In 2000 on this date in an Arizona courtroom, high school student and white supremacist gang member Matt Torres was handed a six-month jail sentence for a gang assault on a Mesa, Arizona teenager at a Taco Bell in Gilbert, Arizona, in 1999. Michael Spears, another member of the Gilbert, Arizona, white supremacist gang known as the Devil Dogs, pleaded guilty to felony assault charges stemming a month later on February 7, 2000. In all, seven Devil Dogs gang members pleaded guilty. Several weeks later, on February 24, 2000, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, a former Mafia hit man who testified against mob boss John Gotti, was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona for financing an “Ecstasy” drug ring connected to the Devil Dogs who Gravano was said to have used.

On this date in 2007, the body of Cha Vang, 30, was found on a wildlife refuge near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Hmong man was shot and stabbed five times to death. "I know there are many people in the Hmong community and the community at large, that are wondering if this is a hate crime," Dick Campbell, spokesman for Mr. Vang's widow said after the first-degree murder charge against a 28-year old white man, James Allen Nichols of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was announced. James Nichols, who had previous convictions for burglary (three counts) and criminal damage to property, although charged with Mr. Vang's murder and other related charges, was never charged with a hate crime; many in the Hmong community had called for such a charge. Prosecutors, however, argued that anti-Hmong statements Nichols made to authorities and to his former employer was evidence the slaying was intentional and based on bias. On October 6, 2007, Nichols was convicted of second-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and on November 28, 2007, Marinette County Circuit Judge David Miron sentenced Nichols, then 29 years old, to 69 years in prison and 30 years extended supervision following his prison term.

On this date in 2008, at the Jewish Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois (also known as Norridge Park Township), an unincorporated suburb of Chicago, 57 gravestones were vandalized with anti-Semitic words and messages, including numerous swastikas, a Star of David hanging from a gallows, and the words "Juden Raus" which translates from German to "Jew Out." Approximately $100,000 in damage was done as a result of the actions of the spray-painting vandal. Law enforcement investigated the crime as a hate crime, authorities immediately speculated the calculated work of adults in the incident, and on January 31, 2008, authorities arrested a 21-year-old Polish immigrant for committing the vandalism, Mariusz Wdziekonski, of Norridge. Wdziekonski, who came to the United States in 2004, initially admitted he is a member of an Illinois neo-Nazi group. Additionally, Wdziekonski, who authorities said also had belonged to a neo-Nazi group in Poland, faced up to seven years in prison if convicted as charged. On February 2, 2008, he had to surrender his passport and his bail was set at $250,000 bond. On December 3, 2010, Mariusz Wdziekonski, 24, who testified in his own defense at his trial claiming that he was not a neo-Nazi but merely a collector of Nazi memorabilia, was found guilty by a jury in Skokie, Illinois (at trial prosecutors told jurors he was a member of the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Movement and they showed jurors pictures of Wdziekonski dressed as a German storm-trooper). On December 17, 2010, Wdziekonski was sentenced to the maximum by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Larry Axelrood for two felony vandalism charges: seven years in prison. Wdziekonski, who was in custody awaiting trial for nearly three years prior to his conviction, is to complete his prison term by mid-2011. Upon his release from prison, Wdziekonski could be deported back to Poland. Should he be deported, Wdziekonski would not be the first European-born person to be deported from the United States because of acts of anti-Semitic hatred.

In South Haven, Indiana (Porter County), on this date in 2011, a 24-year-old black man from Gary, Indiana, was beaten and kicked in the parking lot of the Sportsman’s Bar, located at 381 West U.S. 6, by three white men who hurled racist slurs at him. The victim and a black friend he was with were told to leave the bar by a bartender who advised them that the three white assailants were racists and "were probably going to start something." If you have any information about this race-based attack, please call Sgt. Gary Gear at the Porter County Sheriff's Department at (219) 477-3000, extension 3131. According to 2000 U.S. Census, South Haven, Indiana, was 96.85% White, 0.37% African-American or Black, 0.23% Native American, and 0.25% Asian; and, it is not uncommon for residents of overwhelmingly white communities to commit hate crimes (regardless of the bias motivation for the hate crime).

In the Green Lake neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, on this date in 2011, James R. Maciel, 28, of Seattle, allegedly accosted a man at a Green Lake apartment elevator, and then wielding a knife and claiming to be a U.S. Marshal, James Maciel allegedly yelled an anti-black slur at the victim, told the man he did not belong in the United States, and allegedly tackled his victim. Maciel was charged with malicious harassment (a hate crime), and following his arrest at the scene, he was jailed on $10,000 bail.

Inside the South Ninth Street firehouse on this date in 2011 in Newark, New Jersey (Essex County), a white firefighter allegedly called an African-American firefighter a "monkey" and a "gorilla" several times after a verbal argument that led to the firefighters shoving one another; and, on January 7, 2011 at the same firehouse a noose was discovered sitting on top of a snowblower. The noose was made by a Hispanic firefighter. Newark Fire Director Fateen Ziyad said than an investigation revealed that the two incidents were not racially motivated. However, a group of about150 African-American firefighters, the Vulcan Pioneers decried the incidents as race-motivated and they asked that policies be put into place to prevent such occurances from happening again. Representatives from the Newark chapter of the United Civil Servants Association said the Vulcan Pioneers were creating morale problems within the department and were politicizing the incidents. Mr. Ziyad mandated sensitivity training after the incidents were made public. To our knowledge no one was arrested, although the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office investigated the incidents.

On an unnamed road near Desert Foothills Parkway and Chandler Boulevard in the Ahwatukee neighborhood of Phoenix, Arizona, on this date in 2012 a large red swastika spray-painted was discovered. It is unknown whether this was classified as a hate crime by local police.

In the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on this date in 2012 someone left a device that was thought to be a bomb at the Bible Baptist Church located in the 13700 block of Fenton Avenue. Bomb technicians used explosives to tear open the device, which was found near a broken window; and, the incident was investigated as a possible hate crime.

On this date in 2012 in Ulster County, New York, Jason Gambino, an 18-year-old junior at the Rondout Valley High School in Accord, New York, was arrested and charged with felony stalking as a hate crime, and misdemeanor harassment for allegedly stalking and threatening another male student based on the victim's sexual orientation. Gambino, who was suspended from school following his arrest, pleaded not guilty. At the time of Gambino's arrest the investigation was ongoing and the Ulster County Sheriff's Department said there were additional charges pending.