the anti-immigration movement, having designed the websites of nativist groups including SUSPS (a group that now goes by its acronym only and which specifically aims to change Sierra Club population policy), Protect Arizona Now, the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform and several others (Protect Arizona now and the Colorado Alliance have had in their leadership a self-described 'white separatist' named Virginia Abernethy, a prominent member of the CCC and onetime close friend of Elbel."
The SPLC added:
Elbel displayed his temperament during the debate over the Sierra Club’s future in 2004, when he wrote an E-mail that read: "Damned right. I hate ’em all — negroes, wasps, spics, eskimos, jews, honkies, krauts, ruskies, ethopans, pakis, hunkies, pollocks and marxists; there are way too many of them." Elbel’s Defend Colorado Now, an anti-immigration group based in Lakewood, Colo., has received nearly $50,000 from Tanton’s U.S. Inc.
Pearce does the same thing in a section on "Supreme Court decisions":
Here's that same passage from Elbel's site:
In the "Birth Right Citizenship" section, Pearce gives Elbel a break and instead lifts from a 2005 Phyllis Schlafly essay [ http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/oct05/05-10-12.html ]. Here's Pearce:
And here's Schlafly:
Pearce's copy-and-paste habits apparently extend to more mainstream figures too. In the "Dear Fellow Patriots" letter on his homepage, Pearce uses an uncredited quote from "The Heart of Leadership [ http://books.google.com/books?id=tjzAfWBiW24C&q=Leadership,%20practiced%20at%20its%20best,%20is%20the%20art%20and%20science%20of%20calling%20to%20the%20hearts%20and%20minds%20of%20others.%20It%20is%20engaging%20others%20in%20an%20enterprise%20of%20sound%20strategic%20focus,%20where%20they%20can%20experience%20a%20sense%20of%20ownership,%20of%20making%20a%20difference,%20of%20being%20valued%20and%20adding%20value.&dq=Leadership,%20practiced%20at%20its%20best,%20is%20the%20art%20and%20science%20of%20calling%20to%20the%20hearts%20and%20minds%20of%20others.%20It%20is%20engaging%20others%20in%20an%20enterprise%20of%20sound%20strategic%20focus,%20where%20they%20can%20experience%20a%20sense%20of%20ownership,%20of%20making%20a%20difference,%20of%20being%20valued%20and%20adding%20value.&hl=en&ei=0tc1Tr7SDua10AH6u_iFDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA ]," a motivational tome by Robert Staub:
Leadership, practiced at its best, is the art and science of calling to the hearts and minds of others. It is engaging others in an enterprise of sound strategic focus, where they can experience a sense of ownership, of making a difference, of being valued and adding value.
That quote was also incorporated into the official biography used to promote Pearce's appearance at an upcoming conference:
Pearce did not respond to efforts for comment on this story.
He is the first Arizona legislator ever to face a recall election. Calls for his ouster have come from both sides of the aisle, and a fellow Republican, Jerry Lewis, has already launched his campaign [ http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2011/07/29/20110729mesa-jerry-lewis-russell-pearce0730.html ] to oppose Pearce in the November vote. Pearce has characterized supporters of the recall campaign as "union thugs [ http://www.icarizona.com/2011/07/sen-russell-pearce-talks-about-recall.html ]" and "far-left anarchists [ http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/politics/pearce-calls-recall-effort-recall-cartel ]," while one of his most prominent defenders, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, branded them [ http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/05/jd_hayworth_backers_of_russell.php ] "socialist thugs who carry swastikas."
But as his copy-and-paste habits show, it's probably Pearce who needs to explain the company he keeps.
Jeff Biggers, the author most recently of "Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland [ http://www.amazon.com/Reckoning-Eagle-Creek-Secret-Heartland/dp/1568584210 ]," is currently at work on a new book on Arizona politics and history. More: Jeff Biggers [ http://www.salon.com/author/jeff_biggers/index.html ]
Copyright ©2011 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/08/03/biggers_russell_pearce/index.html [for larger images click on them at this source link] [comments at http://letters.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/08/03/biggers_russell_pearce/view/?show=all ]
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Former skinhead: 'My hate had no basis'
Some former skinheads and gang members are changing their minds, and opting to be more accepting of others
[GALLO/GETTY]
Mandy Segall
Last Modified: 01 Jul 2011 16:07
"You want to belong to something so badly, you will go to any extreme to be part of it."
These are the words of Eric Gibson, a former South Central Los Angles gang member, and just one of many who attended the Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE) in Dublin on June 26-7.
Gibson's feelings are echoed by many "formers" - a term coined by those who were once leaders or members of radical organisations or gangs, but have now decided to leave that life behind.
The conference saw an eclectic group of people involved in a friendly exchange of ideas who would, a few years ago, have attacked each other with extreme prejudice.
A common desire
These former neo-Nazi skinheads and affiliates of Al Shabab, the IRA and Hizb ut-Tahrir may have been very different ideologically, but they once shared a common desire: the inculcation of hatred and the propagation of fear.
Susan Cruz, who once belonged to a transnational gang, laughs when she remembers how she responded when approached about SAVE.
"I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' To wrap my head around the idea that we were going to be working together with folk who were trained as suicide bombers...I thought it was crazy."
Cruz was a child immigrant in the United States, facing exclusion and discrimination. The gang which recruited her when she was 11 gave her protection and a sense of identity. "I eventually came to the conclusion that gangs fill society's voids - at a high price" she admits. "I wasn't alone any more." She expected to feel very different to the other summit participants, but she accepts they have common ground.
Maajid Nawaz joined Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK at age 16, following numerous unprovoked knifings and attacks on his muslim friends. Isolated and lacking identity, he wanted to feel safe, so he enlisted. As with the other "formers", he felt violence was the answer.
Christian Picciolini also became mired in violence at a young age: he was 14 when he joined the Chicago Area Skinheads, which he describes as "the first neo-Nazi organisation in the states". It was the CAS that, in 1987, broke into the apartment of a 20-year-old female former gang member suspected of having black friends. They proceeded to pistol-whip her, spray mace in her eyes and paint a swastika and the words "race traitor" on her wall with her blood. After the older members either became imprisoned or were killed in violent confrontations on the streets of Chicago, Picciolini inherited the organisation and became the leader. He went on to become the director of the the Northern Hammer Skinheads. He was involved for seven years. His credo: white separatism and supremacy.
Changing their thinking
"Every kid has something they want to belong to," he says. "It could have been radical leftism. For me It happened to be right wing extremism. We were violent to people... Any time someone came into our territory we pushed them out. There was no rationale for it. It was simply because they were a different race. They didn't fit our sexual preference. It was a very small mould."
And yet Picciolini found the will to change. This involved a lengthy process rather than a sudden epiphany. The births of his sons were key events, as was his introduction to people of different races and creeds.
"I began to realise that these were nice people and that there was no basis for my hate," he says. "I started to meet Jewish people and gay people. And they were all great. Not only that, but I realised we had a lot in common."
TJ Leydon, another member of Hammer Skin Nation, also felt the impact of fatherhood: his stance changed when his children started adopting his angry, bigoted views. He had no choice: "I didn't want my son to grow up to be like me."
Maajid Nawaz found his views slowly but surely altering in prison. A founder member of Hizb-ut Tahir in Denmark and Pakistan, he served four years in Egypt as an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience".
"I was in prison when the July 7 London bombings happened," he recalls. "There was a professional bomb-maker in prison who was sentenced to 27 years. We had a lot of time to discuss and learn and we talked each other into change."
Rebuilding their lives
Henry Robinson, an erstwhile member of the Irish Republican Army, was another hate campaigner who changed in prison. More than anything, it was the gradual realisation that he no longer wanted to live a violent life. He recalls a particular moment in jail that proved decisive: he was watching coverage of the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament on television and was struck by "the normality of it". He craved a regular existence.
But is there life after hate? Can such "formers" rebuild their lives following years of violent extremism? The fact is, many of them have managed to channel their passionate loathing towards the establishment of organisations to combat the very violence they once inflicted.
Eric Gibson is now a violence prevention specialist propagating peace at schools, community centres and gang summits. Susan Cruz is the Director of Sin Fronteras, which offers rehabilitation to young gang members in the US and Central America. "Young people," she decides, "have kept me alive."
Maajid Nawaz is the Executive Director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank. He is also the founder of Khudi, a Pakistani youth movement involved in counter-extremism. TJ Leyden is the co-founder and Executive Director of Hate2Hope and worked as a consultant at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. He draws the distinction between the respect which he used to get in his "previous life", which was "because they feared me", and what he gets now, which he describes as "true respect".
Creating their own space
Henry Robinson traded weapons for words, becoming the founder member of Families Against Intimidation and Terror. As for Chris Picciolini, he is the co-founder of Life After Hate as well as an executive producer of JBTV, a music television show featuring up-and-coming artists. It is a far cry from his former existence.
So there is opportunity to change for the perpetrators of hate crimes. But what about the victims of terror? How do they live in a world with these "formers"?
Gill Hicks, the founder of Making a Difference for Peace, is a survivor of London's 7/7 bombings. Her injuries were so severe that she wasn't expected to live. She recalls waking up in hospital and seeing her wristband, which simply said: "One unknown, estimated female", so unrecognisable was she from her horrific injuries. She was sitting next to one of the bombers on the tube train on that fateful day. She lived; he died, but she has found it difficult to forgive regardless.
Her conviction is strong, and her determination to offer counsel to victims is unwavering. But she is realistic: she knows there will always be hate groups, and she doesn't expect universal harmonious co-existence. Her wish is plain: to be able to go about her business, without fear of reprisal or brutal violence.
"We should be able to have our own space," she says. "You don't have to agree. It's not about a state of peace or hugging each other. I just don't want to be attacked."
Copyright 2011 Al Jazeera Network
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011630123643988652.html
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(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65987167 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65993459 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65991671 (and any future following)
by betson08 for Native American Netroots
Sun Jul 10, 2011 at 09:14 AM PDT
Warning: the information below is likely to make your blood boil.
A hate crime happened a few weeks ago in Fernley, Nevada that is just becoming known to the wider public. A family has lost its car, is bankrupt and cannot return to their home because of it.
You should know about it. When you do, you will want to take action. At the end, there is a change.org petition, information for press contacts, and a Facebook Page where you can find more information and express your solidarity. Please leave any other ideas you may have in the comments.
It all happened when Johnny, Lisa and Alyssa Bonty, and their son-in-law, all from the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, stopped at the Quick Stop to get some gas in Fernley NV on May 24th.
According to Indian Country Today [ http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/06/native-family-attacked-by-skinheads/ ], this is what happened:
The Attack
Johnny Bonta got out of the car to pump some gas when a carload full of skinheads pulled up alongside him. One of them got out of the car with a baseball bat and tried to pick a fight. Johnny told him he didn't want to fight and got back into the car. The family then drove off, with his son-in-law, Shane Murray, behind the wheel. But now the skinheads were in pursuit.
As the Bonta family was heading for the freeway ramp, the skinheads cut them off and jammed on the brakes, causing a crash. The three skinheads then all got out of their car with baseball bats, knives and a crowbar and attacked the family.
Here's how Lisa Bonfa described the vicious assault that followed:
“They all jumped out of the car with baseball bats, knives and a crowbar, and we knew they were going to hurt us,” said Lisa Bonta, in an interview from Washoe Medical Center, where she was in treatment for seizures she suffers.
...snip...[even though this happened at 1pm, nobody passing by would stop to help them]...
“I saw one of them hit my husband in the head with a bat, and the other one was trying to cut off his braid with a knife. Johnny was covered in blood and they just kept hitting him with a crow bar. They even tried to slit his throat,” she added.
“Jacob Cassell had my son-in-law on the ground in a chokehold and Shane was turning blue. My daughter was sobbing ‘they’re killing him’ and somehow she found the strength to hit Jacob in self-defense so he would release Shane.”
It was then, Lisa said, that Cassell turned his anger on her and her daughter, jumping on the hood of their car while swinging a baseball bat and cursing at them.
“I’m a 46 year-old woman with serious health problems, and I tried to defend myself, but he hit me across the lower back with his bat, calling us ‘niggers and river monsters,” said Lisa, who is Anglo. “He pointed at Alyssa and said he would rape her the next time he saw her in Fernley, where she lives.”
Johnny was knocked out by the bat, which had broken his nose and sinus cavities.
Turns out that Jacob Caswell's father is a police officer in town, and after they tired of assaulting the family, Caswell taunted them with that fact:
“You hear those cops coming? They’re not going to help you. My daddy is a cop in this town, and nothing is going to happen to me. You fucking niggers are going to jail.”
The Police Response
And sure enough, the police arrive and they DON'T TAKE ANY STATEMENTS FROM THE VICTIMS, JUST THE SKINHEADS!!!! They completely ignored the family until Lisa suffered a seizure.
This despite the fact that Johnny had a broken nose, nasal cavity, and could barely stand from being hit with the bat. Shane had a crushed elbow and a broken hand, among other things.
Three ambulances responded arrived on the scene and took Lisa, Murray and Alyssa for medical treatment. Lisa assumed Johnny had been taken in another ambulance, but he had not. Johnny was taken to jail and received NO medical attention for SIX days!!!!!!!
"Why?" you ask?
First they told Lisa that he had an outstanding $367 fine.
When the family arranged to pay it, they charged Johnny with battery with a deadly weapon, even though he had NO weapon.
The police wouldn't even let in an IHS doctor to treat Johnny in the jail. He only got medical attention after tribal police pursued his release, six days later.
The family also lost its car in all of this, and the police would NOT help them locate it, even though they were the ones who towed it. TWO WEEKS later they finally found it in a small impoundment yard, with its tires flat.
The family cannot afford to get the car out since Johnny was out of work due to his injuries. Family members now are walking to their doctors' appointments.
The Brag on Facebook
These morons always have to brag. They incriminate themselves, that is if anyone's listening (or, in this case, reading):
Two hours after attacking the Bontas, Josh Janiszewski of Fernley wrote, “Just laid the fists and boots to some 6' 5” tongan dude. what you got on little guys?” at 3:13 p.m. When asked if they gave them hell, Josh responded. “Oh we did. That’s for sure!” at 3:48 p.m. “Amen,” said Jacob Cassell at 4:07 p.m.
Jacob’s mother Dee Cassell also commented, “So…who has blood? You guys need to come home to mom?” at 4:48 p.m. She later added that she gave them First Aid. “Better have ur asses at home after I did 1st aid. Don’t piss off women – they r worse than men!” she wrote at 8:00 p.m.
When asked if they got “some good licks” in, Josh said, “sent em to the hospital, they got fucked up man, thats for sure.”
The Pattern
Since this crime occurred, the family has found out that skinheads have attacked other Native American families in nearby towns as well, but nobody reports the crimes because they feel the police won't help them. AND THEY'RE RIGHT!!!!!
FBI Investigation
I was relieved to learn at the end of the article that the FBI is investigating this as a hate crime, and has taken statements from the family. The Justice Department should also be investigating the Fernley police department as well, but the article doesn't provide any information on that.
The family has contacted the ACLU and is trying to get a lawyer through them.
For more information:
The story has also been covered by Forbes blog [ http://blogs.forbes.com/erikkain/2011/07/06/did-police-turn-a-blind-eye-to-attack-on-native-american-family-in-nevada/ ](!),and RT [ http://rt.com/usa/news/nevada-bonta-family-lisa/ ], which originally drew attention to the situation.
UPDATE (Monday): Credit where credit is due. Brenda Norrell at Censored News, was the first one to cover this [ http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/reno-sparks-indian-beaten-in-nevada.html ]. We find out in that article that the attackers also attempted to slit Bonta's throat, which is attempted murder. Brenda also reported on the complicity of the Reno Gazette Journal [ http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/07/reno-gazette-journal-promotes-attackers.html ], which copied police tactics of NOT INTERVIEWING THE VICTIMS!!!! (one thing you may want to do is write a complaint to the editor - just go to the link), and wrote about the Facebook bragging [ http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/06/attackers-in-nevada-hate-crime-talked.html ]. You can also listen to an interview Brenda did with Lisa over at Blogtalk Radio here [ http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brenda-norrell/2011/06/06/hate-crime-nevada-indian-bordertown ].
Tiokasin Ghosthorse also interviewed the family live on First Voices Indigenous Radio, broadcast over WBAI Thursdays at 9am EST, on July 9. The archives from that interview aren't on the website yet [ http://www.firstvoicesindigenousradio.org/program_archives ], but I'm expecting them to be.
What you can do to help.
If your blood hasn't boiled all away at this point there are a couple of things you can do to help.
UPDATE (Sun 5:15pm EST): It seems that there's just one ChipIn over at the Facebook page and it's just for $50 to someone we don't know. There is now a bank account set up to help the family. Here's the address you can send your checks to:
To help the Bontas:
There is an account set up at US Bank.
Acct. 153754887328 "The Bonta Family HATE CRIME Victim Fund"
1. There is a petition over at Change.org [ http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-governor-of-nevada-brian-sandoval-to-investigate-law-enforcement-in-fernley-nv ] that you can sign. That's a no-brainer.
2. A Facebook page has been created [ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Johnny-Bonta-and-Family/142824812459997 ] to help the family. There is a link on it to donate [ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Johnny-Bonta-and-Family/142824812459997?sk=app_18015191938 ], and you can also leave words of support (and please do). The FB page also shows that the story is getting some attention over at reddit, so if you can add to this, please do as well.
3. There's also a Facebook page aimed at Burning Man attendees [ https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139136192833169 ] - apparently Fernley is on the way to BM festivities, and people are pledging not to spend money there. Interesting action. Like it.
4. A woman named Karen over on the FB page also provided a list of contacts.
5. Thanks for this suggestion: you can also report this to the Southern Poverty Law Center [ http://www.splcenter.org/contact-us ] for investigation. Morris Dees is a hero. If they pay attention to the story, things tend to change.
If you have any other ideas or suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
I also wanted to add that this kind of virulent racism and violent behavior goes on around reservations throughout the country, not just the southwest. I sat in on a tribal council meeting on the Standing Rock Reservation two summers ago, and was simply aghast at a group of former-UND students testifying about why they had dropped out. Tensions had been especially high during the mascot controversy (fueled by a racist donor who had given money for a sports arena only on condition that the name Fighting Sioux be retained) but it was common for the Lakota kids to be called "Prairie Niggers" (nope, no typos, that's what I wrote) and otherwise be harassed. Sometimes things like eggs would be thrown at them. This story should be part of a larger expose of the racist behavior of people around the reservations in this country. Prior to getting involved with these issues, I just was not aware at all how sickeningly bad it is.
UPDATE: in the conversation below, cacamp lets us know more of these terrible regionalisms:
Around here in South Dakota it's "prairie niggers" over in Minnesota it's "tree niggers" and down in Arizona it's "sand niggers". Fucking racists aren't too original are they?
This was in response to Northern Lights' comment:
In Alaska they call us snow niggers.
I am speechless.
*
An ongoing series sponsored by the Native American Netroots team [ http://nativeamericannetroots.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=373 ] focusing on the current issues faced by American Indian Tribes and current solutions to those issues.
*
© Kos Media, LLC (emphasis in original)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/10/993043/-Skinheads-Hunt-Native-American-Family:-Guess-Who-Gets-Arrested [with comments]
===
Student sues schools for homecoming week ‘wigger days’
By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – Wed, Aug 3, 2011
A former student at Red Wing High School in Minnesota is suing school officials for failing to stop a group of students from celebrating what they called "Wigger Day" during homecoming week in 2009.
The federal class action suit, available on Courthouse News, says that the school failed to protect Quera Pruitt, a black student who graduated in 2010, from discrimination by ignoring the racially-charged way of celebrating homecoming week.
The student council officially designated Sept. 30 as "Tropical Day." But Pruitt alleges that more than 60 upperclassmen instead declared it "Wigger Day," around a pejorative term formed by combing the words white and nigger. Those students wore "oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball hats cocked to the side, and 'doo rags' on their heads," according to the suit.
Though the school is predominately white, Pruitt's lawyers say about 40 students suffered from the "racially hostile" environment created by "Wigger Day." The suit claims that Red Wing's principal knew that Wednesday of homecoming was "historically" called "Wigger Day" but didn't stop the students.
Pruitt says she felt extreme stress and depression, to the point that it led her to drop out of cheerleading and the student council, and almost made her stop going to school altogether. She is suing for damages. Her lawyer, Joshua Williams, tells The Lookout that Pruitt is now living in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attending community college. He added that the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights "imposed several remedial measures" on the district.
Red Wing School District Superintendent Karsten Anderson, who is named as a defendant in the suit, said in a statement to The Lookout that the district "denies the allegations that it has created a racially hostile environment and looks forward to meeting these allegations in court." He added that he couldn't comment further since the litigation is pending.
Department of Education Spokesman David Thomas says its Office for Civil Rights entered into an agreement with Red Wing School District to "take all steps necessary to ensure that African American students enrolled in the District are not subjected to a hostile environment on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and includes several specific actions by the District." They are still monitoring the district for compliance.
Copyright 2011 The Lookout / Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/student-sues-schools-homecoming-week-wigger-days-151717544.html [with comments]
===
The disturbing copy-and-paste habits of Russell Pearce
Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce
AP/Salon
Exclusive: Arizona's infamous state senator regularly employs the words of extremists
By Jeff Biggers
Wednesday, Aug 3, 2011 07:45 ET
As President Obama and congressional leaders wrangled over the debt ceiling last Saturday evening, Russell Pearce, Arizona's controversial state Senate president, turned to Facebook to express his own personal outrage.
"Folks," he wrote, "if there was ever an argument for NO to raising the debt limit and YES to stop the reckless socialist spending in this Gangster Government in DC. Watch this video."
The video showed an "Elaborate Welfare Housing Project" built for "illegal immigrants" and funded through alleged "refugee pay."
Just one problem: The five-month-old viral video -- which was created by a far-right gadfly from Tacoma, Wash. -- had already been thoroughly debunked [ http://blog.thenewstribune.com/street/2011/07/26/william-mounts-salishan-youtube-video-debunked/ ] by the Tacoma News Tribune. By Sunday morning, Pearce had deleted the post from his Facebook site.
But this was hardly the first time that Pearce, whose ultraconservative immigration views have won him national attention and who will face a historic recall election [ http://www.thenation.com/article/161049/arizona-turns-tide-voters-demand-recall-russell-pearce ] in his Arizona district on Nov. 8, associates himself with the work of a fringe character.
For several years, media outlets in Arizona [ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/authors/stephen-lemons/ ] and at the national level [ http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/04/27/4210613-racist-roots-of-arizonas-immigration-law ] have explored links between Pearce and extremist groups, and in 2006 he was caught circulating [ http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-12-race-supremacy_x.htm ] a Holocaust-denying article from a West Virginia-based white supremacist group. In issuing an apology, Pearce claimed to not have known about the National Alliance's views.
But a new examination of Pearce's website and public statements reveals that the self-proclaimed architect of Arizona's "papers please" immigration law [ http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/summary/s.1070pshs.doc.htm ] has regularly borrowed significant portions of text from the writings of hard-line white nationalists, fringe anti-immigrant activists, and others whose views far fall outside the mainstream and presented them as his own.
Pearce, for instance, seems particularly fond of the right-wing American Constitution Party, which champions "sovereign" states' rights and opposes immigration. (Former Rep. Tom Tancredo, who is now chairing a national group that supports Pearce [ http://www.azsos.gov/cfs/FilerDetail.aspx?id=201200140 ] in the recall campaign, ran as the party's gubernatorial nominee in Colorado last year.)
In an Aug. 31, 2010, press release [ http://www.russellpearce.com/text/08302010.pdf ] that chastised the Obama administration for including Arizona's SB 1070 law in a United Nations report on Human Rights, Pearce borrowed whole paragraphs from an essay that had been written in 2009 by Tim Baldwin [ http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/12/21/what-is-the-u-s-constitution/ ], a prominent Constitution Party activist (and the son of Chuck Baldwin, who previously ran for president under the party's banner). Here is one of the passages that Pearce appears to have lifted without attribution:
Particular to the United States, the U.S. Constitution was voluntarily formed as a compact by existing sovereign states with existing state constitutions. Despite the deceptive proposition that the States were created by Congress, the States existed prior to and independent of any Congress, as confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1783 (which, by the way, was not overturned by any subsequent legal action of the states). The states authority is not delegated; it is inherent authority and has inherent responsibility to its citizens. "The State governments, by their original constitutions, are invested with complete sovereignty." Alexander Hamilton, FP 31. And, "Each State, in ratifying the constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act." James Madison, FP 39.
Pearce has done the same thing on his personal website [ http://russellpearce.com/ ]. Under the tab for his three main constitutional issues -- "Birth Right," "14th Amendment," "Supreme Court Decisions" -- he borrows wholesale from the writings of Fred Elbel [ http://colorado.mediamatters.org/items/200703280002 ], an anti-immigrant extremist who has been linked to [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2004/fall/white-supremacy ] various white supremacist organizations. In a section on the "Original intent of the 14th Amendment, Pearce has reprinted a passage from Elbel's own site without any acknowledgment (save for an HTML link over a few of the words). Here's how it looks on Pearce's site:
And on Elbel's:
According to a Southern Poverty Law Center report [ http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2007/10/03/today-at-the-national-press-club-hate-group-co-hosts-immigration-news-conference/ ] in 2007, Elbel
"is, in effect, the house webmaster for the anti-immigration movement, having designed the websites of nativist groups including SUSPS (a group that now goes by its acronym only and which specifically aims to change Sierra Club population policy), Protect Arizona Now, the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform and several others (Protect Arizona now and the Colorado Alliance have had in their leadership a self-described 'white separatist' named Virginia Abernethy, a prominent member of the CCC and onetime close friend of Elbel."
The SPLC added:
Elbel displayed his temperament during the debate over the Sierra Club’s future in 2004, when he wrote an E-mail that read: "Damned right. I hate ’em all — negroes, wasps, spics, eskimos, jews, honkies, krauts, ruskies, ethopans, pakis, hunkies, pollocks and marxists; there are way too many of them." Elbel’s Defend Colorado Now, an anti-immigration group based in Lakewood, Colo., has received nearly $50,000 from Tanton’s U.S. Inc.
Pearce does the same thing in a section on "Supreme Court decisions":
Here's that same passage from Elbel's site:
In the "Birth Right Citizenship" section, Pearce gives Elbel a break and instead lifts from a 2005 Phyllis Schlafly essay [ http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/oct05/05-10-12.html ]. Here's Pearce:
And here's Schlafly:
Pearce's copy-and-paste habits apparently extend to more mainstream figures too. In the "Dear Fellow Patriots" letter on his homepage, Pearce uses an uncredited quote from "The Heart of Leadership [ http://books.google.com/books?id=tjzAfWBiW24C&q=Leadership,%20practiced%20at%20its%20best,%20is%20the%20art%20and%20science%20of%20calling%20to%20the%20hearts%20and%20minds%20of%20others.%20It%20is%20engaging%20others%20in%20an%20enterprise%20of%20sound%20strategic%20focus,%20where%20they%20can%20experience%20a%20sense%20of%20ownership,%20of%20making%20a%20difference,%20of%20being%20valued%20and%20adding%20value.&dq=Leadership,%20practiced%20at%20its%20best,%20is%20the%20art%20and%20science%20of%20calling%20to%20the%20hearts%20and%20minds%20of%20others.%20It%20is%20engaging%20others%20in%20an%20enterprise%20of%20sound%20strategic%20focus,%20where%20they%20can%20experience%20a%20sense%20of%20ownership,%20of%20making%20a%20difference,%20of%20being%20valued%20and%20adding%20value.&hl=en&ei=0tc1Tr7SDua10AH6u_iFDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA ]," a motivational tome by Robert Staub:
Leadership, practiced at its best, is the art and science of calling to the hearts and minds of others. It is engaging others in an enterprise of sound strategic focus, where they can experience a sense of ownership, of making a difference, of being valued and adding value.
That quote was also incorporated into the official biography used to promote Pearce's appearance at an upcoming conference:
Pearce did not respond to efforts for comment on this story.
He is the first Arizona legislator ever to face a recall election. Calls for his ouster have come from both sides of the aisle, and a fellow Republican, Jerry Lewis, has already launched his campaign [ http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2011/07/29/20110729mesa-jerry-lewis-russell-pearce0730.html ] to oppose Pearce in the November vote. Pearce has characterized supporters of the recall campaign as "union thugs [ http://www.icarizona.com/2011/07/sen-russell-pearce-talks-about-recall.html ]" and "far-left anarchists [ http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/politics/pearce-calls-recall-effort-recall-cartel ]," while one of his most prominent defenders, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, branded them [ http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/05/jd_hayworth_backers_of_russell.php ] "socialist thugs who carry swastikas."
But as his copy-and-paste habits show, it's probably Pearce who needs to explain the company he keeps.
Jeff Biggers, the author most recently of "Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland [ http://www.amazon.com/Reckoning-Eagle-Creek-Secret-Heartland/dp/1568584210 ]," is currently at work on a new book on Arizona politics and history. More: Jeff Biggers [ http://www.salon.com/author/jeff_biggers/index.html ]
Copyright ©2011 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/08/03/biggers_russell_pearce/index.html [for larger images click on them at this source link] [comments at http://letters.salon.com/politics/war_room/2011/08/03/biggers_russell_pearce/view/?show=all ]
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Former skinhead: 'My hate had no basis'
Some former skinheads and gang members are changing their minds, and opting to be more accepting of others
[GALLO/GETTY]
Mandy Segall
Last Modified: 01 Jul 2011 16:07
"You want to belong to something so badly, you will go to any extreme to be part of it."
These are the words of Eric Gibson, a former South Central Los Angles gang member, and just one of many who attended the Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE) in Dublin on June 26-7.
Gibson's feelings are echoed by many "formers" - a term coined by those who were once leaders or members of radical organisations or gangs, but have now decided to leave that life behind.
The conference saw an eclectic group of people involved in a friendly exchange of ideas who would, a few years ago, have attacked each other with extreme prejudice.
A common desire
These former neo-Nazi skinheads and affiliates of Al Shabab, the IRA and Hizb ut-Tahrir may have been very different ideologically, but they once shared a common desire: the inculcation of hatred and the propagation of fear.
Susan Cruz, who once belonged to a transnational gang, laughs when she remembers how she responded when approached about SAVE.
"I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' To wrap my head around the idea that we were going to be working together with folk who were trained as suicide bombers...I thought it was crazy."
Cruz was a child immigrant in the United States, facing exclusion and discrimination. The gang which recruited her when she was 11 gave her protection and a sense of identity. "I eventually came to the conclusion that gangs fill society's voids - at a high price" she admits. "I wasn't alone any more." She expected to feel very different to the other summit participants, but she accepts they have common ground.
Maajid Nawaz joined Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK at age 16, following numerous unprovoked knifings and attacks on his muslim friends. Isolated and lacking identity, he wanted to feel safe, so he enlisted. As with the other "formers", he felt violence was the answer.
Christian Picciolini also became mired in violence at a young age: he was 14 when he joined the Chicago Area Skinheads, which he describes as "the first neo-Nazi organisation in the states". It was the CAS that, in 1987, broke into the apartment of a 20-year-old female former gang member suspected of having black friends. They proceeded to pistol-whip her, spray mace in her eyes and paint a swastika and the words "race traitor" on her wall with her blood. After the older members either became imprisoned or were killed in violent confrontations on the streets of Chicago, Picciolini inherited the organisation and became the leader. He went on to become the director of the the Northern Hammer Skinheads. He was involved for seven years. His credo: white separatism and supremacy.
Changing their thinking
"Every kid has something they want to belong to," he says. "It could have been radical leftism. For me It happened to be right wing extremism. We were violent to people... Any time someone came into our territory we pushed them out. There was no rationale for it. It was simply because they were a different race. They didn't fit our sexual preference. It was a very small mould."
And yet Picciolini found the will to change. This involved a lengthy process rather than a sudden epiphany. The births of his sons were key events, as was his introduction to people of different races and creeds.
"I began to realise that these were nice people and that there was no basis for my hate," he says. "I started to meet Jewish people and gay people. And they were all great. Not only that, but I realised we had a lot in common."
TJ Leydon, another member of Hammer Skin Nation, also felt the impact of fatherhood: his stance changed when his children started adopting his angry, bigoted views. He had no choice: "I didn't want my son to grow up to be like me."
Maajid Nawaz found his views slowly but surely altering in prison. A founder member of Hizb-ut Tahir in Denmark and Pakistan, he served four years in Egypt as an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience".
"I was in prison when the July 7 London bombings happened," he recalls. "There was a professional bomb-maker in prison who was sentenced to 27 years. We had a lot of time to discuss and learn and we talked each other into change."
Rebuilding their lives
Henry Robinson, an erstwhile member of the Irish Republican Army, was another hate campaigner who changed in prison. More than anything, it was the gradual realisation that he no longer wanted to live a violent life. He recalls a particular moment in jail that proved decisive: he was watching coverage of the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament on television and was struck by "the normality of it". He craved a regular existence.
But is there life after hate? Can such "formers" rebuild their lives following years of violent extremism? The fact is, many of them have managed to channel their passionate loathing towards the establishment of organisations to combat the very violence they once inflicted.
Eric Gibson is now a violence prevention specialist propagating peace at schools, community centres and gang summits. Susan Cruz is the Director of Sin Fronteras, which offers rehabilitation to young gang members in the US and Central America. "Young people," she decides, "have kept me alive."
Maajid Nawaz is the Executive Director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank. He is also the founder of Khudi, a Pakistani youth movement involved in counter-extremism. TJ Leyden is the co-founder and Executive Director of Hate2Hope and worked as a consultant at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. He draws the distinction between the respect which he used to get in his "previous life", which was "because they feared me", and what he gets now, which he describes as "true respect".
Creating their own space
Henry Robinson traded weapons for words, becoming the founder member of Families Against Intimidation and Terror. As for Chris Picciolini, he is the co-founder of Life After Hate as well as an executive producer of JBTV, a music television show featuring up-and-coming artists. It is a far cry from his former existence.
So there is opportunity to change for the perpetrators of hate crimes. But what about the victims of terror? How do they live in a world with these "formers"?
Gill Hicks, the founder of Making a Difference for Peace, is a survivor of London's 7/7 bombings. Her injuries were so severe that she wasn't expected to live. She recalls waking up in hospital and seeing her wristband, which simply said: "One unknown, estimated female", so unrecognisable was she from her horrific injuries. She was sitting next to one of the bombers on the tube train on that fateful day. She lived; he died, but she has found it difficult to forgive regardless.
Her conviction is strong, and her determination to offer counsel to victims is unwavering. But she is realistic: she knows there will always be hate groups, and she doesn't expect universal harmonious co-existence. Her wish is plain: to be able to go about her business, without fear of reprisal or brutal violence.
"We should be able to have our own space," she says. "You don't have to agree. It's not about a state of peace or hugging each other. I just don't want to be attacked."
Copyright 2011 Al Jazeera Network
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011630123643988652.html
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http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65993459 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65991671 (and any future following)
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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