quote: CHICAGO, March 2 -- The Internet postings began soon after news broke that a Chicago federal judge once targeted for assassination by a white supremacist had found her husband and mother dead Monday evening. Some correspondents said the killings were not such a bad thing.
"While I certainly understand that we are not supposed to be advocating illegal activities, there is nothing illegal or harmful in being happy about this incident," wrote someone with the Web name Palatine Creator. "I can barely contain my glee."
The posting appeared on the site of the Missouri-based Vanguard News Network, whose motto is "Uncensored News for Whites." On the site of Stormfront, Yukon King expressed sorrow for the judge's family, "at least what's left of it. I guess her career of framing innocent people will be put aside for awhile."
The pathology of the fragmented white nationalist movement is on view in the aftermath of Monday's double killing. Working double shifts, Chicago police and the FBI are studying the associates of jailed World Church of the Creator leader Matthew Hale and a disparate array of extremists who sympathize with his cause.
Hale is awaiting sentencing for soliciting the murder of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, but detectives are careful to say the motive in the deaths of her husband and mother remains unknown. They are examining the judge's other cases, as well as the work of her husband, Michael, a labor lawyer.
Investigators say the style of the killings and the supremacist animosity toward Lefkow are their best leads.
Hale is the guy who was denied a law license for being racist (before he went to prison). I'd like to piss off people like this one day, but it's very, very scary.
If this is connected, I wonder if this is the start of a campaign.
posted
A lot more nowadays than in the past. RICO really is an amazing tool for going after organizations like this. It will take a while, but a RICO criminal trial on the organization will be able to put a lot of people away.
Here's why RICO is so powerful. Suppose A and B conspire to bring drugs into the country, and B and C conspire to sell them on the street. It's very difficult to get A if A's participation in the conspiracy with B does not depend on how the drugs are sold on the street. Not all conspirators have to know each other, but all have to be working toward the commission of the same offense.
RICO removes this requirement. A RICO conspiracy is a conspiracy to carry on a pattern of racketeering activity. As long as the patter can be attributed to a common enterprise, everyone can be rolled up who agrees to help conduct the affairs of the enterprise.
if they can link these murders to an organization and link some other racketeering activities to the same organization, almost everyone who helped with any illegal activities can be brought down. Plus, they can get the individual conspirators for the predicate offenses.
It's painstaking to put together, but without it the mafia would be much stronger.
quote:"While I certainly understand that we are not supposed to be advocating illegal activities, there is nothing illegal or harmful in being happy about this incident," wrote someone with the Web name Palatine Creator. "I can barely contain my glee."
And I can barely contain my disgust. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I've seen headlines, but they didn't explain the racist angle. Just "Judge finds family members dead" or some such.
White supremacism isn't a moneymaking enterprise, like the mafia is. I'd like to hope that limits the level of organization and sophistication available to creeps like that.
Does anyone know what the comment about the judge "framing innocent people" was about? A particular case?
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posted
The World Church of the Creator...one of their "adherents" went on a shooting spree through Indiana and Illinois back in 2000 or so. He killed a Korean man here in my town, just a few blocks from the restaurant where I worked at the time.
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Sounds like he should be mad at his lawyer for not bothering to make a case, rather than the judge.
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posted
The possible white supremacist link has been mentioned on the Chicago radio stations. However words are being used very carefully. There are apparently composite sketches now available of two suspects.
This is (according to what I heard this morning) the only shooting in the history of the U.S. Marshals that has occurred after they lifted their protection from a judge. I'm sure they are going after this case with great speed and everything that they've got. But, I think they are being very cagey with the press as a result. There is a joint task force bringing together a couple of agencies including the Chicago Police for this, but it sounds like the U.S. Marshalls are heading it up.
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White supremecists will flip, no question. You take them to Marion, Illinois and show them the 23/7 cell and the life without parole statutes.
Even if it's not enough to convict, it's enough to get warrants and wiretaps that would help greatly.
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posted
It's a catch-22, but when judges start being targeted, I suspect legislation will be enacted to directly address the subject.
Atlanta created the "no cruising" ordinances - I forget the specific name, but for all practical purposes it was the automotive equivalent to 'no loitering' in direct response to Freaknik's habit of having cars circling the same block for an hour while a street party ensued in the middle of traffic patterns.
The other problem is, the Mafia had a specific and not particularly combative goal - to create money through any means necessary, including illegal actions.
However, this White Supremacist terror group is just like any other terrorist organization - any actions they undertake will be directed against the Government, the legal system and anyone or anything else they consider "the enemy."
The difference between this terror group and the Mafia? The Mafia was only interested in making money - the terror group views money as a means to an end.
As I understand it, RICO was designed to target the Mafia and was termed to address "racketeering" without the Mafia being able to claim it was the specific focus of the new act.
If this (or these) terror cells begin to take hold and achieve more successes, I suspect we will see similar legislation geared towards civilian organizations that organize, plan and carry out hostile acts against the government as opposed to our previous tactics of charging them under existing criminal law.
Of course, we veer dangerously close to Big Brother, but...
1.) The mob demanding protection payments from legitimate businesses. 2.) The mob buying businesses with the proceeds of racketeering. 3.) The mob giving their "legitimate" businesses an advantage via racketeering activities (threatening restaurants who don't buy meat from the right suppliers).
"Enterprise" was used to refer to these businesses - it was envisioned to be the "legitimate" businesses.
However, a very important SCOTUS decision in Turkette expanded the definition of enterprise to illegitimate organizations, such as the Mafia. This allowed direct application of RICO to the mob itself, and now most RICO prosecutions use this "new" interpretation.
quote:The reason they were able to indict Paul Castellano (the boss of the Gambino family) on drug charges was that he took money from the sale of narcotics. It didn't matter that they couldn't prove he didn't know where the money was coming from; all they had to prove was that he directly benefitted, and they were able to do so because of the money trail.
Or am I misunderstanding RICO?
Not really, but advancing the goals of the organization can work as well. Money is important as evidence, because it's fairly easy to track. And it's an element of particular RICO sections. But I don't think it's an impediment to prosecution under 18 U.S.C. 1962(c):
quote:(c) It shall be unlawful for any person employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity or collection of unlawful debt.
posted
If it makes people afraid to travel, or targets businesses (the Denver DJ slaying, for example), or any of a number of such things, they can probably meet the commerce clause "jurisdictional hook."
Of course, they likely use mail or wires, the Travel Act probably comes into play immediately.
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quote: CHICAGO, March 10 -- The killer broke into U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow's house and hid in a utility closet. Furious that she had rejected his rambling lawsuit, he planned to wait until she came home and then shoot her dead.
But the judge's husband found the man first.
"I had no choice . . . but to shoot him," Bart A. Ross wrote in a suicide note received Thursday by a Chicago television station. "Then I heard a voice, 'Michael, Michael,' so I looked to the hallway . . . and saw an older woman. I had to shoot her, too.
"I followed with a second shot to the head in both cases to minimize their suffering."
Chicago police announced Thursday that Ross, who killed himself with a single shot to the head in a Milwaukee suburb Wednesday night, is responsible for the Feb. 28 killings of Lefkow's husband, Michael, and mother, Dorothy Humphrey, a case that sent shudders through the federal judiciary.
Late tonight a Chicago police spokesman confirmed that Ross's DNA matched evidence found in the Lefkows' house. Police Superintendent Phil Cline told reporters that letters left by the electrician, 57, contained details only the killer would know. He also said a witness saw someone resembling Ross leaving the North Chicago house on the day of the shootings.
But Cline emphasized that police are not prepared to make a definitive statement about all aspects of the case until the evidence has been analyzed. "This case is by no means closed," he said.
The sudden development in the case startled investigators, who had focused on the fact that Joan Lefkow had been targeted for assassination by white supremacist Matthew Hale. Investigators considered it likely that a Hale sympathizer committed the killings, and specialists pointed out that Lefkow's address was posted on hate groups' Web sites.
It remains publicly unknown how Ross found Lefkow's home, but investigators said they had discovered no connection between hate groups and Ross, who blamed his anger on a legal and medical establishment that he said had "violated me Nazi-style" for 12 years. In his writings, Ross named other potential targets, including judges and doctors he believed had done him wrong.
More than one judge and lawyer fearful that Lefkow was targeted by supremacists said the prospect of a disgruntled and murderous litigant is even more worrisome. Judges in all jurisdictions must deal with aggrieved petitioners whose problems they cannot fix.
"In many respects this is more sobering and more frightening, because there are many more people like this man who could have a similar grudge against a judge," said Chicago Bar Association President Joy Cunningham, a former judge. "Many litigants come to court with expectations the system is not able to deliver."
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