Klan Ruling Could Bankrupt Group

With all of the news about the economy and the election, this is a story you may have missed. The Southern Poverty Law Center, in defending a Kentucky teenager who was severely beaten by members of the KKK, has won a huge financial victory of $2.5 million against the racist domestic terrorist gang. This is perhaps enough to bankrupt this particular Klan group (but there are many more). We can only hope. Why the government doesn't prosecute these thugs under RICO laws is beyond me. Perhaps with a new Obama administration, this will get more aggressive. This is not about free speech. The Klan is about promoting violence, crime, and terrorism.
The jury found that the Imperial Klans of America and its founder wrongfully targeted 16-year-old Jordan Gruver, an American citizen of Panamanian and Native-American descent.

The verdict included $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages against "Imperial Wizard" Ron Edwards. The law center said before the verdict that a large damage award could break the Klan group, allowing the teen and the law center to seize the group's assets, including its headquarters, a 15-acre compound in Dawson Springs, Kentucky.
...
Also revealed during testimony: An alleged Klan plot to kill the Southern Poverty Law Center's attorney, Morris Dees. Former Klansman Kale Kelly, once a member of Edwards' inner circle, testified he was told to kill Dees because of the center's lawsuit in Idaho against the Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi supremacist organization. The plot was thwarted by the FBI in 1999, according to testimony.

Kelly, who since has left the group, cried on the witness stand during his testimony. Other former Klansmen also testified that they were encouraged to use violence. One said he was conditioned to kill.
...
The Anti-Defamation League estimates there are more than 40 different Klan groups, with as many as 5,000 members in more than 100 chapters, or "klaverns," across the country. [CNN]

Comments

  1. kkrynoNovember 15, 2008 at 3:51 PM

    It would be great if this could finally bring these monsters down, but I agree; it's the tip of the ice-burg.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Campbell's Soup Takes Stand Against Hate

Image
I don't eat many prepared soups. I usually make homemade. However, sometimes I used canned broth as a basis for my homemade soups and stews, so I will now look more favorably at the Campbell and Swanson brands. I really do try to shop my beliefs. I do my best to avoid products made in China, but we all know that is mostly impossible these days. I don't knowingly buy products and services from companies that advertise on right-wingnut radio shows, such as Neal Boortz. I try to buy products from companies that are in line with my belief system. That includes support of equal rights for LGBTQ people. I'm adding Campbell's and Swanson brands to those I buy. Campbell's is rebuffing the American Family Association (AFA) - the vehemently anti-gay organization that has likened homosexuality to pedophilia and incest and thinks LGBT people are destructive - over advertisements that the soup giant has taken out in the LGBT magazine The Advocate. The advertisements are for Sw
Read more

Little Town Beseeches Obama’s Health Chief

Image
This is from one of many town meetings across America about health care. It is the first one that former Senator, Tom Daschle , has attended. We have to keep the pressure on for a universal single-payer system. Nothing else makes practical sense. Mr. Daschle was joined at the meeting, which was held at the town’s firehouse, by several dozen other people. Among them were doctors and administrators from Reid Hospital in nearby Richmond, who told of patients who were flooding the emergency room there because they did not have primary care doctors or insurance coverage. “Our population hasn’t grown, yet our emergency department census has more than doubled,” Dr. Michael Baldwin, the department’s director, said of changes over the last 24 years. “Everyone used to have his own doctor. Now little more than half do.” Dr. Joseph Fouts, one of the area’s few general practitioners, said he dealt nearly every day with patients who had found jobs carrying health benefits but who were denied coverag
Read more