Conghaileach
8th July 2002, 01:08
Deluge of Hate Crimes After 9/11 Pours Through System
Courts: Officials have three times the cases involving Arab-looking
victims as at this time a year ago.
By RICHARD A. SERRANO
TIMES STAFF WRITER
July 6 2002
DALLAS -- Mark Anthony Stroman was an easy case. A White supremacist,
in the days after Sept. 11 he walked into a succession of convenience
stores in the Dallas area and killed a clerk from Pakistan and another
from India, and he partially blinded a third from Bangladesh.
Tried, convicted and sentenced to death, Stroman voices no remorse.
He recalls telling each of his victims, "God bless America."
As the incidence of hate crimes against suspected Middle Easterners
subsides, authorities are beginning to prosecute cases growing out of
more than 420 investigations nationwide. Although some offenders show
no regret, many others are expressing embarrassment over their hostile
acts in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. Joe Montez drew two years' probation for telephoning a
truck stop in Hewitt, Texas, on Sept. 17. After asking whether the
clerks were Iranians, he said, "There's a bomb where you're
standing.... There's a bomb in your building."
Montez knows he should have controlled his Sept. 11 anger. "I made a
mistake," he said in an interview. "I'm trying to put all that behind
me."
The threats and retaliations have come in many forms: a call left on
the voicemail of the president of the Arab American Institute in
Washington. An anthrax hoax letter that turned up at an Arab American
restaurant in Madison, Wis. Physical attacks, arson, hate messages on
the Internet.
Proving a hate crime can be especially difficult. Authorities must
show that a victim was purposely selected because of race or religion.
Nevertheless, officials have opened three times as many
investigations into hate crimes with Arab victims since Sept. 11 as in
the same period the previous year. They include 350 federal cases and
70 by state and local authorities.
Even with offenders such as Stroman locked away, many advocacy groups
still feel the bias, even people from South Asia, such as Indians and
Pakistanis, who often are mistaken for Arabs.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations in Washington, said his organization has heard almost 60,000
reports since Sept. 11 of some kind of harassment against American
Muslims. They range from violence to slurs to job discrimination, he
said.
But non-Muslims also have come to the aid of victims, including the
owners of Curry in a Hurry, a Salt Lake City restaurant that was set
afire Sept. 13.
The eatery was filled with customers, though none was injured. Diners
helped douse the blaze and later returned to paint and rebuild the
structure. Others sent cards, flowers and presents.
"If the building had gone down, I'd have lost my business," Mona
Nisar said. "My whole family would be starving."
A Pakistani, she was surprised to learn that she knew the assailant,
who sometimes ate there. "He was our friend. But he was just too upset
about what happened."
James Herrick, 32, pleaded guilty to filling two jars with gasoline
and torching the restaurant.
"My actions were in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
against the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon," he told the
judge.
Making clear that the arson was indeed a hate crime, he said he
believed the Nisar family was "'of Middle Eastern heritage."
Herrick sent an apology letter to the Nisar family, and in court his
fiancee hugged some of the family members.
On Jan. 7, he was sentenced to 51 months. Prosecutors filed a court
memo that read: "We were compelled to respond quickly to deter the
perceived growing backlash against innocent members of our community.
These hate crimes are noxious to the principles of liberty and freedom
embodied in our Constitution."
In Seattle, when a mosque was attacked, neighbors began security
patrols to prevent another assault.
On Sept. 13, Patrick Cunningham, 54, tried to burn cars in the mosque
parking lot; when that failed, he shot at worshippers.
He pleaded guilty May 9; he is scheduled to be sentenced in August,
with a possible sentence of five to seven years.
"In his mind," the plea agreement said, "he did not distinguish
between the terrorists believed to be responsible for the attacks and
people of the Muslim faith."
Prosecutor Don Currie said Cunningham "believes he made a horrible
mistake." Defense attorney Olaf Hansen said his client had family in
New York, but no one hurt or killed Sept. 11: "Something just snapped
with him. It was a pretty crazy time then."
Mosque director Hisham Farajallah said members have forgiven
Cunningham. "It's obvious he did this out of revenge, hatred and
anger," he said. "But to me it was out of ignorance."
Then there is Stroman, 32. The father of four offers no apologies,
even from his death row cell, where he keeps photos of the burning
towers. He also has a jailhouse tattoo commemorating Sept. 11.
"I feel terrible about the victims of 9/11," he said, beating his
fist to control his anger. "Every time I see another picture of someone
falling head first from the towers, I feel awful. And every time I
think about that young man who said, 'Let's roll,' I think, he's my
hero."
Authorities in Dallas said Stroman was affiliated with white
supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, was a repeat petty offender and kept a
large cache of semiautomatic firearms.
Prosecutor Greg Davis said Sept. 11 was simply the perfect trigger
for Stroman. "Nine-eleven gave him a natural excuse," Davis said.
On Sept. 15, he killed a store clerk from Pakistan with a single shot
to the head. On Sept. 21, he blinded a clerk from Bangladesh in the
right eye. On Oct. 4, he killed a clerk from India who had become a
U.S. citizen 12 years ago.
His trial lasted less than a week; the jury deliberated less than an
hour. He arrived on death row April 5.
"When they stick a needle in my arm, it won't even matter; that's
just going to sleep," Stroman said of his execution.
"But those people who fell from the towers, they suffered. Those
people who died in the Pentagon, they suffered. Those people who tried
to take back that plane over Pennsylvania, they suffered."
On the day of his arrest, Stroman was planning a visit to a local
mosque, he said. "I was going to go in shooting Arabs."
Courts: Officials have three times the cases involving Arab-looking
victims as at this time a year ago.
By RICHARD A. SERRANO
TIMES STAFF WRITER
July 6 2002
DALLAS -- Mark Anthony Stroman was an easy case. A White supremacist,
in the days after Sept. 11 he walked into a succession of convenience
stores in the Dallas area and killed a clerk from Pakistan and another
from India, and he partially blinded a third from Bangladesh.
Tried, convicted and sentenced to death, Stroman voices no remorse.
He recalls telling each of his victims, "God bless America."
As the incidence of hate crimes against suspected Middle Easterners
subsides, authorities are beginning to prosecute cases growing out of
more than 420 investigations nationwide. Although some offenders show
no regret, many others are expressing embarrassment over their hostile
acts in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. Joe Montez drew two years' probation for telephoning a
truck stop in Hewitt, Texas, on Sept. 17. After asking whether the
clerks were Iranians, he said, "There's a bomb where you're
standing.... There's a bomb in your building."
Montez knows he should have controlled his Sept. 11 anger. "I made a
mistake," he said in an interview. "I'm trying to put all that behind
me."
The threats and retaliations have come in many forms: a call left on
the voicemail of the president of the Arab American Institute in
Washington. An anthrax hoax letter that turned up at an Arab American
restaurant in Madison, Wis. Physical attacks, arson, hate messages on
the Internet.
Proving a hate crime can be especially difficult. Authorities must
show that a victim was purposely selected because of race or religion.
Nevertheless, officials have opened three times as many
investigations into hate crimes with Arab victims since Sept. 11 as in
the same period the previous year. They include 350 federal cases and
70 by state and local authorities.
Even with offenders such as Stroman locked away, many advocacy groups
still feel the bias, even people from South Asia, such as Indians and
Pakistanis, who often are mistaken for Arabs.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations in Washington, said his organization has heard almost 60,000
reports since Sept. 11 of some kind of harassment against American
Muslims. They range from violence to slurs to job discrimination, he
said.
But non-Muslims also have come to the aid of victims, including the
owners of Curry in a Hurry, a Salt Lake City restaurant that was set
afire Sept. 13.
The eatery was filled with customers, though none was injured. Diners
helped douse the blaze and later returned to paint and rebuild the
structure. Others sent cards, flowers and presents.
"If the building had gone down, I'd have lost my business," Mona
Nisar said. "My whole family would be starving."
A Pakistani, she was surprised to learn that she knew the assailant,
who sometimes ate there. "He was our friend. But he was just too upset
about what happened."
James Herrick, 32, pleaded guilty to filling two jars with gasoline
and torching the restaurant.
"My actions were in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
against the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon," he told the
judge.
Making clear that the arson was indeed a hate crime, he said he
believed the Nisar family was "'of Middle Eastern heritage."
Herrick sent an apology letter to the Nisar family, and in court his
fiancee hugged some of the family members.
On Jan. 7, he was sentenced to 51 months. Prosecutors filed a court
memo that read: "We were compelled to respond quickly to deter the
perceived growing backlash against innocent members of our community.
These hate crimes are noxious to the principles of liberty and freedom
embodied in our Constitution."
In Seattle, when a mosque was attacked, neighbors began security
patrols to prevent another assault.
On Sept. 13, Patrick Cunningham, 54, tried to burn cars in the mosque
parking lot; when that failed, he shot at worshippers.
He pleaded guilty May 9; he is scheduled to be sentenced in August,
with a possible sentence of five to seven years.
"In his mind," the plea agreement said, "he did not distinguish
between the terrorists believed to be responsible for the attacks and
people of the Muslim faith."
Prosecutor Don Currie said Cunningham "believes he made a horrible
mistake." Defense attorney Olaf Hansen said his client had family in
New York, but no one hurt or killed Sept. 11: "Something just snapped
with him. It was a pretty crazy time then."
Mosque director Hisham Farajallah said members have forgiven
Cunningham. "It's obvious he did this out of revenge, hatred and
anger," he said. "But to me it was out of ignorance."
Then there is Stroman, 32. The father of four offers no apologies,
even from his death row cell, where he keeps photos of the burning
towers. He also has a jailhouse tattoo commemorating Sept. 11.
"I feel terrible about the victims of 9/11," he said, beating his
fist to control his anger. "Every time I see another picture of someone
falling head first from the towers, I feel awful. And every time I
think about that young man who said, 'Let's roll,' I think, he's my
hero."
Authorities in Dallas said Stroman was affiliated with white
supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, was a repeat petty offender and kept a
large cache of semiautomatic firearms.
Prosecutor Greg Davis said Sept. 11 was simply the perfect trigger
for Stroman. "Nine-eleven gave him a natural excuse," Davis said.
On Sept. 15, he killed a store clerk from Pakistan with a single shot
to the head. On Sept. 21, he blinded a clerk from Bangladesh in the
right eye. On Oct. 4, he killed a clerk from India who had become a
U.S. citizen 12 years ago.
His trial lasted less than a week; the jury deliberated less than an
hour. He arrived on death row April 5.
"When they stick a needle in my arm, it won't even matter; that's
just going to sleep," Stroman said of his execution.
"But those people who fell from the towers, they suffered. Those
people who died in the Pentagon, they suffered. Those people who tried
to take back that plane over Pennsylvania, they suffered."
On the day of his arrest, Stroman was planning a visit to a local
mosque, he said. "I was going to go in shooting Arabs."