White Party (GOP) Customer reports Mittens sign burned in Va.

MyFox

A Leesburg couple says their large yard sign supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was set on fire in the early morning hours.

Leesburg residents Jack and Libby Stevens tell The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/TFAJEE) that the barking of their dogs woke them up at about 2 a.m. Monday. They then saw that a 4 foot by 8 foot Romney sign they have in their yard was burning.

The couple says they have previously had smaller Romney signs stolen. The couple plans to replace the sign as soon as possible.

Napolitano says 200K undocumented immigrants have applied for deferred deportation

TheHill

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Wednesday that more than 3,000 young illegal immigrants are applying for deferred deportation every day under the administration’s new immigration policy.

About 200,000 young people in the country illegally have applied to defer their deportation for at least two years and get a temporary work permit since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began accepting applications under the new rules two months ago, according to Napolitano.

Napolitano made that announcement in Washington on Wednesday to a panel of educators from around the country who serve on the Homeland Security Academic Advisory Council. Several members of the panel — including Antonio R. Flores, the president of Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities — lauded the administration’s policy change.

"Long Distance Revolutionary": New Documentary Tells Untold Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Life Journey

Democracy Now

The new documentary, "Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal," chronicles Abu-Jamal’s life and work as a journalist, writer and public intellectual, even as he spent some 30 years on death row in Pennsylvania. In 1982, Abu-Jamal was sentenced to die for allegedly killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He has always maintained his innocence. Then, last year, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set aside Abu-Jamal’s death sentence after finding jurors were given confusing instructions that encouraged them to choose death rather than a life sentence. In January, prosecutors announced they would no longer pursue the death penalty against Abu-Jamal, and the imprisoned journalist was transferred to the general prison population. We air a clip from the film, out in February, and speak with director Stephen Vittoria.

White Men seek plea deal in melee with white supremacists

ChicagoTribune

Lawyers for five Indiana men charged in May with assaulting more than a dozen patrons in a Tinley Park restaurant say they are hoping to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.

Attorneys for the five men said this week they hope to have a deal in place with Cook County prosecutors in time for a Nov. 16 hearing, said Brian Barrido, lawyer for Dylan Sutherlin, who, like his four co-defendants, lives near Bloomington, Ind., and faces multiple felony counts, ranging from mob action to criminal damage to property.

All five have been in jail since the May 19 attack at the Ashford House restaurant, where allegedly they and more than a dozen other men stormed into the restaurant armed with batons and clubs and lashed out at a gathering of about a dozen people whom they believed were members of a white supremacist group that was having a meeting at the restaurant.

Security video from the restaurant shows 18 masked men descending on the group. The alleged victims deny being members of a racist group.

The five defendants have connections to the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, the Indiana chapter of a national anti-racist group. Prosecutors allege the men assaulted their targets and bystanders in the restaurant before fleeing.

An off-duty Tinley Park Police sergeant pulled over a car with Sutherlin, his brothers Cody and Dylan Sutherlin, Alex R. Stuck and John S. Tucker about four miles from the restaurant minutes after the melee ended.

The most serious of the 37 counts the men face, armed violence, carries a sentence of three to seven years, though the men could be eligible for probation, Barrido said.

Barrido described plea negotiations as “back and forth.”

“Sometimes I think it’s going to go to trial, sometimes I think there’s going to be a deal,” he said.

White "Neighbors" place Xenophobic, racist notes on Concord apartment where Bhutanese refugee family lives

Concord Monitor

Two notes insulting immigrants and refugees who moved to Concord four months ago were left taped to the door of Bhakta Gurung and his family this week – one on Monday and one on Sunday – Gurung said today.

Gurung and his wife, Bishnu, and their two children moved to Concord four months ago from a refugee camp in Nepal, where they had been living since being exiled from Bhutan.

The notes were left taped to their door in an apartment building on Eastern Avenue. One was shorter and written in marker; the other filled an 8-by-11 white paper, and was written in pen.

They said, among other things, that the Gurung family members are “inconsiderate assholes” who receive everything for free.

The family cannot read English, and did not know what the notes said until a case worker from Lutheran Social Services visited today.

“He said it is not tolerable, and it is bad words you cannot digest,” Gurung said through an interpreter. “He explained it in my language, and I feel bad.”

Report: Hate Crimes in LA Increased 15 Percent in 2011

NBC Southern California

Reported hate crimes in Los Angeles County increased by 15 percent in 2011 from the previous year, but the total is the second lowest in 22 years, according to the county Commission on Human Relations' annual report released Wednesday.

The commission defines a hate crime as one where hatred or prejudice toward a victim's race or ethnicity, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation was a substantial factor in the crime.

According to the 2011 Hate Crime Report, there were 489 reported hate crimes countywide last year, an increase of 62 from the previous year.

“There are real victims -- these are our friends, family and neighbors,” said commission Executive Director Robin Toma.

About 50 percent of the crimes were race-based, with 60 percent of those targeting Blacks.

The report showed that 65 percent of racially-motivated crimes against Blacks were committed by Latinos, and 41 percent of racially-motivated crimes targeting Latinos were committed by Blacks.

Crimes based on sexual orientation remained at about the same level as the previous year -- 25 percent of all of the hate crimes -- but were more likely to be violent than either racial- or religious-related hated crimes.

Religious crimes, which were primarily anti-Semitic in nature, rose 24 percent.

“It is disturbing that reported hate crimes in Los Angeles County are once again increasing after several years of decline,” said Amanda Susskind, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights group with a focus on documenting and fighting anti-Semitism.

The highest rate of hate crimes took place in the San Fernando Valley, followed by the metro region stretching from West Hollywood to Boyle Heights. The Antelope Valley and the southeastern portion of the county had the lowest rates.

The commission's report was generated from data collected from sheriff and city police departments, school districts and community groups.

Former neo-Nazi leader gets 3 more months in prison

Pilotonline

A federal judge gave former neo-Nazi leader William A. White an additional three months in prison today.

The resentencing stemmed from a federal appeals court ruling that took into account the young age of some of the people targeted by White's inflammatory rhetoric.

"When I used this harsh language 5 ½ years ago, I did not intend to break the law," White told Judge James Turk. White said he believed the language was covered by the First Amendment.

He was resentenced this morning during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

After White had completed a 2½-year prison term for making racially charged threats, a federal appeals court ruled in May that Turk did not properly follow sentencing guidelines.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back for a new sentencing, with the possibility of a slightly longer term once Turk takes into account the age of some of White’s victims.

Among other things, White was convicted in 2009 of sending intimidating letters to tenants of a Virginia Beach apartment complex who filed a housing discrimination against their white landlord.

The letters, addressed to "Whiney Section 8 ... , called them dirty parasites and warned that the white community’s "patience with you and the government that coddles you runs thin."

Because at least one of the tenants had young children, the appeals court ruled, Turk should have considered giving White an enhanced sentence for targeting especially vulnerable victims.

Today’s hearing marks the second time in as many months that White has been back in court facing additional prison time.

In September, Turk gave him 10 months for violating his supervised release by fleeing to Mexico.

White, who once ran a Roanoke-based hate group called the American National Socialist Workers Party, gained brief national attention for posting incendiary racial comments on his now-defunct website, overthrow.com.

Since his conviction in December 2009, White’s website and his organization have all but vanished.

White, 35, is currently being held in the Roanoke City Jail.

Wilding, White Supremacy & the "fair" trial - ‘The Central Park Five’ Trailer: When Mob Mentality and Racial Tension Collide

Slashfilm

The Central Park Five, a new documentary by Ken Burns, Davd McMahon, and Sarah Burns, explores one such incident. In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were apprehended and convicted for the vicious sexual assault of a 29-year-old jogger in Central Park. They were then freed years later after a serial rapist stepped up to confess he’d committed the crime alone, raising the question of how the justice system could have failed these youths so badly. 

The Black is Back Coalition to Hold Rally in DC on 11/4/12: "Break the Silence! The Unreported Wars and Attacks on Africans Worldwide.”

Black is Back Coalition 

BLACK IS BACK COALITION TO HOLD NATIONAL RALLY, MARCH AND CONFERENCE TO EXPOSE THE OPPRESSION OF AFRICANS WORLDWIDE

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations – an African led Coalition – will, for a fourth consecutive year, forward the demand for a peace agenda that recognizes the oppression of African people worldwide.

Washington, DC--October 22, 2012 –The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will hold a rally and march on Saturday, November 3^rd and conference on Sunday, November 4^th in Washington, DC under the slogan: “Break the Silence! The Unreported Wars and Attacks on Africans Worldwide.”

The Black is Back Coalition recognizes that there are countless wars and attacks on African communities that are routinely ignored by the mainstream media as well as by the traditional peace movements. On the African continent, more than five million Africans in the Congo have been killed since 1998 as a result of proxy wars that have also led to the looting of our resources there. In South Africa, several months ago, police opened fired on striking miners killing about 30 and wounding about 70 in an act of violence reminiscent of the apartheid era. And in Haiti thousands marched recently in protest against the Martelly government who they contend has done very little to improve living standards there.

Here in Washington DC, the historic Barry Farm community at this very moment is on the frontlines of the gentrification assault. The proposed redevelopment scheme of Barry Farm, if successful, would lead to the displacement of many long-time residents there. Yet, the media and anti-war movements remain silent.

Unfortunately, there is a general lack of concern for and implicit support of the oppression faced by Africans worldwide. The assaults on African communities not only here in the US, but also throughout the Caribbean, throughout Europe, and on the African continent itself in the form of proxy wars, police containment, mass incarceration, economic underdevelopment, joblessness etc. are all being swept under the proverbial rug.

The Black is Back Coalition is calling for an end to this indifference. “On November 3rd we rally in Malcolm X Park in Washington, D.C., from every community in the U.S. Here we will make our united voices heard; here we will declare our united will to join with the peoples of the world to change the course of history that has enslaved and impoverished the majority for the benefit of the parasitic few,” said Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the Black is Back Coalition. “And on November 4th we will hold a conference to organize and plan. We will collectively decide what to do to tell our own story and to place our own aspirations, values and plans on the agenda for human progress and the conquest of social justice, peace and reparations.”

The rally starts at 12noon at Malcolm X Park.  March starts at 2pm leaving from Malcolm X Park. The conference will be held on Sunday, November 4th at SOUL 57, 1326 Florida Avenue NE from 12noon to 6:30pm.

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations was founded September 12, 2009. Its members include a wide sector of the African Liberation movement from a variety of political and ideological persuasions whose objective is to forge a common anti-imperialist agenda. It is headquartered in Washington, DC.

For more information on the Black is Back Coalition, please visit: www.blackisbackcoalition.org.

Poll Finds Whites Ready to Bomb Iran

tnr

Heading into the critical final presidential debate on foreign policy and possible direct negotiations with Iran about their nuclear program, polls find strong public support for a U.S. military operation to destroy Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons if Iran continues its pursuit of nuclear capabilities.

The late September NBC/WSJ poll found that 58 percent of Americans believe the US should initiate military action to destroy Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons if Iran continues its pursuit of nuclear capabilities, compared to 33 percent who would oppose military action. Remarkably, 44 percent strongly support such an action, compared to 23 percent who strongly oppose. Support for military action against Iran has steadily increased throughout the Obama presidency. In 2008, opponents of war outnumbered supporters by 5 points, 41-46. By March 2012, supporters had seized a 12-point lead. Over the last six months, that margin has doubled to 25 points. Similarly, a recent Pew Research survey finds that the public increasingly believes it is more important to take a firm stance against Iranian nuclear proliferation than to avoid military conflict. In January, “firm stand” led by 9 points, 51-41; today, firm stand leads by 21 points, 56-35.

Russell Means RIP

OPP

And a well deserved rest it will be for Oyate Wacinyapin, a/k/a Russell Means, a man who's American Indian Movement were, as noted on one Facebook posting, considered a threat by our government simply because they wanted what they were entitled to.

Indian Country Today

Russell Means has been called the most famous American Indian since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse by the Los Angeles Times and recognized as a natural leader with a fearless dedication and indestructible sense of pride. This morning at 4:44 a.m. Means walked on amongst the ancestors.

Means was a political activist and an early leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who had counted nine assassination attempts on his life, lost his fight with cancer.

According to his son, Scott Means, “My dad now walks among our ancestors. He began his journey to the spirit world at 4:44 a.m. with the morning star, at his home and ranch in Porcupine[, South Dakota]. There will be four opportunities for the people to honor his life; to be announced at a later date. Thank you for your prayers and continued support. We love you. As our dad and husband would say, ‘May the Great Mystery continue to guide and protect the paths of you and your loved ones.'"

More Hispanic Voters In Arizona Given Wrong Date For Election Day By Maricopa County Officials

ThinkProgress

For the second time in as many weeks, election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona are in hot water for providing Hispanic voters with false information about when election day is.

Last week, ThinkProgress reported on how Maricopa County Elections Department officials attached a document to voter registration forms that gave the wrong date for anyone reading it in Spanish. The English version of the same document provides the correct date — November 6 — next to “8 de Noviembre.”

At the time, county officials dismissed the error as a clerical mistake, saying that only 50 people received the incorrect document. But a local ABC News affiliate has uncovered at least one more incident of the wrong date being disseminated in Spanish by Maricopa’s Elections Department.

Paper bookmarks found in three separate election counters throughout the county again give November 8th as election day, and again the mistake is reserved to just the Spanish version of the document. Activists who were perhaps willing to overlook the first incident as a genuine mistake are no longer keeping quiet:

Randy Parraz, President of Citizens For A Better Arizona, says the blame lies squarely with Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell.
“It shows she’s incompetent and not qualified,” said Parraz.
[...]
“The moment you found the first problem, there should have been an inventory,” said Parraz, referring to the voter ID document. “Anyone with common sense would have done an inventory on everything that’s been printed to catch this.”

Maricopa County happens to be the home of the controversial and xenophobic Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has led the nation’s most anti-Latino police force for years.

NYPD Paid Man To ‘Bait’ Muslims Into Criminal Activity, Spy On Innocent People

ThinkProgress

The New York Police Department used a 19-year-old paid informant to infiltrate New York’s Muslim community and then spy on it and entice individuals into criminal acts, according to a painstaking review of related evidence by the Associated Press. The activites in question:

Shamiur Rahman, a 19-year-old American of Bengali descent who has now denounced his work as an informant, said police told him to embrace a strategy called “create and capture.” He said it involved creating a conversation about jihad or terrorism, then capturing the response to send to the NYPD. For his work, he earned as much as $1,000 a month and goodwill from the police after a string of minor marijuana arrests. ….

Rahman said he received little training and spied on “everything and anyone.” He took pictures inside the many mosques he visited and eavesdropped on imams. By his own measure, he said he was very good at his job and his handler never once told him he was collecting too much, no matter whom he was spying on.

The story is written by Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, two of the lead reporters in the AP’s Pulitzer-prize winning expose on NYPD surveillance of Muslims. The AP’s earlier work found that the NYPD created lists of devout Muslims to watch, treated name changes as worthy of investigation, and snuck informants into mosques. This program may have broken the law and yielded no leads or cases.

In 2005, Mitt Romney supported stepped up surveillance of mosques along similar lines. GOP members of Congress today accuse top Muslim White House aides of disloyalty and candidates compete over who can be more Islamophobic. Islamophobic incidents in the United States hit an all-time high this year.

Children Caught in America's Prison System

Sentencing Project

A fifth-grader was brought to a concrete cell in a juvenile-detention center in Washoe County, Nev., asked to remove his shoes and belt, and stayed from 10 a.m to 6:30 p.m. waiting for his mother, an undocumented immigrant, to pick him up.

He was there for scuffling with another kid at school that day and he was “scared shitless,” says Richard Ross, a University of California, Santa Barbara photography professor who spent five years interviewing more than 1,000 children in over 300 juvenile detention centers. It was just one of many scenes Ross witnessed while taking photographs for his new book, Juvenile in Justice,  that led him to believe, as he told The Daily Beast, “we have the wrong population in there.”

There are 70,792 children in America’s juvenile jails -- a population that the general public is just beginning to pay attention to, Ross says.

Recent victories for juvenile offenders are largely the result of a “successful public education campaign,” says Ashley Nellis, a research analyst specializing in juvenile justice at The Sentencing Project. “Even five years ago, people didn’t know that juveniles served sentences of life without parole in America.”

Nellis is the author of The Sentencing Project report, The Lives of Juvenile Lifers: Findings from a National Survey.

The sheer expense of keeping kids behind bars has begun to raise awareness, Ross says, citing the high cost to taxpayers of supporting a child—from food to education—in juvenile jail.  

Federal appeals court overturns Florida stay of execution of mentally-ill Black Man

Jurist

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] on Monday vacated [order, PDF] a stay of execution for convicted mass murderer John Errol Ferguson. The stay was issued [JURIST report] last week by US District Court for the Southern District of Florida [official website], but the appeals court found the stay to be an abuse of judicial discretion because the district court did not address the factors needed for such relief under Eleventh Circuit precedent. In September Florida Governor Rick Scott [official website] signed a death warrant [text] for Ferguson, setting his execution date for last Tuesday. Ferguson has contended that he is not mentally competent to be executed, and in September Scott temporarily stayed the execution [text, PDF] and appointed three psychiatrists to examine Ferguson. The psychiatrists issued a joint report declaring Ferguson to be sane for execution and Scott subsequently lifted the stay. Ferguson was convicted of killing eight people in 1977 and two in 1978.

In June 2011 the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled [JURIST report] that Florida's procedure for imposing the death penalty was unconstitutional. Judge Jose Martinez held [opinion, PDF] that the procedure violates the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial [Cornell LII backgrounder]. An appeal of that case [text, PDF] has been filed with the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Florida had briefly banned the death penalty in December 2006 under Governor Jeb Bush, after the botched execution [JURIST reports] of Angel Diaz. However, in July 2007 Florida Governor Charlie Crist ended the state's temporary moratorium on executions. The reinstatement came before the implementation of recommended changes [JURIST report], which had been suggested by a death penalty commission convened by Bush.

Six Arrested in Illinois Protesting Bain Capital's Plan to Close Sensata Plant, Move Jobs to China

Democracy Now!

We turn now to Freeport, Illinois, where more people have been arrested protesting plans by Mitt Romney’s former company, Bain Capital, to shut the Sensata Technologies plant and move operations to China — a loss of 170 American jobs. On Wednesday, six people were arrested in the lobby of the plant during a sit-in demanding full severance pay for those who will lose their jobs. Last month, Sensata workers set up an encampment called "Bainport" across the street from the facility to protest the company’s plan to close the plant. Last week, three protesters were arrested for blocking the path of trucks leaving the plant in an effort to stop the removal of equipment from their workplace. To find out more about the "Bainport" protest, we speak with Tom Gaulrapp, who has worked at the Sensata Technologies plant for 33 years. His last day of work at Sensata is November 5, one day before the election. The protesters have invited Romney to visit "Bainport" to address their situation.

East Haven Police Reach Agreement With Feds On Racial Discrimination

More than three years after the Department of Justice began an investigation of practices of systemic discrimination and brutality against Latinos by East Haven, Conn. cops, town officials announced today they've reached a proposed settlement agreement with the feds.

For years in East Haven, Conn., a predominantly white suburb of New Haven, Latino residents were confronted by a barrage of police harassment and profiling. The town made national headlines in December of last year when the DOJ released a report charging the East Haven Police Department with systemically harassing Latinos.

ColorLines

In January, a separate criminal investigation by the FBI led to the arrest of four local cops for violent abuse of Latinos. Earlier this month, one of the charged officers pleaded guilty to uses of excessive force. The three other charged officers pleaded not guilty.

Shortly after the arrests, the town's mayor, Joseph Maturo proposed that to remedy the damage by his police department he'd "eat tacos" for dinner. Predictably, the comments did nothing to halt growing outrage and within a week, Maturo announced that his police chief, Leonard Gallo, would resign.

According to Latino residents who I spoke with earlier this year, East Haven police were more restrained in months since the DOJ report was released, but many still feel precarious. Residents told methey hoped federal attention would bring lasting change.

In a press release, the DOJ wrote:

The Justice Department today announced that the town of East Haven, Conn., memorialized its intention to enter into a settlement agreement to resolve the department's civil investigation of allegations that the East Haven Police Department (EHPD) engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination against Latinos on account of their race, color or national origin. The proposed agreement also resolves allegations that EHPD engaged in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force, unconstitutional searches and seizures and retaliation against persons who witnessed police misconduct or criticized EHPD's practices.

Jimmy Carter: Israel Creating 'Catastrophic' Situation With Palestinians

Citizens for Legitimate Government

 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday during a visit to Jerusalem that the prospect of an Israel-Palestinian peace accord is "vanishing," blaming Israeli settlement of the West Bank. Carter, a longtime critic of Israeli policies, called the current situation "catastrophic" and blamed Israel for the growing isolation of east Jerusalem from the West Bank. He said a Palestinian state has become "unviable." "We've reached a crisis stage," said Carter, 88. "The two-state solution is the only realistic path to peace and security for Israel and the Palestinians."

Police Investigators: Black Woman Lied About Burn Injuries/KKK, Wounds Self-Inflicted

NewsOne

As previously reported by NewsOne, Moffitt was walking in a park at around 8 p.m. when she claimed the incident occurred. Because of initial reports, speculation was rampant on social media that it was hate crime committed by the Ku Klux Klan because Moffitt was wearing a shirt in support of President Barack Obama.

All of it was false.

The Franklin Sun reports:

After analyzing the evidence at the State Police Crime Lab, it was discovered Moffitt’s fingerprints were on the cigarette lighter and the lighter fluid recovered near the wooded area around the crime scene.

“There is more physical evidence along those lines that back this up,” Thomas said.

At a news conference held at LSU Medical Center on Monday evening, Moffitt’s mother, Edna Moffitt said her daughter was in critical condition with third-degree burns on her arms and other areas and would undergo surgery Tuesday.

False rumors regarding the incident were spread on various social media outlets Sunday night just hours after the incident took place. On many of the Twitter and Facebook posts, users speculated the attack was a hate crime and Moffitt was attacked for wearing a President Obama t-shirt when she was “raped and burned alive”.

Moffitt’s mother and Thomas confirmed Monday that the Obama T-shirt rumor was false and there was no evidence of sexual assault.

A racial slur and the letters, KKK, that were written in toothpaste on Moffitt’s vehicle were linked to female DNA, authorities said.

“All of the evidence is pointing back to the victim inflicting this upon herself,” Thomas said. “No evidence has shown any other person was involved.”

“This case is solved,” Thomas added.