Swastikas, hate speech found scrawled on Taunton, Massachusetts, synagogue, home

Police are investigating a hate crime in Taunton, Massachusetts, after a synagogue and a home were spray-painted with swastikas and other hateful messages. A swastika was painted near the entrance to Congregation Agudath Achim, and more swastikas and antisemitic, racist and homophobic slurs were found on the rear of the building. “This person was an…

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Michigan House OKs new hate crime, institutional desecration penalties

The Michigan House on Tuesday passed a package of bills to reclassify certain offenses as hate crimes and designate the defacement of synagogues, churches or cemeteries as a crime separate from ordinary destruction of property. The Michigan Hate Crime Act, which passed 59-50 in the Democratic-controlled House, would replace Michigan’s 1988 ethnic intimidation law so…

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Suspect arrested after FBI uncovers alleged mass shooting plot

A Michigan suspect who authorities say expressed explicit neo-Nazi and antisemitic ideologies online was arrested Friday by the FBI who alleged he stockpiled weapons and was planning a mass shooting. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan charged Seann Pietila, 19, of Pickford, Michigan with transmitting a communication containing a threat…

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Gunman found guilty on all charges Pittsburgh synagogue massacre

Jurors found the man accused of shooting and killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue guilty on all federal charges Friday. Robert Bowers now faces the possibility of the death penalty in the Oct. 27, 2018, shooting in Squirrel Hill. Jurors signaled the court about 11:20 a.m. that they’d reached a verdict. The jury received…

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Closing arguments begin Thursday in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial

Closing arguments are set to start Thursday in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial. The jury could begin deliberating later this afternoon. The final witnesses for this guilt phase of the trial gave powerful testimony. They were two survivors of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting — a police officer and a congregation member. Andrea Wedner was shot…

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Sheriff releases racist threats in case of Florida woman shot through door

A Florida woman charged with shooting and killing her Black neighbor told detectives that she called the victim’s children by racist slurs in the months leading up to the slaying, according to an arrest report released Thursday. Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, admitted to detectives that she called the children “the n-word.” One child told deputies…

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