Nineteen-year-old Anthony Graziano of Lodi was charged with nine counts of first-degree attempted murder, one count of first-degree bias intimidation and one count of first-degree aggravated arson for the Jan. 11 attack in Rutherford.

Graziano also faces arson and bias charges related to a similar incident in Paramus, an attack on Temple K’Hal Adath Jeshrun on Jan. 3.

[...]

Investigators said they found Google searches of both temples. Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli described the Hasbrouck Heights High School grad as an unemployed loner, who was obsessed with Xbox and had a brewing hatred for Jews.

“We have no doubt that the arson and the attempted murder in Rutherford were directly the result of Mr. Graziano’s hatred for people of Jewish faith,” Molinelli told reporters, including 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg.

“He does not hate Jewish people,” Graziano’s father told CBS 2′s Sean Hennessey. “I don’t care what the prosecutor says. I know my son.”

However, a classmate of Graziano told Hennessey: “For the past two months he’s been talking about how much he hates Jews because they were going to take over the country. This kid is crazy. He’s insane.”

The attempted murder charges stem from the fact he lobbed Molotov cocktails trough the window of a rabbi and his family while they were sleeping. Jews in this country should be utilizing their second amendment rights, because the pogroms are coming.

Via Belchspeak his name is Harry Burkhart, he’s a 24-year-old German National who was driving a minivan with Canadian plates. Sounds like an OWSer to me. From The Daily Mail:

Authorities last night arrested a German man in connection with dozens of suspected arson attacks that destroyed parked cars, scorched buildings and rattled much of the nation’s second-largest city over the New Year’s weekend.

Harry Burkhart, 24, was booked for investigation of arson of an inhabited dwelling and was being held without bail, authorities said.

Burkhart was arrested earlier in the day because he resembled a ‘person of interest’ captured on surveillance video, reportedly telling authorities ‘I hate America’ as he was arrested.

He was stopped by a reserve sheriff’s deputy in a van being sought by arson investigators.

Fifty three blazes have flared since Friday in Hollywood, neighbouring West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, causing about $3million in damage.

According to Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck, Burkhart is believed to a foreign national from Germany.

It is thought his mother is said to have faced a deportation hearing in Los Angeles County within the last two weeks.

Gee, I wonder why his mom’s being deported. She must be one of those starving Mexicans we Americans hate so much that we won’t let them sneak in.

So if he hates America why does he need his other to stay so bad?

I said that although most people thought this was OWS related (and it probably is) I put my money on a radical Muslim or radical Green. Germany has large radicalized Turkish Muslim populations and pro Al-Qaeda converts, and Canada has a thriving radical Muslim population. Since this German’s name hasn’t been released there’s a 50/50 chance it’s Mohammed Al-douche or whatever.

On the other hand someone sent me a picture of the guy. A fat, balding 20-something with a greasy ponytail and a smug look on his face screams green movement. Looks like the odds are in my favor but I’m still willing to take bets.

Police say they’re not sure if he’s the arsonist, but I’m betting they do know but they’re looking for his partners.

Hey, who’s up for a fence on that Canadian border? It’s been a long time coming.

This is the man police arrested in the case where a dog was pinned down and set on fire. His name is Issac Henry Anderson, he’s from Greenville and and apparently he’s claiming someone hired him to burn the dog:

GREENVILLE — Greenville police have arrested the man they believe to be responsible for pinning a dog down with a cinderblock and then setting its doghouse on fire.

Isaac Henry Anderson of Greenville is charged with animal cruelty, arson and criminal conspiracy for the severe burns on Pookie, a 14-year-old chow-collie mix.

Anderson, who is 52, lives just a few blocks away from where the dog was burned. He was arrested Wednesday.

Police believe that someone agreed to pay Anderson if he would set the dog on fire alive. They are still looking for the person who offered to pay him.

Firefighters found the dog pinned down inside his overturned doghouse in Greenville on Nov. 9, with a cinderblock strapped to his head so that he couldn’t move. Smoke was pouring from the doghouse and Pookie was so severely burned that veterinarians wondered if he would survive.

The dog did survive and is doing well. The dog is being fostered because the original owner didn’t think she’d be able to pay for the vet bills. That must have been horrible to know your pet was tortured, and the best you could do for it was give it up.

Now the question is why would someone hire a man to set a pit bull that lived with a woman on fire. Sounds to me like someone is looking to be able to get into that house or send the owner a message, if Anderson is telling the truth. Frankly I doubt it but police will have to check it out to be sure. Anderson is being charged with third degree arson, ill treatment of an animal and criminal conspiracy

After he does his time I hope someone set Anderson on fire, he deserves it.

Case in Point:

NORWALK — A city man who allegedly lit hats on fire to drive demons out of his friend’s home Monday was arrested and charged with reckless burning.

Jose Delcid, 48, was arrested after he was turned away from the Norwalk Hospital psychiatric unit because of a policy that prohibits admittance to anyone who starts a fire.

A doctor explained the unit could not admit Delcid even though it was a suitable place for the man to get treatment for his apparent psychological problems, according to a police report.

As a result, Delcid was arrested and charged with reckless burning and held in lieu of $5,000 bond.

At Delcid’s arraignment, state Superior Court Judge Bruce Hudock reduced his bond to $1,000 on the condition that Delcid get substance abuse and mental health therapy.

At the bond hearing, Delcid’s public defender, Matthew Popilowski, seemed perplexed as to how a doctor could say his client, who works full time, should be in the psychiatric ward at the hospital, but the next day the client instead is left standing in front of a criminal court judge.

That is a head scratcher. Maybe because Delcid isn’t really mentally ill, just a burnt out stoner:

Delcid told police that on a recent Saturday he smoked some bad marijuana and since that time has been having strange thoughts while seeing people’s eyes transforming and getting larger, the police report said.

Yeah. And surely he hasn’t gotten stoned between that Saturday and when he set the fires. Drugs have nothing to do with this at all.

As an aside I noticed something that irks me. If a 46-year-old woman dressed up like a teenager and went around crashing college parties we’d call her sad and pathetic. When a baby boomer starts a band in his garage and drives around in a red convertible we know he’s being immature. But when a man who’s damn near 50 is still sitting around smoking pot no one tells him to grow up and act his age. Why is that? Boomers acting douche and middle aged women whoring around don’t have anywhere near the social impact as drug users, so why are we more judgmental of them than stoners?

Anyone with any information about the explosion to call the Central Police Department at (864) 639-4020, the SLED Arson Hotline at 1-800-922-7766 or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME SC

But the murder of White Nationalist Richard Barrett by Vice Lord Vincent McGee has some people nervous, some curious and a few amused. While I find gang violence leading to homicide unamusing no matter how degenerate the victim (and as we’ll see Barrett could only be described as a degenerate in the most literal sense) I do understand the lack of sympathy for Barrett decent people will feel. After all, he ran a (now defunct) White Supremacist organization which mysteriously has no media presence, Internet or otherwise, yet he was known to raise funds by staging publicity stunts. As a lawyer he represented many neo-Nazis and claimed to hold their cause as his own. His long history of being a Klansman caricature is detailed here.

His life was ended by a felon who was just out of prison, a member of the Vice Lords who in fact had contact with Barrett before and who had a history of violence. Some claim his motive was Barrett’s racist views, but here’s where the story breaks down. Barrett, known racist and separatist, was paying McGee for yard work. From the Clarion-Ledger:

While McGee is African American, authorities have not said Barrett’s racial beliefs were a motive in his slaying.

McGee had performed yard work for Barrett, Pennington said.

A person who was known to demand Black Americans “go back to Africa” was paying a man with gang tattoos on his face to mow his lawn? But the story gets odder:

Witnesses told investigators Barrett had gone to McGee’s home around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday to pay him for yard work.

Around 8 a.m. Thursday, one of Barrett’s neighbors called firefighters after smoke was spotted at Barrett’s home at 227 E. Petros Road east of the Monterey community near Pearl.

So, a White Supremacist who hates and fears Black people went over to a young Black felon’s house in the late evening to “pay him for yard work” and they both ended up back at his house? This is some piss poor bigotry. But the Clarion-Ledger unwittingly puts some of the pieces together for you:

But Barrett was more of a showman than a significant leader, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups as part of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

“He was a white supremacist gadfly who flitted from cause to cause. He never assembled a group that amounted to more than a few young men,” Potok said.

“Very frequently in the ’80s he would invite young skinhead men to his home on weekends.“

Mark Potak, who has a history of making up facts to “sex up” his S.P.L.C. reports (including this recent one on everyone to the right of Stalin being a terrorist or something) as a fund raising tool, goes on in that interview to claim Barrett had pull with the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan disagrees:

Told of Barrett’s death, Klan leader Jordan Gollub of Jackson said, “It’s tragic that something happened to him.

“We discussed historical and political issues together. But I can’t say I agreed with him much,” said Gollub, who heads the Royal Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

That “much” apparently being whether or not White Nationalism was just a money making scheme. Here’s a telling quote from The Daily Mail:

In 1994, he spearheaded an unsuccessful movement to get then-Gov. Kirk Fordice to pardon Byron de la Beckwith, who was convicted of murdering Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers in 1963.

Evers’ brother, Charles Evers, said Thursday he has long thought that Barrett didn’t really believe the things he said, but used them to entice people to donate money to his cause.

‘I think it was just a way he had to live,’ Evers said. ‘He made a living talking all that racist talk.’

Surprise! Neo-Nazis are marks. Few “news organizations” have pointed out that if Barrett was some big wig bigot he may have been able to find a fellow White bigot to mow his lawn (or since he was apparently an avid bicyclist could have no doubt done it himself) but instead he wanted a violent felon with facial tattoos. Then he wanted to pay him on a slow, sultry evening.

Before you start with the “You’re a homophobe” stuff, everyone knows Rob Taylor is a friend to the LGBT community (and long time supporter of GOProud and The Pink Pistols) but like any good friend I sometimes have to point out that the mainstream gay culture fetishizes dangerous sexual liaisons which can lead to trouble. Such was the case in the George Weber murder, and such will be the case now.

The news is playing coy with this story but the subtext makes things apparent. I believe this was a hook up gone bad and Barrett was a racist who was driven by some odd conflict in his broken psyche to antagonize the objects of his lust. I further believe that despite McGee’s protests he was a hustler, or at least pretended to be one in some scam. It beggars belief that a White supremacist who truly loathed and feared Blacks hired a young thug with gang tattoos on his face to mow his lawn. Even McGee isn’t telling that story:

Official sources who asked not to be identified, tell WLBT, 22-year-old Vincent McGee, in his confession, alleged Barrett made sexual advances to him, apparently sending McGee into a rage, a rage that ended in murder.

We asked Sheriff Pennington about it. He had no comment other than to say the murder was not racially motivated. Rankin-Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest also would not discuss specifics of the case, but he did have this to say.

“I was surprised to hear about this and then as the case unfolded, there were other twists and turns that again were unforeseen in this case,” Guest said.

But it gets creepier:

McGee’s family members told WLBT, Thursday night, that McGee, when he was a teenager, before he went to prison, knew Barrett and had worked for him.

Hmmm. Look, as I said before “gay panic” is a load of BS used by people who want to explain their own perverted desire to beat up or kill gays that they have had some sort of sexual encounter with. One caveat may be that if a young guy is fresh out of prison he may be a little sensitive to gay advances. But this looks to me like a rough trick, and given the level of violence (Barrett was smashed in the head and stabbed 35 times in the neck) I’m going to put forward that his previous “relationship” with Barrett was not simply professional.

What demons drove Richard Barrett? Greed clearly. But maybe lust and depravity played into it too. Perhaps Barrett, whose separatism did not work its way into his personal life, was turned on by the homoerotic trappings of White Nationalism with its anger and militancy and the sado-masochistic undertones of racial supremacy. Or maybe he’s just a degenerate who conned suckers out of money to pay for the affection of young men. Neither of these things means he deserved a violent death, but they certainly contributed to the likelihood of him being victimized.

Three other people have been arrested in connection with this murder, all as accessories after the fact. make of that what you will. Since one is the father I put forward that guilt for not protecting his son in that past from something may have driven his involvement.

A few people have forwarded me this story concerned that this heralds some sort of Vice Lord vs neo-Nazi war. I wouldn’t worry. Though the Vice Lords are a “People’s Nation” affiliated gang which includes gangs that are known to be racist (like the Bloods), it also included White gangs like The Gaylords (now almost defunct) and multi-ethnic gangs like The Latin Kings so the Vice Lords (while extremely dangerous) are unlikely to participate in race based warfare and no large White Nationalist group has sufficient respect for Barrett to care.

On an ironic note, the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront has a thread where the scum there (who once celebrated a man who murdered his wife) actually claim they’re happy he died. That thread confirms that Barrett was known in the White Power community as a closeted homosexual.

“Had they gotten inside the church, I don’t know what would’ve been done,” Rev. Larry Cox, Pastor of Homeland Park Baptist Church said.

He stood inside the church nursery where there was a smashed glass window which had to be boarded. Deputies with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office said it was all done by two boys, a 13 and 14 years old.

“I do want them to know that I don’t hate them. We can’t hate children and would like for them to get their lives straightened out,” Cox said.

Investigators said the two boys first broke into a shed at the church’s family life center.

“We believe that they broke the glass out and got that diesel fuel that they used to try and set the school on fire with it,” said youth minister, Jason Lingefelt.

He said he got the call Monday morning around 4:00 a.m. and rushed over. He said a five-gallon diesel canister was swiped from the shed.

[...]

Investigators said that’s when the boys walked about a mile to Homeland Park Elementary School and tried to set it on fire.

“I woke up, it was about 3:00 a.m. ., but it was all quiet out here then, ” said Boyce Baughn, who lives next door to the school.

However, investigators said that’s not the case and they found burned pieces of paper and church tithing envelopes at the scene.

“It’s Homeland Park, it’s just wild down here,” Leslie Day, another neighbor said.

Indeed. A 13 and 14-year-old wandering around in the wee hours of the morning should not only have raised eyebrows, but maybe led to a police report when the parents noticed their little darlings were missing. Granted kids like to sneak out, but I’m going to assume that by the time your kids work their way up to burning churches and elementary schools there may have been some signs that you needed to keep a closer eye on them.

Greenville Online is reporting that each of the boys are facing second-degree arson charges and three counts of second-degree burglary.

The Independent Mail is reporting an interesting fact that may mean the kids weren’t as malevolent as the case makes them sound:

The fire alarm inside the storage room was pulled around 2:30 a.m., according to the report.

[...]

“After they tried to start the fire at the school and pulled the alarm, it looks like they ran over to the church,” Tribble said. “Apparently, they broke into the family life center there, where they tried to start another fire. People driving by the church saw them trying to break in to another building on the church property and called 911. That’s when the deputies found the boys and took them into custody.”

Pulling alarms seems like a ploy to ensure the fires don’t get out of control. On the other hand the same report goes on to claim the kids are being looked at for other fires.

WSPA has has video.

Hmmm. Two teens out late at night doing something stupid? Anyone think maybe drugs and alcohol were involved?