Free Republic

A wooden cross that sits in front of an Upstate church was set on fire over the weekend, according to an incident report from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office. A church deacon at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church on Old Howard Gap Road reported the burned cross on Saturday morning. He told deputies that someone set fire to the large wooden cross which had a wreath and purple cloth over it between 6 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday. According to an incident report, church leaders believed that a purple cloth and crown of thorns on the cross were set...

DETROIT, MI -- For the first time since April 2 when an angry mob beat Steven Utash to the brink of death in Detroit, authorities say race is a factor. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Thursday announced a 16-year-old juvenike suspect is being charged with ethnic intimidation as a minor. He is also charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm. Three other suspects, Bruce Edward Wimbush Jr., 17; Wonzey Saffold, 30; and James Deontae Davis, 24, all of Detroit, are charged with assault with intent to murder and assault with intent to do great bodily harm....

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.,A Florida man had a very specific request when he asked a judge to switch up his public defender. Gustav Potthoff, who is accused of attacking his roommate with a butter knife because he thought he looked like Jesus, told an Orange County judge that he deserves to “be with someone of my own kind." Potthoff is an atheist. "It's just my human rights and everything else," said Potthoff. "I'm allowed to be with someone of my own kind." The judge told the 51-year-old that if he wants an atheist attorney, he’s going to have to pay for...

Two men were arrested in connection with the severe mob beating of a suburban motorist who had accidentally hit a 10-year-old boy who stepped in front of his truck, police said Monday.Detroit police Sgt. Michael Woody said a 30-year-old man was arrested Sunday night and a 24-year-old on Monday afternoon. That brings to four the number of people arrested in the assault of 54-year-old Steve Utash after the accident Wednesday.

On Tuesday 8 April at 10am Tim Burton’s trial at Birmingham Magistrates' Court will settle the question of whether the defendant, by calling Muslim Fiyaz Mujhal “a mendacious grievance-mongering taqiyya-artist” on Twitter, committed racially aggravated harassment, as he is accused of having done by the West Midlands Police. Mujhal was exposed by The Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan for exaggerating the numbers and seriousness of “anti-Muslim attacks” following the Woolwich murder of soldier Lee Rigby, and had his organisation Tell MAMA’s public funding discontinued. Many of these “attacks” were in fact simple posts on Facebook and other social media, similar to...

In March 2006, Crystal Gail Mangum, a student at North Carolina Central University, who worked as a stripper and an escort, accused three members of the Duke lacrosse team — Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans — of raping her at an off-campus party. The case captivated the country, with the media breathlessly reporting the statements of prosecutor Mike Nifong, who was later fired, disbarred and imprisoned for 24 hours, and then those of the players' defense attorneys in a seemingly endless loop of contradictions. In April 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said there was "no credible...

Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies released a sketch of the man believed to have assaulted a woman who he called a gay slur in Ypsilanti Township. The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office detective bureau is now investigating the assault of a woman who was targeted by her assailants because she is a lesbian. Sheriff’s office spokesman Derrick Jackson said detectives met the 28-year-old woman again Wednesday to further develop a suspect description. Jackson said the sketch will hopefully help identify the suspect. Snipped Sheriff’s office officials have said they have no reason to doubt the woman’s report and her injuries —...

Three men in Ypsilanti Township Monday assaulted a woman who was able to marry her partner during the brief repeal of Michigan’s gay marriage ban. Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies reported the 28-year-old woman got off the bus about 6 p.m. Monday in the area of the 3000 block of Roundtree Boulevard in Ypsilanti Township. The woman told investigators she got off the bus in the area and was walking home through an apartment parking lot. Three men approached her, with one of them using a homophobic slur, calling her a derogatory name for a woman and asking her if...

As parents in Germany have protested a new pro-homosexual “sexual diversity” curriculum in their schools, homosexual activists have attacked them by hurling feces and destroying their property, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, which documents anti-Christian incidents in Europe. "Protesters were physically attacked and it was felt that the police failed to protect the parents’ basic right of assembly," said a statement from the Observatory describing incidents at recent rallies in Baden-Württemberg and Cologne. According to eyewitnesses, says the Observatory, "Christian parents were shouted at with obscenities.” "They were spit at, eggs were thrown, and little...

Early Saturday morning John King's Clarksdale home was tagged, torched and set on fire. He's calling for the FBI to get involved in the investigation saying that his house was torched because of the color of his skin. King is disabled. His body is wracked with arthritis and gout. He has trouble getting up the steps of what is left of the only house he has ever owned. **** "Everything is destroyed and they took the time to write get out 'cracker' on the wall," King said. "They also sprayed a star on the wall. If you are willing to...

While returning to a dorm room last month, a black student at Grand Valley State University in Michigan was greeted by racist graffiti on a dry erase board on the door complete with a hanged stick figure labeled “black.” But on Friday, the Grand Valley Police Department reported that the owner of the board was the very person responsible for the racist remarks. This incident at Grand Valley State is just the latest of many instances over the past few years in which people claim to be the victims of hate crimes they inflicted on themselves or completely fabricated. Perhaps...

Between the homophobic birthday invitation (fake), the lesbian waitress receipt (fake) and Matthew Shepard (fake)… there seem to be more fake gay hate crimes than real ones. A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who told police he was attacked by a man who burned his hand and called him an anti-gay slur made a false report,A lesbian couple spray painted the phrase “kill the gay” on their own garageFloyd Elliott, of Independence, told police that two attackers cut him in the stomach, branded him with a hot knife, and attempted to carve the word “Fag” on his forehead. Later, Elliott admitted to...

Add another instance to the long list of hate crime hoaxes, this time to the currently popular category of “transgender” faux-victims. Kurtis Alexander and Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle report: A 15-year-old transgender teen admitted to police Tuesday that he made up a story about being sexually assaulted a day earlier in the boys bathroom at Hercules Middle High School, authorities said. The boy acknowledged making the false report - which raised alarm at the school and around the Bay Area - after investigators told him that the evidence gathered in the case didn't corroborate his story, said Hercules...

<p>A Gurnee woman faces felony charges after authorities said she was responsible for defacing 20 Lake County houses of worship with red spray paint.</p> <p>Meghan Heinze, 22, appeared in court this morning on charges of criminal defacement to property at a place of worship and criminal damage to property, both felonies, as well as institutional vandalism, State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said.</p>

Rickey Wagoner of Trotwood, Ohio, was assaulted by three men while he stood beside his bus in the early hours of Monday morning The two bullets aimed at his chest were stopped by a New Testament Bible that he kept in his chest pocket The shooting may have been a gang initiation after Wagoner told cops that one of the suspects said 'we need to shot a polar bear to get in a club' Polar bear hunting is gang slang for a random attack on an unsuspecting victim. A bus driver in Trotwood, Ohio, is recovering in hospital after remarkably...

A Johnson City woman who walked up on the aftermath of a downtown assault early Sunday said the incident was similar to the so-called Knockout game. Johnson City police released limited details about the assault, but indicated they need the public’s help in finding who is responsible. Matthew Brookshire, 21, Bristol, Tenn. was found unconscious and bleeding on the sidewalk near the crosswalk on State of Franklin Road between two public parking lots. A police report indicates there were no eye-witnesses, but only people who walked up on the victim. But according to Breeding’s account, there were witnesses to the...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (CBS Cleveland) - Cleveland authorities have made several arrests following the mob beating of a disabled Army veteran by a group of teenagers. Last Friday, the victim, Matthew Robinson, was surrounded by between six and eight teenagers while riding the RTA Healthline. Robinson told WOIO that he was attacked by the teens, then robbed of his possessions. During the attack, the teens made several derogatory remarks about Robinson. “What they were saying was, ‘Knock that boy out!’ ‘White boy.’ ‘Cracker,’” he was quoted as saying about the incident. “They were saying, ‘Knock that white boy out.’” This week,...

EXCLUSIVE: Mob of teens attack man in downtown Cleveland Updated: Feb 11, 2014 By Ed Gallek Ed Gallek talks to Matthew Robinson, the latest victim in a downtown attack There's evidence of more violent teens running around the heart of downtown Cleveland. A disabled Army vet spoke out about the latest attack that happened Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. Matthew Robinson told our Ed Gallek he was riding RTA's Healthline when six to eight teenagers surrounded him on the bus, and then started following him. Then, he said they attacked, took his stuff, and videotaped what they were doing. The incident...

The student who said he was attacked, eighth-grader Omid Babakhani, 13, said he was walking with a friend to his locker when a familiar voice behind him said, “Hey, Persian,” then, “Do you want to fight a black man?" Crystal Lake School District 47 Superintendant Kathy Hinz said the incident happened in the school hallway as the boys were walking out of lunch. She said there is supervision at all times in the lunchroom and in the hallways.

A vehicle belonging to Tamaqua homicide victim Angela Serfass Steigerwalt was recovered in North Carolina on Sunday after police had a standoff with an Allentown man