Indiana Man Pleads Guilty to Religiously Motivated Attack on Toledo-Area Mosque

An Indiana man faces a likely sentence of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to hate crimes stemming from the arson of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, law enforcement officials announced today.
Randolph Linn, 52, of St. Joe, Indiana, pleaded guilty to three counts: (1) intentionally defacing, damaging, and destroying religious real property because of the religious character of that property; (2) using fire to commit a felony; and (3) using and carrying a firearm to commit a crime of violence.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, both parties recommend a sentence of 20 years in prison.
“The freedom to worship in the manner of one’s choosing is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans,” said AAG Thomas E. Perez. “The Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division will continue to aggressively prosecute hate-based attacks on houses of worship. I commend the cooperative efforts of local and federal law enforcement officials to ensure justice in this case.”
Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said, “Religious freedom is at the core of our country, and we will continue to aggressively prosecute such hate crimes whenever and wherever the evidence warrants. This was a true joint effort to seek justice for these victims.”
Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cleveland Field Office, said, “We are pleased that Randall Linn has accepted responsibility for his destructive action of setting fire to a sacred place of worship. The FBI, along with its federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, remains committed to protecting the rights of all citizens to practice their chosen religion by enforcing the laws that defend those liberties.”
“This guilty plea represents the tireless efforts of so many agencies to bring this case to justice,” said Robin Shoemaker, Special Agent in Charge, Columbus Field Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. “Criminal damage to a house of worship is taken very seriously by ATF.”
According to court documents, Linn left his home on September 30, 2012, in a red four-door Chevrolet Sonic. Inside the vehicle were numerous firearms and three red gas cans.
Linn stopped at a gas station near Perrysburg, Ohio, and filled the three gas can and then drove to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. Linn made numerous efforts to enter the Islamic Center before gaining entry. He walked through several rooms with a handgun in his left hand before exiting and then returning with a red gas can, according to court documents.
Linn then entered the prayer room on the second floor and poured gasoline on the prayer rug, a large, Oriental-style rug used by members of the Islamic Center during prayer services. He then set fire to the prayer rug, according to court documents.
Linn acknowledges he intentionally set the fire because of the religious character of the Islamic Center property, according to court documents.
Linn agrees to pay restitution and understands that the amount may exceed $1 million due to the amount of fire and water damage sustained by the Islamic Center, according to court documents.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bridget M. Brennan and Ava Dustin and Special Assistant U.S Attorney Gwen Howe-Gebers.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ATF, Perrysburg Township Police Department, and the State of Ohio Fire Marshal.

Two Kentucky men acquitted in landmark gay hate crime case

Two Kentucky men have been acquitted of hate-crimes charges in a first federal hate crimes trial of its kind trial involving an attack on a gay man.

Kevin Pennington

/ kentucky.com

But jurors found both Anthony Ray Jenkins and his cousin David Jason Jenkins guilty on the charges of kidnapping and conspiracy to a kidnapping in connection with the assault on 29-year-old Kevin Pennington last year at a rural state park.
They had been charged with violating a section of a federal hate-crimes law that has not previously been prosecuted in the U.S.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hydee Hawkins told the jury earlier that the two men used anti-gay slurs while kicking, beating and stomping on Pennington.
"You don't have to agree with his lifestyle, but he's a human being, and he deserved better than this," Hawkins said.
CBS affiliate WKYT in Kentucky reports two female relatives of the defendants testified to the use of gay slurs in the assault.
Pennington sat in the courtroom occasionally wiping tears from his eyes as the attorneys spoke.
Throughout the trial, the defense argued that any dispute between the Jenkinses and Pennington was over a drug deal gone sour.
Andrew Stephens, the attorney for David Jason Jenkins, argued that his client had at least 21 beers on the day of the assault and was too drunk to have formulated a plan for such an attack.
"These people who were stoned and drunk were going to form a plan? When this event took place, they were all about drugs," Stephens said.
Attorney Willis Coffey, who represents Anthony Jenkins, argued that his client has an IQ of roughly 75 and was merely a follower who does not hate gay people. He called the allegations "the nearest thing to nothing I have ever seen."
Coffey said Pennington pushed the idea that he was attacked for being gay to serve his own political agenda. Coffey invoked the name of the Democratic president who is unpopular in Kentucky and lost badly there four years ago.
"If the government and President Obama want to bow to the special interest groups, that's their business, but they picked the wrong case," Coffey said.
U.S. Justice Department civil rights attorney AeJean Cha told jurors that the Jenkins cousins and two women planned to kidnap, beat and kill Pennington because of his sexual orientation.
"This is not about drugs, this is about the fact that Kevin is gay," Cha said.
Hawkins also played a tape of Pennington's 911 call after the attack. On the tape, Pennington's voice can be heard cracking as he tries to describe the attack and relay information about the Jenkinses.
"They're trying to kill me," Pennington told the 911 operator on April 4, 2011. "I didn't know what they were going to do. I think it's because I'm gay."
"Today is the day for accountability, ladies and gentlemen," Hawkins said.

3 indicted on two separate hate crimes cases

Hate crime and robbery indictments were brought Tuesday in two separate incidents in which suspects allegedly targeted gay men for violence at Manhattan gay bars.
Two men were accused of attacking a man in the bathroom of the Stonewall Inn, an iconic gay bar in downtown Manhattan, on October 3, according to a release from the New York district attorney's office.
Matthew Francis, 21, and Christopher Orlando, 17, both from Staten Island, were charged with two counts of attempted robbery as a hate crime and one count of assault as a hate crime. In addition, Francis was charged with one count of criminal possession of a weapon.

A 34-year old victim, whose name is not being released, was at a urinal inside the bar when one of the defendants allegedly asked him whether he was gay, according a news release from the district attorney's office. When the victim responded yes, Matthew Francis, 21, allegedly yelled, "Get away from me f----t. I don't like gay people." He then asked for money, saying, "Give me a dollar. Give me a 20," according to the news release.
The victim refused and Francis allegedly push him to ground and punched him several times in the face and chest.
The other defendant Christopher Orlando, 17, stood in front of the exit preventing him from leaving, the district attorney's office said.
Bar patrons and staff members chased the suspects outside, where they were arrested by police officers who had been called to the scene. The victim suffered "substantial pain and a laceration to the head" and had to be treated at a hospital, the district attorney's office said.
The Stonewall Inn was the site of a series of demonstrations in 1969 that were triggered when patrons fought back during a police raid. The incident is widely considered the start of the gay rights movement.
An additional indictment Tuesday came in a separate, similar incident a little more than a week later.
Frederick Giunta, 25, of Queens, New York, has been charged with attempted robbery and assault as a hate crime.
Giunta is accused of stealing an unnamed victim's wallet on October 11. That same day, he allegedly made racist and anti-gay comments and struck a second unnamed victim in the face at Julius, another popular gay club in the West Village area of Manhattan.
"Attacks such as these not only harm individual victims, they also threaten entire communities in New York City," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement Tuesday. "We created the Hate Crimes Unit to identify and then to build strong cases against those who commit bias crimes. New York City's diverse populations deserve our respect and protection," he said.
Attorneys for Francis, Orlando, and Giunta have not yet responded to requests for comment from CNN.

Hate-crime incidents down

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has put out its data on hate crimes from 2011. The good news is that the number of hate crimes was down to 6,222 incidents involving 7,254 offenses. That is a 6 percent drop from the preceding year (when 6,628 hate crime incidents involving 7,699 offenses were reported) and it’s the lowest since 1994 (extraordinary when you consider the population growth). To put that  in context, in 2011, with total U.S. population of more than 300 million people, some 1,203,564 violent crimes  and 9,063,173 property crimes were reported.

FBI headquarters (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)

In an ideal country, we’d have no hate crimes. But in the United States it is safe to say that hate crimes, that is the number of crimes based on racial, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious or disability bias, are a minuscule proportion of total crime, and are perpetrated by 5,731 individuals. (That is about .19 percent of the population, less than one-quarter of 1 percent.)

There are two items in the data that caught my eye. Both would challenge some common tropes you hear in mainstream media.
 First, among religious hate crimes, Jews make up the overwhelming number of victims (63.2 percent), but the total number, again, is tiny (936). Anti-Muslim hate crimes (in a country in which the left and groups like CAIR tell us is rife with Islamophobia) are much more rare. Muslim hate-crime victims make up only 12.5 percent of the anti-religious hate crimes. That is 185 victims. Any crime based on bias is to be deplored, but we don’t have either rampant anti-Semitic crime or Islamophobia crime. When the Anti-Defamation League says that “that anti-Semitism is still a serious and deeply entrenched problem in America,” I have to say bunk, at least if you are looking at FBI crime stats.
Second, hate crimes are not a “white only” problem. In fact, while whites make up 59 percent of hate-crime offenders, they make up about 78 percent of the population. In other words, whites commit most hate crimes, but they are disproportionately low among hate-crime offenders.
We have an epidemic of crime in this country. But we don’t have an epidemic of hate crime. And as for anti-Semitism, there is no place on the planet with less of it than the United States. Again, a world without hate crime would be ideal, but the United States is doing, I would suggest, about as well as humanly possible.

11 Facts about Hate Crimes

1. There were 7,789 hate crime offenses reported to the FBI in 2009.
2. The large majority (48.8%) of the hate crimes were motivated by racial bias, followed by religious bias (18.9%) and sexual orientation bias (17.8%).
3. About 70% of racial bias was anti-black, while 16.5% were anti-white.
4. Over 70 percent of religious bias was anti-Jewish, while 8.4% were anti-Islamic.
5. Most sexual orientation bias (55.1%) was directed at gay men.
6. Violence and hate crimes directed at LGBT people worsens in the early summer months when many cities around the country celebrate Pride Week.
7. Only 1/3 of the victims of hate crimes report the incident to law enforcement.
8. The national debate over immigration has caused a sharp increase in violent hate crimes against Hispanics, regardless of their immigration status.
9. Hate crimes against Latinos had already increased in each of the four years between 2003 to 2007.
10. The Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990 was passed by Congress in the wake of an outbreak of anti-homosexual violence in the late 1980s - it was the first federal civil rights law to include sexual orientation as a class.
11. Reporting under the federal hate crime act is voluntary and due to the controversial nature of collecting hate crime statistics, over one-third of police jurisdictions opt not to participate in the effort. As a result, it’s estimated that the FBI’s annual reporting of hate crime stats are off by thousands.

Hate Crimes Motivated By Sexual Orientation Bias

The following are the number of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation bias as reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under The Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990:

2008: 1,617 ate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias were reported by law enforcement agencies. Of these offenses:

• 58.6 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual bias.
• 25.7 percent were reported as anti-homosexual bias.
• 12.0 percent were prompted by an anti-female homosexual bias.
• 2.0 percent were the result of an anti-heterosexual bias.
• 1.7 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias.

2007: 1,460 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias were reported by law enforcement agencies. Of these offenses:

• 59.2 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual bias.
• 24.8 percent were reported as anti-homosexual bias.
• 12.6 percent were prompted by an anti-female homosexual bias.
• 1.8 percent were the result of an anti-heterosexual bias.
• 1.6 percent were classified as anti-bisexual bias.

2006: 1,415 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias were reported by law enforcement agencies. Of these offenses:

• 62.3 percent were classified as anti-male homosexual biased.
• 20.7 percent were classified as anti-homosexual biased.
• 13.6 percent were classified as anti-female homosexual biased.
• 2.0 percent were classified as anti-heterosexual biased.
• 1.5 percent were classified as anti-bisexual biased.

2005: 1,171 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias were reported by law enforcement agencies. Of these offenses:

• 60.9 percent were anti-male homosexual.
• 19.5 percent were anti-homosexual.
• 15.4 percent were anti-female homosexual.
• 2.0 percent were anti-heterosexual.
• 2.3 percent were anti-bisexual.

Report: FBI Hate Crime Statistics Vastly Understate Problem

The real number of hate crimes in the United States is more than 15 times higher than FBI statistics reflect, according to a stunning new government report.
Hate crime statistics published by the FBI since 1992, based on voluntary reports from law enforcement agencies around the country, have shown annual totals of about 6,000 to 10,000, depending on the year. But the new report, "Hate Crimes Reported by Victims and Police," found an average annual total of 191,000 hate crimes. That means the real level of hate crime runs between 19 and 31 times higher than the numbers that have been officially reported for almost 15 years.
"It's an astounding report," said Jack Levin, a leading hate crime expert at Northeastern University. "It's not necessarily completely accurate, but I would trust these data before I trusted the voluntary law enforcement reports to the FBI."
The revealing new report, compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and published in November, was based on an analysis of three and a half years of detailed survey data from the biannual National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCVS raw data comes from interviews with almost 80,000 statistically representative people and is the most accurate crime survey extant.
The report, which inferred hate motivation from the words and symbols used by the offender, found that just 44% of hate crimes are reported to police. Other hate crimes don't make it into FBI statistics for an array of reasons: Police may fail to record some as hate crimes; their departments may not report hate crime statistics to state officials; and those officials may not accurately report to the FBI.
According to the new report, hate crimes involve violence far more often than other crimes. The data showed 84% of hate crimes were violent, meaning they involved a sexual attack, robbery, assault or murder. By contrast, just 23% of non-hate crimes involved violence. Other studies have suggested that hate-motivated violence, especially against LGBT people, is more extreme than other violence.
The report also showed that 56% of hate crime victims identified race as the primary factor in the crimes they reported. Ethnicity accounted for another 29% of the total. Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were 18% of the total. Given that the best studies indicate about 3% of the American population is homosexual, that means that gays and lesbians are victimized at six times the overall rate.

The Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA)

Enacted in 1990, the HCSA requires the Justice Department to acquire data on crimes which "manifest prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity" from law enforcement agencies across the country and to publish an annual summary of the findings. In the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Congress expanded coverage of the HCSA to require FBI reporting on crimes based on "disability."
Six Years of HCSA Data: Progress and Significant Promise
The FBI documented a total of 4,558 hate crimes in 1991, reported from almost 2,800 police departments in 32 states. The Bureau's 1992 data, released in March, 1994, documented 7,442 hate crime incidents reported from more than twice as many agencies, 6,181 -- representing 42 states and the District of Columbia. For 1993, the FBI reported 7,587 hate crimes from 6,865 agencies in 47 states and the District of Columbia. The FBI's 1994 statistics documented 5,932 hate crimes, reported by 7,356 law enforcement agencies across the country. The FBI’s 1995 HCSA report documented 7,947 crimes reported by 9,584 agencies across the country.
The FBI’s most recent HCSA report, for 1996, documented 8,759 hate crimes reported to the FBI by 11,355 agencies across the country. The FBI report indicated that about 63% of the reported hate crimes were race-based, with 14% committed against individuals on the basis of their religion, 11% on the basis of ethnicity, and 12% on the basis of sexual orientation. Approximately 42% of the reported crimes were anti-Black, 13% of the crimes were anti-White. The 1,109 crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions comprised almost 13% of the total -- and 79% of the reported hate crimes based on religion. 4% of the crimes were anti-Asian, and just over 6% were anti-Hispanic.

Hate Crimes Statistics: 1995-2007

Hate Crimes Statistics: 1995-2007

Hate Crimes statistics collected by the FBI under the Uniform Crime Reporting program. Please Note that these figures represent Incidents, and not Offenses or Victims or Known Offenders. This means that other charts on the web may show other figures. These figures are based on the FBI reports, which are updated before being posted on the FBI web page. Please review these facts before sending us e-mail that our figures are wrong. Thanks. To see the original reports, visit: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm#hate

"Bias Crime—A criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin; also known as Hate Crime." -- Hate Crime Data Collection - http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hatecrime.pdf

Bias Motivation	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Totals	7,947	8,759	8,049	7,755	7,876	8,063	9,730	7,462	7,489	7,649	7,163	7,722	7,6245
Race	4,831	5,396	4,710	4,321	4,295	4,337	4,367	3,642	3,844	4,042	3,919	4,000	3,870
Anti-White	1,226	1,106	993	792	781	875	891	719	830	829	828	890	749
Anti-Black	2,988	3,674	3,120	2,901	2,958	2,884	2,899	2,486	2,548	2,731	2,630	2,640	2,658
Anti-American Indian/    Alaskan Native	41	51	36	52	47	57	80	62	76	83	79	60	61
Anti-Asian/Pacific Islander	355	355	347	293	298	281	280	217	231	217	199	181	188
Anti-Multi-Racial Group	221	210	214	283	211	240	217	158	159	182	183	229	214
Ethnicity/National Origin	814	940	836	754	829	911	2,098	1,102	1,026	972	944	984	1,007
Anti-Hispanic	516	564	491	482	466	557	597	480	426	475	522	576	595
Anti-Other Ethnicity/    National Origin	298	376	345	272	363	354	1,501	622	600	497	422	408	412
Religion	1,277	1,401	1,385	1,390	1,411	1,472	1,828	1,426	1,343	1,374	1,227	1,462	1,400
Anti-Jewish	1,058	1,109	1,087	1,081	1,109	1,109	1,043	931	927	954	848	967	969
Anti-Catholic	31	35	31	61	36	56	38	53	76	57	58	76	61
Anti-Protestant	36	75	53	59	48	59	35	55	49	38	57	59	57
Anti-Islamic	29	27	28	21	32	28	481	155	149	156	128	156	115
Anti-Other Religious Group	102	129	159	125	151	172	181	198	109	128	93	124	130
Anti-Multi-Religious Group	20	24	24	41	31	44	45	31	24	35	39	73	62
Anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.	1	2	3	2	4	4	5	3	9	6	4	7	6
Sexual Orientation	1,019	1,016	1,102	1,260	1,317	1,299	1,393	1,244	1,239	1,197	1,017	1,195	1,265
Anti-Male Homosexual	735	757	760	850	915	896	980	825	783	738	621	747	772
Anti-Female Homosexual	146	150	188	223	187	179	205	172	187	164	155	163	145
Anti-Homosexual	103	84	133	158	178	182	173	222	247	245	195	238	304
Anti-Heterosexual	17	15	12	12	14	22	18	10	14	33	21	26	22
Anti-Bisexual	18	10	9	17	23	20	17	15	8	17	25	21	22
Disability	--	--	12	25	19	36	35	45	33	57	53	79	79
Anti-Physical	--	--	9	13	10	20	12	20	24	23	21	17	20
Anti-Mental	--	--	3	12	9	16	23	25	9	34	32	62	59
Multiple Bias	6	6	4	5	5	8	9	3	4	7	3	2	3
Totals	7,947	8,759	8,049	7,755	7,876	8,063	9,730	7,462	7,489	7,649	7,163	7,722	7,6245
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007

Defining A Hate Crime

A hate crime is the victimization of an individual based on that individual's race, religion, national origin, ethnic identification, gender, or sexual orientation.

Acts include:

• Rape and Sexual Assault
• Physical assault(s) with weapons
• Verbal or physical harassment
• Vandalism/robbery
• Attacks on homes or places of worship

How does this relate to rape and sexual assault?

While any targeted group can experience rape and sexual assault as a form of hate crime, there are two groups that are often noted for being victims of this particular form of hate crime.

• Women: Many believe that all violence against women, including rape and sexual assault, is a hate crime because it is not simply a violent act, but is "an act of misogyny, or hatred of women" (Copeland & Wolfe, 1991).
• People in the LGBT Community: Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) community are often targets of hate crimes, many of which include rape or sexual assault. In one study of almost 2,000 lesbian and gay individuals in Sacramento, CA, about one-fifth of the women and one-fourth of the men had been victimized at some point during the past 5 years (APA, 1998; "Safety and Hate Crimes," 2006).

Effects

Because a hate crime is an attack on an individual due to his or her identity affiliation (race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, etc.), the emotional effects of a rape or sexual assault as a hate crime can be compounded. An individual may not only experience the reactions that often follow a rape or sexual assault, he or she may also suffer from additional effects brought on by the attack of their identity. These reactions can include:

• Deep personal hurt, betrayal
• Feelings of powerlessness, vulnerability, anger, sadness
• Fear for personal and family's safety
• Changes in lifestyle (where they walk, how they answer the phone, their reactions to strangers)

In addition, research has shown that victims of hate crimes are more likely to experience psychological distress such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anger than other victims of other crimes. Therefore, if an individual is a victim of a rape or sexual assault that is a hate crime, he or she is more likely to experience psychological effects that are seen both with hate crimes and rape and sexual assault.
Finally, the recovery time can also be prolonged. Research has shown that it can take as much as five years for victims of hate crimes to overcome the emotional and psychological distress caused by such an attack (APA, 1998).

Resources for Victims or Witnesses of Hate Crimes

Hate Crimes, while usually directed toward individual victims, also send a message of intolerance to anyone who identifies with the targeted victims.  Hate crimes damage entire communities.  Here at DANY we respond to hate crime complaints with urgency, professionalism, and with the full force of our laws.  We are also dedicated to educational outreach in the community to stop the spread of hate and foster an atmosphere of respect in our diverse society.

It is important to report bias-related crimes to the local police precinct and to the Hate Crimes Task Force of the NYPD. Together with our police partners, the Hate Crimes Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigates and prosecutes hate crimes in Manhattan.
 In addition to working with the NYPD, we also have senior investigators trained to interview victims and witnesses, gather evidence and enhance our investigations.  We have created a HATE CRIME HOTLINE which enables the public to contact the Hate Crimes Unit at DANY directly. The number is 212-335-3100.
This number is not a replacement for calling 911.  In an emergency, always call 911.   Victims of hate crimes can call the hotline whether or not they have previously reported the crime to law enforcement; we can assist with this process as well (either arranging a meeting with NYPD detectives from the Hate Crimes Task Force or meeting with designated senior investigators from the District Attorney’s Office).
We can refer victims to counseling and assistance programs here within the DA’s Office or we can connect them to appropriate service providers in the community.  Our hotline is also a resource to communities dealing with the aftermath of a hate crime event. We are dedicated to our mission to stop hate crime activity in New York County and help our partners throughout New York City to do the same.

IMPORTANT NUMBERS

New York County District Attorney’s Office Hate Crimes Unit

One Hogan Place

New York, NY 10013

212-335-3100 (main number)

212-335-9500 (TTY)

Advisor to the District Attorney for G/L/B/T Issues

80 Centre Street, Room 864

New York, NY 10013

212-335-9291

Witness Aid Services Unit

100 Centre Street, Room 231

New York, NY 10013

212-335-9040

New York City Police Department

NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force

One Police Plaza

New York, NY 10038

646-610-5267

G/L/B/T Community Liaison

Office of the Police Commissioner

One Police Plaza, Room 308

New York, NY 10038

646-610-6017

Community-Based Programs

NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project

240 West 35th Street, Suite 200

New York, NY 10001

212-714-1141 (24-hour hotline)

212-714-1134 (TTY)