Hatewatch Tweets
Hatewatch is managed by the staff of the Intelligence Report, an investigative magazine published by the Alabama-based civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.
White Supremacist Sentenced to Life for Deadly 2009 Rampage
The day after Barack Obama was inaugurated on a cold January day in 2009, becoming the nation’s first black president, a young, obese white supremacist named Keith Luke went on a racially motivated one-day rape and killing spree in Brockton, Mass.
Luke, who was 22 and had a history of mental illness, told authorities he decided to kill blacks, Latinos and Jews after reading about “the demise of the white race” on white supremacist websites.
He said he was “fighting for a dying race.”
By the time he was captured after a high-speed chase and shoot-out with police, Luke had killed two people – Selma Concalves, 20, and Arlindo Depina Concalves, 79 – and raped, shot and badly wounded a third, after breaking into her home. The victims were immigrants from the West African archipelago of Cape Verde.
Now 26, Luke will spend the rest of his life paying for his personal race war. On Thursday, according to The Boston Globe, a Plymouth County Superior Court judge ordered Luke to serve two consecutive life sentences without parole after a jury convicted him Thursday afternoon of a long list of offenses in the case that continues to haunt the surviving victim.
“My life has been nothing but a nightmare since Jan. 21, 2009,” the Globe quoted the woman as telling the court Thursday as she gave a victim impact statement. “I’m no longer able to answer a knock on my door from family or friends without fear or memory of this tragic day.”
As she spoke, according to the Globe, Luke, dressed in a white T-shirt and green pants, sat stoically next to his lawyer, who had unsuccessfully tried to convince the jury that his client was insane at the time of his murderous spree. During a hearing in May 2009, Luke walked into the courtroom with a jagged swastika freshly carved into his forehead.
At his sentencing, Luke’s head was shaven and he had lost a considerable amount of weight since his arrest and confinement in a special security unit of a local jail.
The Anti-Defamation League of New England applauded the verdict and sentence, saying in a written statement “our community is safer tonight.”
“Like all perpetrators of hate crimes, Luke was trying to send a message to his victims – and everyone else who shares the victim’s characteristics – that they are not welcome or safe,” the New England league’s interim director, Robert Trestan, said in the statement. “Now that he has been brought to justice, we hope a louder, stronger message resonates: that all people are welcome and safe in Brockton and across Massachusetts.”
on May 31st, 2013 at 2:02 pm
with this loser being a murderer, racist, and rapist all i can do is say that this is one guy who belongs behind bars.
Enjoy your very well deserved – and very likely to be long and misarable – stay in prison.
on May 31st, 2013 at 2:16 pm
It is truly heartbreaking that the hatemongers who victimize deranged and feeble minded individuals like Luke get off scot-free.
on May 31st, 2013 at 2:24 pm
Um, why is it relevant that he is “obese”? Is using societal prejudice against and contempt for fat people in order to shame this guy really helpful?
on May 31st, 2013 at 4:46 pm
I shall be drinking a Champagne toast to his incarceration this evening.
Anyone care to join me?
on June 1st, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Good riddance, first of all this is just one individual and there are thousands of people out there, just like him, who subscribe to a radical right wing view of the world. As soon as the justice department and the F.B.I actually start profiling people like him, then it will just be a small step in our long and dangerous road, towards racial healing.
on June 1st, 2013 at 8:11 pm
That this idiot and the Boston Bombers lived in that useless state shows that all people are indeed welcome there.
on June 2nd, 2013 at 12:44 pm
Sam,
Do tell us, how does the fine state of Kentucky keep out undesirables? Is there an application process that weeds them out?
Glass houses, Sam. Keep that in mind.
on June 2nd, 2013 at 12:58 pm
He’s not someone I’d like to see walking around ever again, but don’t let anyone try and tell you he isn’t stark raving crazy. He is stark raving crazy.
on June 2nd, 2013 at 5:48 pm
There are a lot of these idiots running around and using technology to stalk their victims.
They believe themselves to be clever but they are nothing more than a bunch of losers who simply don’t have lives.
Anyone who spends that type of time and energy towards disrupting the lives or attempting to harm others based on race or religion I believe do have some sort of mental instability or at the very least they are extraordinarily stupid.
Good thing he has two life sentences.
on June 2nd, 2013 at 9:30 pm
And Sam, one last thing: my ‘useless state (sic)’ was the first to let your kind marry.
And last I checked, same sex marriage was still illegal in Kansas.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 2:55 am
I don’t know Ed, maybe because more and more of these people joining this sort of movement just happen to be obese.
It could be that there is just an obesity problem over all of America or maybe there is some sort of connection in the family branch that these racists are falling off of.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 2:59 am
Aron, I don’t drink but I will gladly toast with you, with a sparkling cider!
Now if we could only interrupt and get rid of the operation of racists in my home town the world would be a far better place for everyone.
One thing I am thoroughly convinced of is that the people who subscribe to this stuff are mentally challenged in a very big way.
This is one case where I believe that stupidity can be taught and handed down from one generation to the other.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 3:04 am
Did Mitch Beales just try and defend Luke?
Interesting, defending the monster who causes fear and disharmony in any community he resides or visits.
Perhaps I could understand the defense if you were the criminal attorney defending this trash it would be your duty, but otherwise they appear to be misplaced sentiments.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 10:04 am
Kentucky has it’s faults, but allowing terrorists to blow things up is not one of them. Oh, and Mitt Romney signed off of Massachusetts’s gay marriage law when he was governor. You know, back when there were jobs there.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 10:29 am
Concerned citizen I see you are at least as brave as Luke, attacking someone who is defenseless and certainly undefended by me. The fact is that it is the cowards on white supremacist websites who spread fear and disharmony. Sadly disturbed people like Luke accept as fact and act on the warped fantasies and paranoid delusions they read about on the web and people like you insist that they (or the nazis, or the Muslims, or the New Black Panther Party) are “monsters” in order to deny that human beings, not monsters, do terrible things. Since you are not a monster it is of course acceptable for you to lash out at whoever you choose in whatever way you like.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 10:47 am
The taxpayers of Taxachusetts are stuck with taking care of this bum. Oh well. It’s their fault for living in a anti death penalty liberal state. The laughs on you people in Massachusetts.
Enjoy your liberalism and high taxes.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 2:26 pm
Concerned, Mitch was not trying to let this guy off. He was saying that the stochastic terrorists who incite these freaks to act…not face to face, but, knowing they are out there, through disseminating rhetoric designed to set them off
.. should be held responsible when someone acts on their foreseeable incitement. The only case I know where that was criminally so was Beauharnais v. Illinois. Civilly, it has happened where the target was a named individual, but under U. S. law, group libel is problematic.
on June 3rd, 2013 at 5:45 pm
It would be great if others who think like Keith Luke would learn something from what has happened to him, but I don’t think they will. Although they think/feel the same way about some people as Luke does, they seem to have a unique ability to distance themselves from people like him, after the individuals are convicted for committing heinous crimes.
on June 4th, 2013 at 6:07 am
Sam, before you attack other states just remember that the only good thing to come out of Kentucky is I-64 (okay there is also I-75) :P
on June 4th, 2013 at 8:01 am
Sam, you really have no idea what you’re talking about. When Mittens was governor, we were 47th in the nation for ‘job creation.’
Yes, unemployment is stuck at 6.4%, but last I checked, Kentucky has 7.9% rate.
So keep digging that hole. We’ll just keep throwing the dirt in after you.
on June 4th, 2013 at 8:05 am
Oh and Georgia, I do enjoy my liberalism and high taxes: they pay for some of the best schools in the country and a responsive government that actually gives a damn about its citizens.
You enjoy your 8.2% unemployment and generally poor schools.
on June 4th, 2013 at 8:54 am
Well, Georgia Citizen, you might look deeper into it before you crow about taxes. The per capita crime rate of Georgia and Massachussetts is very similar — ranking 19th and 20th in the country.
However, Georgia has the 10th largest incarcerated population in the country, whereas Massachussetts ranks 49th — second to lowest in the country. So obviously the money spent in Georgia is being wasted by people who are as limited in their understanding as you are.
Georgia spends over a billion dollars on prisons that don’t do diddly squat to stop crime. In fact, you have to pay $60,000 per year to keep all those folks in jail, and meanwhile crime skyrockets. You operate the fifth largest prison system in America and spend $1 out of every $17 to keep it going, frittering away the hard earned tax dollars of every person in the state.
Good job, Georgia. Way to Go!
But is this surprising to anyone? It shouldn’t be. That’s because Georgia ranks close to dead last in terms of educational rankings. Meanwhile Massachussets (run by ranks second in education. Why? Because liberal states are smarter and spend money wisely.
on June 4th, 2013 at 9:08 am
It’s very simple. If you believe in sending your kids to college, live in Massachussetts. If you believe in sending your kids to prison, live in Georgia.
on June 4th, 2013 at 9:56 am
I’d add that when someone gets the death penalty, there are mandatory appeals that last for years, during which time the condemned must be kept in good health, lest he “cheat the sovereign” by dying or be found unfit for execution, and then the not inconsiderable expenses connected with the execution itself. While I agree that there are those better in the earth than on it, they are seldom the ones on death row. It is cheaper to keep them for life, and a whole lot easier.to undo mistakes.
on June 4th, 2013 at 10:11 am
Sam writes: Kentucky has it’s faults, but allowing terrorists to blow things up is not one of them.
Are you suggesting that the state of Massachusets allowed, permitted or otherwise encouraged the Tsarnaev brothers? Really?
Sam, there are days when your willful ignorance has a certain nostalgic charm to it. Today is not one of those days.
on June 4th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Say what you will, Kentucky has a Libertarian side that Commiechusetts can only propagandize about. Rand Paul, our nation’s next V. P., is currently trying to get the Republicans to unhitch their wagon from the dead horse of the Religious Right.
on June 4th, 2013 at 11:10 am
Massachusetts DOESN’T WANT Libertarianism.
And if you think Senator Crazypants is the next VP, you’ve got another thing coming.
And once again please remind me: who has a lower unemployment rate and freedom to marry? Is it my commonwealth? Or yours?
on June 4th, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Say what you will, Kentucky is a welfare state.
According to the Tax Foundation, a conservative think tank that advocates on tax policy, Kentucky recieves $1.51 in Federal spending for every $1 in tax revenue. (http://taxfoundation.org/sites.....071009.xls ). This is from their most recent data (FY2005), dated but the trend remains similar.
Sam, what this means is that your state is being subsidized by those commie states who see less than a one to one return on their taxes.
As for political predictions, your track record includes assuances that Mitt would win by a landslide. Your Rand Paul prediction is equally ludicrous.
on June 4th, 2013 at 12:23 pm
Gregory, do you not see the inconsistency of Liberal “thought” that condemns all prayer in schools, before stock car races, etc. etc. but considers the homophobia, anti women’s rights, and teaching of antigovernment doctrines that is taught in some Mosques as some sort of protected “diversity”?
on June 4th, 2013 at 1:49 pm
Sam is proving how grown up he is by cheeking his elders again.
on June 4th, 2013 at 1:59 pm
*sigh* apparently Sam doesn’t realize that the Christian Right is the Republican base.
As for everything else he said, the best response is probably laughing like a cartoon devil from a Jack T. Chick religious tract:
“HAW HAW HAW!”
on June 4th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
aadila, i think that my father might still have his “STATE EMPLOYEE WILL WORK FOR FOOD” sign from when he was at Georgia Tech.
on June 4th, 2013 at 2:15 pm
Even Cuba doesn’t use the death penalty anymore.
on June 4th, 2013 at 2:58 pm
Sam,
Your comment @ 12:23 PM makes no sense whatsoever. Nice use of scare quotes around those scary words.
on June 4th, 2013 at 4:44 pm
“Gregory, do you not see the inconsistency of Liberal “thought” that condemns all prayer in schools,”
Liberals don’t condemn all prayer in schools, and never have. The problem is with forcing kids to pray, e.g. having teacher led prayers, for example.
” before stock car races, etc. etc.”
Liberals don’t give a damn about stock car races. Besides, NASCAR isn’t a public institution and nobody is required to attend(fortunately).
” but considers the homophobia, anti women’s rights, and teaching of antigovernment doctrines that is taught in some Mosques as some sort of protected “diversity”?
Since when did liberals not criticize Islam? Standing up for the right of Muslims to practice their religion is not an endorsement of the negative aspects of that religion.
on June 5th, 2013 at 8:33 am
In this country, homophobia, opposition to women’s rights, and antigovernment agitation are all promoted by a sinister organization… the Tea Party
on June 5th, 2013 at 12:10 pm
Every rational American stands up for the rights of Muslims to practice their religion. Even the next Presidest, Gov. Chris Christie, appointed a Muslim as a judge and effectively silenced critics of that with “I’m tired of hearing that cr*p, he’s the best man for the job”. But there is a huge Liberal blind spot in the name of Diversity toward the Muslim clerics in some American mosques that are teaching the killing of Gays and the overthrow of the American government. In light of the evidence plainly in front of their face, Commiechusetts should have been on top of this guy and the Boston bombers as well. And the Republican party was wrong to buddy up to the Religious Right in the early ’80′s. That was a brainstorm of the Heritage Foundation and some others as a quick way to grab the less educated voters. Hopefully they are returning to their roots as the party of limited Government and strict Constitutional libertarian thought.
on June 5th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
If I want to find a religious institution that promotes homophobia, misogyny and antigovernment doctrine (anti-secular government, that is) then I don’t really need to find a mosque. Christian churches are more numerous and closer. Those expressions, as personally repellent as they may be, are protected in both the mosque and the church by the First Amendment.
I realize that this nuance is going to be lost on you, Sam, but no one here is advocating that the government restrict or dictate what religious dogma is taught in your house of worship. Actions based on that dogma or belief is another matter, however. For instance, you cannot marry a nine year old girl because your preacher told you that is was cool with god. Likewise, fatwas are equally uncool.
I don’t understand why RWNJs think that the same group who object to the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance will suddenly find Sharia law acceptable. It is indicative of a binary mode of thought, the Yer-Fer-Us-Or-Agin-Us mentality, that cannot accommodate complexity.
I’ve tried to keep this as snark-free as possible, so that the Mod Squad need not interfere, but for someone who purports to be a Constitutional enthusiast, you seem to be oddly unacquainted with the document.
on June 5th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Commiechusetts? Come on, Sam, really. I’ll publish it, but that seems a little, well, silly. Please, no more.
on June 5th, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Thanks, Mark. I was about to make a remark similar to your own, but you did it with a whole lot more class!
And Sam, how would you want Marxachusetts (much better than Commiechusetts, by the way) to ‘stay on top of’ Luke and the Tsarnaevs?
Ban all Muslims and those with mental defects? Wasn’t too long ago that people like you were considered mental defectives… You just remember that.
And for the record, I intensely dislike much of the rhetoric coming out of some of the more fundamentalist Mosques.
But then I see this: http://forward.com/articles/17.....z2V7RsMlyZ
And I realize their speech is Constitutionally protected. I applauded Gov. Christie (who will most definitely not win in 2016) for his remarks regarding the judge whose name escapes me. But he is in the extreme minority within the GOP.
And quit insulting my home commonwealth. Yours is in a much worse state of affairs than my own.
on June 6th, 2013 at 1:24 am
Ok, Mark, and thanks, Gregory. I know doctrine is protected but both Christian and Muslim churches have been guilty of actually encouraging violence. Couldn’t same laws that allow the SPLC to get the Klan prosecuted could be used to shut down these non-churches?
on June 6th, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Sam,
I am aware there is a great deal of online and talk radio noise about supposed radical Muslim clerics in America who are preaching hate. Yet, all of the Muslims I know seem to be very peaceable, good citizens who would not touch such an imam with a ten foot pole. I live in a community with a lot of Muslims, and oddly, no one seems to fit the description you provide.
Do you have some examples that go beyond extremist or sensationalist hype that are actually quantifiable, documented, and available for public scrutiny in a non-biased way? I am sure if you did provide such a thing it would be carefully reviewed and considered. But not if you just point at some phantom Muslim menace and say Boo! and expect us to go along.
I personally would not go so far as to rule out the possibility that there are such imams in America, but I do feel reasonably certain that practically every single Muslim faith or civic organization is under some degree of surveillance by Homeland Security at the moment. I am aware some radical Christian organizations are at least on the law enforcement radar (e.g. Westboro Baptist) but I tend to think by and large these hateful or even dangerous congregations do not fall under the same degree of public scrutiny.
So that is one point there, on whether or not there actually are any potentially dangerous Muslim groups currently off the radar, and how many. The other is why there is a need to emphasize the potentially dangerous groups and individuals who are “hiding in plain sight” so to speak, under the veil of harmless Christian faith or mainstream right wing groups like the Nazi party official recently exposed as a Tea Party bossman in Ft. Bend, Texas.
There may appear to be some inconsistencies at the surface as to why attention is being paid here to Christian identity hate groups rather than Muslim groups, but if you look at the demographics and other factors involved, it becomes clear why that is.
A third and final point is I think the left wing is so tired of the American right crying wolf about Muslims that we are not as likely to go along with it anymore. There are plenty of reasons why alarmist anti-Muslim sentiment does more harm to America than the attacks which have prompted such sentiment in the first place.
on June 6th, 2013 at 6:31 pm
THE COWARD CHOSE HIS VICTIM VERY CAREFULLY, HE CHOSE WOMEN.
on June 8th, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Coward he is as well as those of his ilk. Perhaps some of the inmates can help with sensitivity lessons :-)
Well, he now has time to reflect, but the IQ level of this type makes knowledge a scarce commodity.
on June 8th, 2013 at 5:17 pm
I think this poor guy was framed by the cops and the media.
on June 9th, 2013 at 7:38 pm
I hope the prison ROTS around him, he is a complete idiot. There is one less idiot in this world to deal with. The criminal justice system does work sometimes.
on June 9th, 2013 at 9:03 pm
I’m tired of the Muslim-bashing, too, because I have studied enough history to recognize in it the exact same canards and lies that were spouted about Catholics (particularly Irish and Italians) in the 19th century, and about Jews for many more centuries.
Anybody here still believe that Jews commit ritual sacrifices of gentile virgins at Passover? Not here, of course…but go check Stormfront and VNN.
Oh, and Sam…”Commiechusetts?” “Marxachusetts?” I seem to recall the major events of the American War of Independence that the far right wing wish to repeat all took place in Massachusetts…the Boston Massacre (the one that did not involve baseball), the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s Ride, the contretemps at Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill.
And you should visit the battleship USS Massachusetts, parked at Fall River, which compiled a fine war record in World War II…one of its messdecks is the memorial to all Massachusetts citizens who served in that conflict, listed by name. Go tell them they’re a bunch of Marxists and Communists. Go ahead. Tell them. Then duck.
Then you can head for Boston, and go to some of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, where virtually whole graduating classes join the military. Please tell them they’re Marxists and Communists. Go ahead. Walk right up to them, and tell them that. After that, don’t duck. Run.
Patriotism is not defined by solely by voting, although doing so is certainly an act that supports the American Constitution, and is therefore, patriotic.
on June 13th, 2013 at 10:01 am
This is Scott, New Media Manager here at SPLC. I apologize for the stoppage in approving comments over the last few days. We’re back on track and will be moderating more frequently.!
on June 13th, 2013 at 10:03 am
Steve, you’re an idiot.
Go and file your false liens somewhere else.
on July 14th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
Sounds good to me .. another one out of the way and in Jail