On this date in 1999 in Houston, Texas, Roderick Brenneman, 59, was convicted of assaulting a married heterosexual man, Michael Arrington, who Brenneman mistakenly thought was gay. Brenneman received a one-year jail sentence in the knifing of Mr. Arrington, who along with his wife, lived in a downtown Houston neighborhood that also was home to a gay bar. Shouting "pervert" and "homosexual" at Mr. Arrington while he was walking his dog, Brenneman stabbed Mr. Arrington several times including in Mr. Arrington's eye leading to permanent blindness in that eye.

On this date in 2009 the Charles County Maryland Sheriff’s Office arrested and charged a white man, Ronald Christopher Smythers, 21 of La Plata, Maryland, with five counts of malicious destruction of property for his alleged role in a string of acts of vandalism in which racial and ethnic slurs were spray-painted on the Smith Chapel located on Poorhouse Road, the Mount Hope Nanjemoy Elementary School on Ironsides Road, the Calvert Wood Recycling Center sign on Ripley Road, Eller’s Service on Port Tobacco Road, and a stop sign at Annapolis Woods Road and Poorhouse Road, all in western Charles County. Arrested the following day, on February 17, 2009, and also charged with five counts of malicious destruction of property was Kenneth Allen Sanders, 19 of Indian Head, Maryland, who also stands accused of the hate-crime vandalism. The vandalism occurred the week prior to the arrest of Smythers and Sanders.

In Troutdale, Oregon on this date in 2009, it was discovered that someone: spray-painted gang markings, swastikas, the letters KKK and obscene, anti-Semitic slurs on the sides of Cherry Park Presbyterian Church on S.W. Cherry Park Road; spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti in the Jewish section of the Douglass Cemetery on S.W. Hensley Road; and, vandalized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on S.W. Cherry Park Road across from Reynolds High School. If you have any information about these hate crimes, please call the Troutdale Police Department at (503) 823-3333.

In Bass River (Burlington County), New Jersey on this date in 2011, three white men allegedly burned an 8-foot-by-4-foot cross off Route 9 near Ash Road and near the home of a black family. Nicholas Comis, 22, of Tuckerton, New Jersey, was arrested that day and he was charged with bias intimidation (a hate crime), and conspiracy to commit arson. The following day (February 17), Daniel Enders, 22, a man with substance abuse problems from New Gretna, New Jersey, and Christopher Hurrell, 21 (Date of Birth: January 12, 1990)—a Tuckerton, New Jersey, man who was on probation at the time after he was sentenced for his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute heroin less than a week before the cross-burning—were arrested and each man was charged with bias intimidation and conspiracy to commit arson. On May 24, 2011, a Burlington County grand jury indicted Comis, Hurrell, and Enders on charges of second-degree bias intimidation (a hate crime) and third-degree arson. At Enders' trial in Superior Court in Mount Holly, New Jersey on September 19, 2011, Enders' defense attorney, Donald Manno, dared to claim, "Not every cross burning is a political statement or an act of intimidation." We agree with the reaction of Ken Gordon, president of the Southern Burlington County New Jersey chapter of the NAACP, who said of Manno's statement, "That statement is born of ignorance." On September 19, 2011, Superior Court Judge Jeanne T. Covert ruled that Daniel Enders, who at that time was said to reside in Bass River, was not appropriate for pretrial intervention. If convicted of their hate crime charge, each of the defendants could have received from five to ten years in prison. However, Christopher Hurrell pleaded guilty on September 12, 2011, to bias intimidation and arson, and he agreed to complete an 18-month drug rehabilitation program while on probation; Hurrell also agreed to testify against Enders and Comis. It was stipulated that if Hurrell did not successfully complete his drug program, then his probation would convert to a five-year state prison term. In addition, Hurrell was expected to plead guilty to violating his probation (for his heroin-related charge) at the October, 2011 sentencing for his hate crime-related crimes. Christopher Hurrell violated his drug rehabilitation program's rules, and on December 2, 2011, he was sentenced to four years in the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville, New Jersey, for Resisting Arrest/Eluding Police in Cape May County, New Jersey. Rather than go to trial, Nicholas Comis and Daniel Enders pleaded guilty to bias intimidation in early January 2012, as part of a plea bargain where they agreed to serve 364 days in the Burlington County Jail. However, Enders might be spared jail time if he successfully participates and completes an inpatient drug rehabilitation program. Both Comis and Enders will be sentenced by Judge Covert on April 13, 2012.

In Fayetteville, North Carolina, on this date in 2011, two white men from Fayetteville, Eddie Willard Jr., 29, and Cody Jackson Razor, 22, were charged with ethnic intimidation (a hate crime) and simple assault for allegedly hurling racial slurs at and assaulting Ronald Parrish when he tried to return a defective tire at Skibo Tires located at 2170 Skibo Road where Willard and Razor were employed. Mr. Parrish told law enforcement he was kicked, beaten, and had racial slurs hurled at him by the employees.