On this date in 2002 in Santa Barbara, California, Martin Thomas Hartman, 38, turned himself in to authorities and confessed to dousing Clint Scott Risetter, 37, with gasoline and setting him on fire as he slept on February 24, 2002. Risetter, a South Dakota native, died on his apartment patio before firefighters arrived. Hartman admitted to knowing Mr. Risetter was gay and he told police he set his victim on fire because of his hatred towards gays. Blanche Risetter, Mr. Risetter’s mother, has said she did not know her son was gay. Hartman had been a suspect in a number of Santa Barbara arsons prior to Mr. Risetter's murder.

At the Human Resources Complex in Scottsdale, Arizona on this date in 2004, an explosive package detonated in the hands of the city's diversity director, Don Logan, who is African-American causing significant injury to Mr. Logan and to a secretary. On June 25, 2009, two white twin brothers with longtime ties to the racist hate movement, Dennis and Daniel Mahon, both 58, were arrested at their Davis Junction, Illinois home, and charged with conspiracy to damage buildings and property by means of explosive. At the Mahon home during their arrest, law enforcement officials found assault weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and white supremacist material. The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported that Dennis Mahon lead the Ku Klux Klan in Oklahoma in 1991, recruited neo-Nazis and skinheads in the former East Germany, joined White Aryan Resistance, and was deported from Canada in 1993 after Canadian officials found a videotape of a speech Mahon gave to the neo-Nazi Heritage Front in Toronto in 1991 and similar tapes from Germany and the United States. According to a federal indictment, the Mahon brothers conspired to build and mail the bomb to Mr. Logan, taught others how to build a package containing a pipe bomb, sent training materials on the production and use of explosives, techniques to avoid detection by law enforcement, and methods to commit domestic terrorism. Dennis Mahon was further charged with malicious damage of a building by means of an explosive and distribution of information related to explosives The indictment also asserts Dennis Mahon participated in the construction of the bomb and left a racist telephone message at the Scottsdale Diversity Office a month before the bomb was sent there. Also arrested on June 25, 2009 on federal weapons, was white supremacist Robert Neil Joos, Jr., 56, the self proclaimed Nazarite pastor of the Sacerdotal Order of the David Church near Cyclone, Missouri, who was previously convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest on June 29, 1994, in Missouri. Joos was the first person Dennis Mahon called the day the package bomb was delivered, according to the indictment charging the Mahons. On August 11, 2009, a U.S. District judge ordered Daniel Mahon, 58, to remain in custody, stating Mahon poses a threat to the community and is a flight risk. The judge wrote in his order: "Daniel has described himself as a domestic terrorist and has espoused views against not only minority groups but the government generally." Jury selection began on January 11, 2012, in the trial of Dennis and Daniel Mahon.

On this date in 2008 in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Harry Stetson III, 18, a student at Bucks County Technical High School in Bristol Township, and Nicholas Cesari, 18, Pennsbury High School student from Falls, Pennsylvania, were charged with institutional vandalism and criminal conspiracy, both third-degree felonies, for their alleged involvement in the vandalism of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a Roman Catholic church on South Woodbourne Road. The church had several of its statues damaged including its Virgin Mary statue which was spray-painted, and the words “God is Dead” was also found painted on the church. If convicted, the two defendants could each receive seven years in prison.

In Miramar Beach, Florida (Walton County) on this date in 2009, a white Christian minister and director of the Christian music non-profit, Perfect Heart Ministries, and long-time Republican Party activist, Dannie Roy Baker, 60, allegedly walked across the street from his apartment with a rifle and shot inside the townhouse on Scenic Gulf Road where fourteen legal Latino immigrants were. Killed were two Chilean college students, Nicolas Pablo Corp-Torres, 23, and Racine Balbontin-Aragondona, 22; injured were Fransisco Javier Cofre-Fernande, 25, David Alonzo Bilbao-Meza, 21, and Sebastian Mauricio Arizaga-Suarez, 27. Baker, whose criminal history entails one arrest in 2007 for resisting an officer without violence and who volunteered for the Walton County Republican Executive Committee until just months before the shooting, allegedly walked back to his apartment after the shooting, and barracaded himself inside. Three-and-a-half hours later he was arrested. Baker had made an ominous anti-immigrant comment to a neighbor about an upcoming revolution prior to the murders, and he warned this neighbor that if she had immigrants in her home, then she had better get them out. At the time of the shooting Baker—who had written a book under the name Dannie R. Boy titled "Man's Perfection Before God", a book described by Baker at the Magnolia Books website, as "my testimony of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, and by my covenant with God, walking in man's perfection before God"—was seeking a woman between 18 and 29 years of age through an online dating website that had been the center of an investigation by the FBI and by foreign police agencies, one that has been been blacklisted by honest dating agencies because of reported scams. Baker's absoluteagency.com posting read: "I'm looking for a woman to be my bride and to have my children and to enjoy my lifestyle on the beach in Florida, USA!!! I want a Christian who wants to be a ministers [sic] wife. I want a wife who wants to live in America and travel some in ministry one day. I'm looking for my dream girl that I have waited a lifetime to be with!!! If this fits your vision for life get in touch with me. Maybe God is putting us together!!!" Baker was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In 2007 Walton County, Florida was designated an American "hot spot" for hate crimes and hate group activity.

In Queens, New York on this date in 2009, Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron sentenced Alexandra Gilmore, 37, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and formerly of Massapequa, New York, to two to six years in prison for two counts of second-degree grand larceny as a hate crime which Gilmore pled guilty to earlier in February, 2009. Gilmore stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a 93-year-old Queens man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease by fraudulently refinancing a property that he owned in Bayside, New York in order to steal the property's equity and then using another buyer, Rebecca Alyce Tharpe, 31, of Brentwood, New York and formerly of Massapequa, to steal the victim's primary residence in the Jamaica section of Queens. Rebecca Tharpe, who was charged with second-degree grand larceny as a hate crime, was convicted of falsifying business records; and, on November 18, 2009, she was sentenced to 30 days in jail, ordered to pay of fine of $2,500, and ordered to five years on probation by a Queens Criminal Court judge, Kenneth Holder. Judge Holder also ordered Tharpe to speak at mortgage fraud forums while on probation to warn audiences of the pitfalls of being a "straw buyer."

On this date in 2010 in Buffalo, New York, an Erie County grand jury indicted a white woman, Eva M. Cummings, 51, of North Collins, New York, and her intellectually limited son, Luke J. Wright, 31, for the hate crime torture/murder of Cummings' mentally disabled daughter, Laura Cummings, 23, who was Luke Wright's half-sister. Believed by authorities to have endured physical and sexual abuse for at least 15 years at the hands of both her mother and her half‐brother, Laura Cummings was found slain on January 21, 2010, on the bathroom floor in the apartment she shared with her family at 2052 Sherman Avenue in North Collins. After being chained in the home for weeks prior to her death, Laura Cummings, whose mental capacity was that of an eight-year-old, died of suffocation; she had also been scalded over her face with hot water, had been forced to touch her own excrement, had her face pushed into excrement, and had been raped multiple times with a broomstick, all in large part because of her mental disability. Eva Cummings was charged with second-degree Murder, Sexual Assault, first-degree Assault, Unlawful Imprisonment as a Hate Crime, and Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent Person or Physically Disabled Person. If convicted as charged, Eva Cummings could have received a prison sentence from 83 years to life. Instead, in October, 2010, she pleaded guilty to second-degree Murder, Assault, Unlawful Imprisonment as a hate crime, and Endangering the Welfare of a Disabled Person; and, on November 16, 2010, Eva Cummings was handed consecutive sentences of 25 years to life on the murder charge, 25 years for assault, and 7 years for unlawful imprisonment, meaning she will serve 57 years to life in prison. Luke Wright was initially charged with Rape, Criminal Sexual Act, Incest, Predatory Sexual Assault, first-degree Unlawful Imprisonment as a Hate Crime, and Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent Person or Physically Disabled Person. However, he went to trial in April 2011, for ten charges: two counts of assault (for scalding his half-sister); sexual assault; first- and second-degree rape; first- and second-degree criminal sexual act; third-degree incest; unlawful imprisonment; and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person. He and his mother were arraigned on March 1, 2010. Although at the time of Laura Cummings' murder the Erie County Adult Protective Services' website had included claims that it finds "alternative living arrangements . . . including emergency room and board for up to 30 days," provides "crisis interventions," and helps obtain "protective service orders and orders of protection," Erie County Social Services Commissioner Carol Danker said after Laura Cummings' torture/murder that Adult Protective Services "does not have the authority to remove people from their homes." Assistant District Attorney Thomas Finnerty said, "It's the worst case I've ever seen," and called Eva Cummings' behavior "depraved and horrific," and District Attorney Frank Sedita said after Eva Cummings was sentenced to prison, "She hated her daughter." On April 20, 2011, an Erie County jury convicted Luke Wright, 32, on all 10 criminal counts after deliberating for four hours. Wright could have received a prison sentence of over 130 years to life in prison, and on May 24, 2011, he was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

In San Francisco, California, on 16th Street near Guerrero Street in the Mission District on this date in 2010, three Muslim cousins from Hayward, California—Mohammad Habibzada, 24, Shafiq Hashemi, 21, and Sayed Bassam, 21—shot a 27-year-old San Francisco man in the face with a BB gun who they perceived to be gay while videotaping the attack from their Volvo automobile. The unnamed victim was shot in the cheek, and police spokesman Officer Samson Chan said, "The suspects did make a confession, basically stating that they came to San Francisco to target gay people." Police, who confiscated video equipment which shows other videotaped shootings, believe there are multiple vicitms. Habibzada, Hashemi, and Bassam were arraigned in San Francisco Superior Court on March 12, 2010, on charges of assault with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, and attempted mayhem—a charge relating to the possibility of a disabling or disfiguring injury. The three cousins were jailed on $450,000 bail each following their arraignments, and prosecutors said they would have charged the trio with crimes related to eleven similar shootings, except no victims came forward. On April 19, 2010, in San Francisco Superior Court Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi, and Sayed Bassam each pleaded guilty to negligent discharge of a BB gun with a hate crime enhancement, a felony. The three men were sentenced May 13, 2010, to 180 days in jail, three years' probation, and 40 hours of hate crime sensitivity training. They were also ordered to perform up to 400 hours of community service and pay restitution.

In Palm City, Florida (Martin County) on this date in 2010 in the parking lot of a restaurant on Southeast Salerno Road two white men from Palm City, Billy Ray Butler, 28, and Dana Lee Roth, 24, along with other unknown male assailants allegedly attacked two Hispanic men and the 44-year-old uncle of one of the Hispanic men after the two Hispanic men were asked about their sexual orientation and after racial slurs were hurled at the two men. The third victim, who attempted to help his nephew, also was assaulted. On March 10, 2011, Martin County Sheriff's Office detectives arrested and charged Butler and Roth with felony aggravated battery with hate crime enhancements. Both Billy Butler and Dana Roth were released from custody on the date of their arrest on $10,000 bail each. Detectives are looking for the other attackers; so, if you have any information about this incident, please call the Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 800-273-TIPS. It is not uncommon for residents of nearly all-white towns to be charged with hate crimes (regardless of the bias motivation for the hate crime) or to be involved in bias-motivated violence; and, as of the 2000 U.S. Census Palm City, Florida, was 96.56% White, and only 2.77% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 1.08% African American, 1.03% Asian, 0.13% Native American, 0.40% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races.