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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Three Charged In Racist Attack |
Current rating: 0 |
by Oread Daily
(No verified email address) |
19 Mar 2002
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In Joliet |
THREE CHARGED IN RACIST ATTACK
Three men alleged to be white supremacists have been charged with arson and a hate crime in connection with the torching of a garage and two vehicles belonging to a predominantly Black church in Joliet, Illinois. The Greater Way Apostolic Temple was the scene of the arson attack which took place in January. The garage was also painted with a swastika and a threatening racial epithet. In the first week of March, arsonists struck again, burning the church's bus and van, which were parked across Brown Avenue in the church's parking lot, and painting racist graffiti. Charged with arson and criminal damage to property with a hate crime were Mark Austin, 20 and two juvenile boys 16, and 17. Police first went to Austin’s home only a few blocks from the Church on an unrelated matter last week and found Nazi and white supremacist graffiti and posters on the walls. While in custody, one member stated they belong to a white supremacist group. "I don't even know who they are, but we suspected they were white supremacists. We knew there were people like that in the area," commented church pastor Bishop Samuel Allen Sr. The swastika shaved into the side of one of the men’s head was a dead give away I’d say.
Police are still investigating the white supremacist group, trying to gauge its size and probing for any past crimes its members may have committed. "We don't know right now if it's a large organization," the Joliet deputy chief said, adding that he doubted the group included many more than the three already in custody. "Right now we're identifying all members and we're closely monitoring their activities," he added.
Fittingly Austin lives at 241 Kraker Ave.
Sources: Joliet Herald News, Black Voices, Chicago Tribune
The Oread Daily provides daily (Monday-Friday) progressive, left, anti-racist, anarchist, commie, activist, environmental, Marxist, revolutionary, etc. news and information from around the US and around the world. The Oread Daily was a mimeographed sheet that came out first in the summer of 1970 in Lawrence, Kansas. It was irreverent, radical, spicy, revolutionary et. al. Now, three decades later it returns. To view the entire Oread Daily, please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OreadDaily |
