David_Hilliard
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Fliers decry 'hate crimes' against Whites
The Mesa branch of a White supremacist group is distributing "tens of thousands" of fliers around the Valley, protesting what it calls a failure on the part of the press to cover "anti-White hate crime."
Specifically, the fliers say that the media have failed to properly cover a Knoxville, Tenn., slaying of a young White couple. Four Black men and a Black woman have been charged in the case.
"Whenever there is a White-on-Black crime, the media makes a big deal about it. But a Black-on-White crime doesn't get the same attention," said Alan Hosier, a member of the Mesa branch of the Nationalist Coalition, which defines itself on its Web site as an advocate for the White race.
The fliers, which have circulated in the Valley from Scottsdale to Gilbert, also have circulated recently in cities across the nation. They have been accompanied by protests and have fueled debates over their accuracy and intent.
L.B. Edison, a Gilbert resident who received the flier this week, said it was offensive.
"It scares me to think that people who have these hateful feelings can be wandering in my neighborhood or are possibly my own neighbors," Edison said.
Entitled "Another Anti-White Hate Crime the Mass Media Do Not Care About," the fliers show a picture of murder victims Christopher Newsom, 23, and Channon Christian, 21, of Knoxville. It includes pictures of five "Black perpetrators of this tragic hate crime," a phone number and Web site, and incorrectly says that the couple's bodies were dismembered.
The couple were carjacked and kidnapped Jan. 6 and taken to a Knoxville apartment, where both were raped. Newsom was shot, his body burned and left by railroad tracks. Christian was strangled.
Fliers get national press
The Nationalist Coalition is among other groups that have held rallies and distributed leaflets for months to pressure more media outlets to report the couple's murder and torture.
The Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks groups affiliated with hate crimes, classifies the Nationalist Coalition as neo-Nazis.
Jamie Satterfield, a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel, said she gets 40 to 50 e-mails a day from readers accusing her of not covering the case.
"We are covering it ad nauseam," Satterfield said, adding that the murders "are a huge case here but not a huge case nationally. I don't know that it is any more horrible than murders in Detroit or LA."
Satterfield said the clamor over the case may make it difficult to pick a local jury for a trial, possibly in September.
Demonstrators, she said, are expected to picket the Sentinel today.
NAACP concerned
The Rev. Oscar Tillman, president of the Maricopa County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said several Valley residents have called him about the fliers.
"Some people worry whether those people in Mesa are trying to get the Klu Klux Klan going again," Tillman said.
Hosier of the Nationalist Coalition said the group began distributing the fliers in the Valley earlier this week and planned to finish this weekend. There are reports that they are also being handed out in Oregon, New York, Alabama and Georgia.
The handout suggests Black leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be "marching in the streets" if the victims had been African-American, but are ignoring "this horrendous crime."
Tillman disagrees, saying there have been many cases in which Black victims did not get the expansive media coverage as Whites.
By using the word "perpetrators," the fliers have condemned the suspects, four of whom are charged with murder, Tillman said.
"Charging someone with a crime and convicting them are two different things," Tillman said
Fliers decry 'hate crimes' against Whites
The Mesa branch of a White supremacist group is distributing "tens of thousands" of fliers around the Valley, protesting what it calls a failure on the part of the press to cover "anti-White hate crime."
Specifically, the fliers say that the media have failed to properly cover a Knoxville, Tenn., slaying of a young White couple. Four Black men and a Black woman have been charged in the case.
"Whenever there is a White-on-Black crime, the media makes a big deal about it. But a Black-on-White crime doesn't get the same attention," said Alan Hosier, a member of the Mesa branch of the Nationalist Coalition, which defines itself on its Web site as an advocate for the White race.
The fliers, which have circulated in the Valley from Scottsdale to Gilbert, also have circulated recently in cities across the nation. They have been accompanied by protests and have fueled debates over their accuracy and intent.
L.B. Edison, a Gilbert resident who received the flier this week, said it was offensive.
"It scares me to think that people who have these hateful feelings can be wandering in my neighborhood or are possibly my own neighbors," Edison said.
Entitled "Another Anti-White Hate Crime the Mass Media Do Not Care About," the fliers show a picture of murder victims Christopher Newsom, 23, and Channon Christian, 21, of Knoxville. It includes pictures of five "Black perpetrators of this tragic hate crime," a phone number and Web site, and incorrectly says that the couple's bodies were dismembered.
The couple were carjacked and kidnapped Jan. 6 and taken to a Knoxville apartment, where both were raped. Newsom was shot, his body burned and left by railroad tracks. Christian was strangled.
Fliers get national press
The Nationalist Coalition is among other groups that have held rallies and distributed leaflets for months to pressure more media outlets to report the couple's murder and torture.
The Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks groups affiliated with hate crimes, classifies the Nationalist Coalition as neo-Nazis.
Jamie Satterfield, a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel, said she gets 40 to 50 e-mails a day from readers accusing her of not covering the case.
"We are covering it ad nauseam," Satterfield said, adding that the murders "are a huge case here but not a huge case nationally. I don't know that it is any more horrible than murders in Detroit or LA."
Satterfield said the clamor over the case may make it difficult to pick a local jury for a trial, possibly in September.
Demonstrators, she said, are expected to picket the Sentinel today.
NAACP concerned
The Rev. Oscar Tillman, president of the Maricopa County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said several Valley residents have called him about the fliers.
"Some people worry whether those people in Mesa are trying to get the Klu Klux Klan going again," Tillman said.
Hosier of the Nationalist Coalition said the group began distributing the fliers in the Valley earlier this week and planned to finish this weekend. There are reports that they are also being handed out in Oregon, New York, Alabama and Georgia.
The handout suggests Black leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be "marching in the streets" if the victims had been African-American, but are ignoring "this horrendous crime."
Tillman disagrees, saying there have been many cases in which Black victims did not get the expansive media coverage as Whites.
By using the word "perpetrators," the fliers have condemned the suspects, four of whom are charged with murder, Tillman said.
"Charging someone with a crime and convicting them are two different things," Tillman said
