News Roundup for July 22, 2011
Four suspects in Arroyo Grande, Calif., are in custody for burning a cross outside the home of an African-American woman. The group, led by Jason Kahn, 36, and three others stole a cross from a local Lutheran church and burned it in front of the house of a random black family. The group, allegedly meth users and possible white supremacists, are claiming they burned the cross as a memorial to Kahn’s father, a meth addict shot by police in 1994.
The former leader of the reportedly white supremacist Invaders Motorcycle Club has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to manufacture narcotics. Timothy “Beefy” Bartruff was found guilty last year for conspiring with another man in a meth production operation that spanned several states.
A California man on trial for assaulting a gay man has been convicted of felony assault and committing a hate crime. Nicholas Klopp, who reportedly subscribed to white supremacist views, was accused of making derogatory sexually-oriented comments towards a man and then attacking him at a birthday party where some attendees were gay.
The anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church has announced that it will protest marriage equality in New York on Sunday. The group says it will picket several areas in New York City including marriage bureaus and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s local office.
An Oregon white supremacist was arrested for selling hashish to an undercover investigator. Michael Conway, 30, attempted to sell two pounds of hashish worth around $18,000 to the investigator.
