Three white men convicted of hate crimes in attack at Houston bus stop
By James Pinkerton
Updated 12:34 p.m., Monday, April 16, 2012
Three white men were convicted Monday of a racially motivated attack on a black man at a downtown Houston bus stop last summer, the first conviction in the Houston area under a tough federal hate crime law.
The FBI confirmed a federal jury convicted Charles Cannon, 26, Michael McLaughlin, 40, and Brian Kerstetter, 32. Charges were dismissed against a fourth defendant, Joseph Staggs, 49, who testified against the other three.
Yondell Johnson, an African-American man who was waiting for a bus at the corner of Travis and McKinney, was approached by four men who asked him what time it was. At least one of the men used a racial epitaph, and three of the suspects had white supremacist tattoos.
The four men surrounded Johnson and punched and kicked him, despite his efforts to fight them off.
The U.S. Department of Justice official assigned to the case in Washington D.C. was unavailable for comment.
The men were convicted under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was passed in October 2009. The law gives the FBI authority to investigate violent crime, including violence directed at the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, as well as crimes committed because of gender, race, color, religion or national origin.
When the men were charged in January, it marked only the third time that someone faced charges under the new law.
Johnson told the Houston Chronicle that four loud, shirtless white men came up to a bus stop shortly before midnight Aug. 13. He was waiting to catch the bus after spending the day visiting his 12-year-old daughter.
Johnson recalled one man asked him, "Hey bro, you got the time?"
Johnson said he did not, and then heard a second man berate the first.
"Why are you calling a (N-word) a bro?" Johnson recalled.
Sensing he was going to be attacked, Johnson stood up and backed against a pole. Johnson, an amateur boxer who was 29 when the attack occurred, held off his assailants for about 10 minutes, but one of them grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him down. As one man held him down, the other three stomped and kicked his face.
The conviction by a jury under the hate crime law carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
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http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Three-white-men-convicted-of-hate-crimes-in-3485505.php
FBI Releases 2010 Hate Crime Statistics
> Of the 6,008 known offenders, 58.6 percent were white and 18.4 percent were black. For 12.0 percent, the race was unknown, and the remaining known offenders were of other races.
FBI Releases 2010 Hate Crime Statistics
Washington, D.C. November 14, 2011 FBI National Press Office (202) 324-3691
— filed under: Press Release
Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released Hate Crime Statistics, 2010 based on information submitted by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. These data indicate that 6,628 criminal incidents involving 7,699 offenses were reported in 2010 as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability.
Hate Crime Statistics, 2010 includes the following information:
Of the 6,624 single bias incidents, 47.3 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20.0 percent were motivated by a religious bias, 19.3 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, and 12.8 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.6 percent of single-bias incidents.
There were 4,824 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons. Intimidation accounted for 46.2 percent of these crimes, simple assaults for 34.8 percent, and aggravated assaults for 18.4 percent. In addition, seven murders were reported as hate crimes.
There were 2,861 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property; most of these (81.1 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. The remaining 18.9 percent of crimes against property consisted of robbery, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses.
Of the 6,008 known offenders, 58.6 percent were white and 18.4 percent were black. For 12.0 percent, the race was unknown, and the remaining known offenders were of other races.
The largest percentage (31.4 percent) of hate crime incidents occurred in or near homes. Another 17.0 percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 10.9 percent happened at schools or colleges; 5.8 percent in parking lots or garages; and 3.7 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The location was considered other or unknown for 14.3 percent of hate crime incidents. The remaining 16.9 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified locations or multiple locations.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/tables/table-1-incidents-offenses-victims-and-known-offenders-by-bias-motivation-2010.xls
http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2010-hate-crime-statistics
Racial bias
In 2009, law enforcement agencies reported that 3,816 single-bias hate crime offenses were racially motivated. Of these offenses:
71.4 percent were motivated by anti-black bias.
17.1 percent resulted from anti-white bias.
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2009/incidents.html