Holocaust denier attacks Nobel laureate
San Francisco — Famous author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was attacked by a Holocaust denier who had evidently been shadowing Wiesel for weeks before accosting him Feb. 1 in a hotel elevator here, where Wiesel had just finished speaking at a peace conference.
According to police reports, Eric Hunt, 22, of Sussex County, N.J., dragged Wiesel from the elevator, while demanding that Wiesel admit the Holocaust a myth, and then fled when Wiesel cried for help.
Hunt later posted an account of the assault on several white supremacist and anti-Semitic websites.
Wiesel, 78, survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, and has since written more than 40 books. He is best known for his memoir, “Night,” about his experiences at Auschwitz. Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
Hunt was arrested Feb. 17 in New Jersey, and later extradited to San Francisco on charges of attempted kidnapping, battery, stalking, elder abuse and commission of a hate crime.
White supremacists
distribute fliers
Boulder — Members of the Nationalist Coalition, a white supremacist hate group, distributed "Love Your Race" fliers around Valentine's Day in Lafayette, Colo. The fliers, which were placed on windshields and thrown in driveways, depict a blonde woman below the motto "Love Your Race," along with the Nationalist Coalition’s website address and a phone number.
The Nationalist Coalition is based in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The phone number on fliers connects callers to a recorded message describing the Nationalist Coalition as "the foremost organization working for the long-term interests of white Americans."
The hate group’s website invites users to take the Nationalist Coalition's "how anti-Semitic are you quiz," which includes questions like, "Generally speaking, the Jews are physically attractive. Yes, No, or Not Sure?"
The website also offers other fliers for users to download free of charge. One declares: "Non-whites are turning America into a third world slum. They come for welfare or to take our jobs. They bring crime. Let’s send them home now!" Another flier is titled, "Anne Frank Hoax Exposed," with the subtitle, "Clever Jew made millions from dead daughter."
Sgt. Fred Palmer of the Lafayette Police Department said the fliers are protected free speech.
Lawmakers threatened
by extremists
Phoenix — Two Arizona lawmakers announced they have received death threats from anti-immigration extremists.
Rep. Bill Konopnicki, a Republican who represents Safford, Ariz., said he and his family were threatened in e-mails and an anonymous letter after he was quoted in newspapers urging his colleagues to show restraint in considering new laws that would penalize small business owners for hiring undocumented immigrants.
"I never thought that I would fear for my safety or the safety of my family when I took a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives," he said during an emotional speech on the floor of the House Feb. 20. "None of us should fear for our safety or of those we love."
Konopnicki cited a "poisonous atmosphere" surrounding the immigration debate, but vowed he would not be intimidated. "We need to vote our conscience," he said.
One month earlier, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Phoenix) said that she had received several death threats and threats of rape after she introduced a bill that would criminalize armed vigilante border patrols.
"I am not unwilling as a public figure to tackle issues that are controversial and unpopular, but I did not expect this," Sinema told The Arizona Republic.
Neo-Nazi sentenced for nerve gas plot
Jackson, Tenn. — Longtime neo-Nazi Demetrius Van Crocker was sentenced to 30 years in prison in December for plotting to detonate a sarin nerve gas and C-4 plastic explosive "suitcase bomb" in the U.S. Capitol building.
Crocker was arrested in 2004 after meeting several times with an undercover FBI agent posing as a domestic terrorist employed at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. Crocker arranged for the agent to deliver explosives and a water-filled container marked "Sarin" that Crocker believed to contain nerve gas.
A jury in federal court here convicted Crocker last April. During the trial, prosecutors played several hours of secretly recorded conversations in which, as the Memphis Flyer described in its coverage of the trial, "Crocker poured out his racial hatred, his loathing of the government, his obsession with chemical and conventional weapons, his admiration for Timothy McVeigh (who blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995), and a chilling familiarity with basic chemistry."
SPLC Report
Spring 2007
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