O Tempora, O Mores! (January, 2010)

Blacks Attack Whites

In November, police in Denver, Colorado arrested 32 gang members they say were responsible for a series of racially motivated assaults and robberies that had gone on for months. The perps are black; their victims are white and sometimes Hispanic. Gang experts say the Denver spree is part of a growing national trend in which gangs of blacks videotape themselves attacking whites in trendy tourist districts (which are supposed to be safe) and then sell the videos on the underground market. “They knock a young white guy out with one blow to see if his knees will wobble and surround them and take their money,” says Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs a Denver gang-prevention program. Rev. Kelly says gang members “crave the notoriety” of having their “one-punch knockouts” recorded and sold on the black market: “They’ll rewind the tapes and watch them over and over.”

Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman says four or five blacks usually approach a victim late at night or early in the morning and taunt him with racial slurs. One of them then sucker punches the victim, hoping for a knock out. The gang then steals his wallet and cell phone. Many victims suffered broken noses and shattered eye sockets.

On the same day that the Denver police announced their arrests, St. Paul police arrested two blacks for a series of attacks on random whites, which they videoed and posted on YouTube. The attacks were in broad daylight in residential neighborhoods. The blacks did not cover their faces, and appear to have identified themselves by name. All appear to be young Somalis. The video, which is set to music, can be seen on the American Renaissance website. It shows eight blacks assaulting white bicyclists and pedestrians, including children and older people. Each says, “Watch this,” before striking the unsuspecting victim and running away, laughing. Similar attacks have occurred in West Palm Beach, Florida. [Kirk Mitchell, Denver Arrests May be Part of Trend of Gangs Videotaping Attacks, Denver Post, Nov. 22, 2009. Abby Simons, 2 on YouTube Assault Video Arrested, Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), Nov. 19, 2009.]

Divided Loyalties

Jose Hernandez, the U.S.-born son of illegal Mexican immigrants, has gone where no Mexican has gone before — into orbit, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Mr. Hernandez served as a mission specialist on board the space shuttle Discovery during its two-week flight last June. He spent much of his time aboard Discovery being interviewed by television crews from Mexico (where he became a media star) and posting messages on social media websites in Spanish (his native tongue) under the nickname, “Astro Jose.”

NASA officials were caught off guard when, during an interview after Discovery landed, he told a Mexican TV crew that he thought the U.S. should legalize illegals because they are important to the American economy. NASA officials said Mr. Hernandez was speaking only for himself.

Mr. Hernandez was surprised by the fuss. “It all became a big scandal,” he says. “Even the lawyers were speaking to me.” But he has not backed down. In September, he told the host of the Televisa network’s popular morning show, about looking down from orbit with joy on a world “without borders” and explained how “impractical” it would be to deport millions of illegals. [Tracy Wilkinson, Mexican American Astronaut Isn’t Changing Course on Immigration Stand, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 17, 2009.]

Mr. Hernandez has since traveled to Mexico City where he hoped to persuade lawmakers there to create a Mexican space program. He says he doesn’t plan to leave NASA, but would like to help the Mexican program “get off the ground.” [Astronaut Says Mexico Needs Its Own Space Program, AP, Nov. 24, 2009.]

False Alarm

When police discovered the body of 51-year-old Census worker William Sparkman Jr. in rural Kentucky in September, the media speculated breathlessly that he was the victim of something that pretty much exists only in the minds of lefty reporters and SPLC donors: the “anti-government Right.” Speculation intensified after reports that Sparkman’s nude body had been found bound and gagged with duct tape, with a noose around his neck, and the word “fed” scrawled on his chest.

Sparkman’s death came at the end of a summer in which mostly white “Tea Party” activists protested President Obama’s medical insurance plans and his runaway spending. The media had spent several weeks pushing the idea that much of the Tea Party anger was really hatred of a black man in the White House, and the Left had the Sparkman killing pegged as yet more hate. The Village Voice warned about “rage against Washington . . . especially in the rural South” and that Sparkman’s death had “all the makings of some anti-government goober taking his half-wit beliefs way too far.” Cable television kept reminding viewers of the August incident in which more than a dozen legally armed protestors showed up at an anti-Obama rally in Phoenix, and hinted at some sinister connection between them and Sparkman’s death.

It was all fantasy. Initial reports that Sparkman had been found hanging in a tree were wrong; police say he was on the ground with the rope tied to a tree. In late November, the Kentucky State Police announced that Bill Sparkman committed suicide. Acquaintances said he talked about suicide, and that he had recently taken out hefty life insurance policies that did not pay benefits on suicides. That was why he wanted to make his death look like a murder. DNA evidence also confirmed that Sparkman took his own life. [Richard Fausset, Census Worker’s Death was Suicide, Not Anti-Government Violence, Police Say, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 25, 2009.]

Vindication

In 2006, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled that Frank Ricci and the other white and Hispanic firefighters denied promotion by the city of New Haven had not been victims of discrimination, and threw out their lawsuit. An appeals court later upheld Judge Arterton’s ruling, but both were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2009 Ricci v. DeStefano decision (see “Supreme Court Throws Whites a Bone,” AR, Aug. 2009). The Court sent the case back to Judge Arterton, who, on Nov. 24, issued the ruling she should have made in the first place: that the civil rights of white New Haven firefighters were violated when city officials threw out the results of the 2003 promotion exam only because no blacks passed. She ordered immediate promotions. [Judge: White U.S. Firefighters Must be Promoted, AP, Nov. 25, 2009.]

Immigrant Contract

There are 15 million immigrants among Germany’s 82 million residents, and many have lived in Germany for decades without learning the language or trying to assimilate. The German government now wants to draw up assimilation contracts with them. Immigration commissioner Maria Boehmer says long-term residents will have to learn German and show “a readiness to take part in society.” What does that mean? Dr. Boehmer says it includes a commitment to such things as “freedom of speech and sexual equality.” There appear to be no enforcement provisions in the contract. A Turkish immigrant living in Germany agreed that “it’s not a bad idea for immigrants to gain knowledge of the German language, but German people also have to accept that their country has turned into a multi-racial society.” [Germany to Draw Up ‘Values Contract’ for New Immigrants, BBC News, Nov. 23, 2009.]

Post-racial BNP

Last summer the UK’s Human Rights Commission gave the British National Party (BNP) an ultimatum: admit non-whites or face prosecution for violating racial equality laws. Fearing that a legal fight would bankrupt the party, chairman and recently elected Member of the European Parliament Nick Griffin (who will address the American Renaissance Conference in February) decided to adapt and survive. Assuming the membership approves the change in an upcoming vote, the BNP will now accept non-white members. It even has its first applicant, Rajinder Singh, a 78-year-old Sikh immigrant who once served as a character reference for Mr. Griffin during a race-hatred trial.

Mr. Singh, a retired teacher, is a relentless critic of Islam, who blames Muslims for the death of his father during the 1947 partition of India, in which 2 million people died. “Anyone escaping that genocide would pray to God, say never again, and vote for the BNP,” he says. Mr. Singh has been associated with the BNP for years, has written for the party’s newspaper, Freedom, and appeared on its Internet television channel, BNPTV. He says he would be honored to become a card-carrying member. A BNP spokesman says of Mr. Singh, “He is perhaps the kind of immigrant you want if you are going to have them.” Mr. Singh is likely to be followed by another Sikh, an accountant who goes by the name of Ammo Singh and has helped the BNP hand out leaflets critical of Islam.

Sikh groups say they are “appalled.” Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organizations, says, “Sikhism stresses equality for all human beings. Therefore, Sikhs who are true to their faith will have nothing whatsoever to do with any party that favors any one section of the community.” [Ben Quinn and Jerome Taylor, BNP Signs Its First Non-White Member, Independent (London), Nov. 20, 2009.]

Not What They Fought For

Nicholas Pringle is a British author who, after hearing tales of his grandmother’s life during the Second World War, decided to write a book about the experiences of her generation. He placed ads in newspapers asking older people to send him their stories. Nearly 150 replied, and most had very negative responses to two of Mr. Pringle’s questions: “Are you happy with how your country has turned out?” and “What do you think your fallen comrades would have made of life in 21st-century Britain?” The overwhelming sentiment expressed by surviving veterans and civilians is betrayal: “This isn’t the Britain we fought for,” wrote one. “My patriotism has gone out of the window,” wrote another. “I sing no song for the once-proud country that spawned me,” wrote a sailor who fought the Japanese, “and I wonder why I ever tried.” A commando who participated in the raid on Dieppe told Mr. Pringle, “Those comrades of mine who never made it back would be appalled if they could see the world as it is today.”

Immigration and transformation of Britain into a multi-racial society top their list of complaints: “People come here, get everything they ask, for free, laughing at our expense. We old people struggle on pensions, not knowing how to make ends meet. If I had my time again, would we fight as before? Need you ask?” Says another, “Our country has been given away to foreigners while we, the generation who fought for freedom, are having to sell our homes for care and are being refused medical services because incomers come first.” “Our British culture is draining away at an ever increasing pace,” wrote a former infantry soldier, “and we are almost forbidden to make any comment.” A veteran of the North African and Mediterranean campaigns wrote, “This is not the country I fought for. Political correctness, lack of discipline, compensation madness, uncontrolled immigration — the ‘do-gooders’ have a lot to answer for. If you see youngsters doing something they shouldn’t and you say anything, you just get a mouthful of foul language.”

Older Britons have near-universal contempt for politicians of all parties, with one exception: Enoch Powell who, in his so-called “Rivers of Blood” speech in 1968, warned that mass immigration would cause the ills they are now enduring. Mr. Pringle’s book, The Unknown Warriors, can be purchased at theunknownwarriors.co.uk. [Tony Rennell, ‘This Isn’t the Britain We Fought For,’ Say the ‘Unknown Warriors’ of WWII, Daily Mail (London), Nov. 21, 2009.]

They Learn Quickly

The Florida legislature recently approved a 200 to 400 percent increase in fees on hotels that are listed on state-owned signs near Interstate highway exit ramps. Indian hotel owners, who have learned how things work in America, have complained directly to the governor that the new fees are unfair. As Nash Patel, spokesman of an Indian hotel owners’ association explains, “The vast majority of hotels in the state of Florida are owned by our association, so we feel that it is a direct impact on us.” [Hoteliers Upset Over Fees, WCTV-TV (Tallahassee), Nov. 24, 2009.]