On this date in 2001, in Las Vegas, Nevada, racist skinhead and leader of the Independent Nazi Skins, John Edward “Polar Bear” Butler, 28, was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murders of two anti-racist skinheads on July 4, 1998. Butler—who was ordered to have a new sentencing hearing on December 21, 2004, by the Nevada State Supreme Court because of inflammatory statements made at the original sentencing by the prosecution—lured Lin Newborn, 24, of Las Vegas who was a black singer and father of a two-year-old, and Daniel Shersty, 21, who was a white airman at the Nellis Air Force Base, into the desert outside Las Vegas where he shot and killed the two men who fought to end racism. Newborn and Shersty were ambushed near Powerline Road and Centennial Parkway; their bodies were found on July 6, 1998.

On this date in 2010 in the early morning hours on a Chicago Transit Authority Red Line train near the Argyle stop, a white gay man, Daniel Hauff, 33, a resident of the Rogers Park neighborhood, was physically attacked and had anti-gay slurs hurled at him allegedly by three Evanston, Illinois, men—Kevin McAndrew, 23, Benjamin Eder, 23, both of whom are white, and Loyola University of Chicago student Sean Little, 21, who is black—after Mr. Hauff had tried to stop a verbal argument that erupted when McAndrew allegedly began bullying another gay "L" rider. Little allegedly began calling Mr. Hauff a "faggot" before the physical assault occurred during which time the victim continued to have anti-gay slurs hurled at him. Mr. Hauff was only able to stop the attack by (falsely) claiming he had AIDS. He was briefly hospitalized and suffered injuries to his face, chest, back, knee, and foot. McAndrew, Eder, and Little were originally charged with midemeanor battery, but on February 23, 2010, those charges were dropped and the three were immediately re-arrested and charged with felonies. On February 24, 2010, Cook County Judge Ramon Ocasio III upheld the hate crime charges against McAndrew, Eder and Little that were filed by the Cook County States Attorney's Office. The three defendants—who were originally arrested immediately following the attack on Mr. Hauff and who asked the victim if they were going to contract AIDS because they had Mr. Hauff's blood on them—were each charged with one count of aggravated battery one count of a hate crime. They were indicted on March 17, 2010. Their trial is scheduled to begin on November 7, 2011.

At the Orange County Housing Authority office at 1170 North Broadway in Santa Ana, California, on this date in 2011, someone spray-painted racist and threatening remarks directed against Asian-Americans and African-Americans in what police have called a hate crime. See our entry below for information about the person arrested for this incident and other similar incidents in Orange County. There were nine separate cases of hate-crime vandalisms in January 2011 in Irvine, Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Brea, California.

On this date in 2011 in Anaheim, California, someone spray-painted "Kill the Cathlics" (sic) on a wall at the Saint Boniface Catholic Church located at 120 North Janss Street. On the same date it was discovered that someone had also spray-painted the same misspelled anti-Catholic threat 20 miles away on a walkway at St. Thomas More parish at 51 Marketplace in Irvine, California. In all there were nine hateful grafitti attacks in Anaheim, Irvine, Brea, and Santa Ana, California, around this date in 2011 and the slurs—which included this hateful threat "Kill the slit-eye chink niggers" which was spray-painted across the wall of a Chase bank in East Anaheim, California—targeted Mexicans, Asians, Filipinos, Blacks, and Catholics. On February 14, 2011, a white woman with a previous criminal history including Assault & Battery and Hit & Run charges, Kim Rebar Henry, whose age at the time was either 53 or 56, of Fullerton, California, was arrested on one felony count of vandalism and one count of damage to property to violate civil rights (a hate crime) for allegedly committing one of these nine vandalism crimes, specifically, the crime at the Orange County Housing Authority (see our entry above). According to Anaheim police Sergeant Rick Martinez, although Kim Henry was arrested for one of the nine incidents of hateful vandalism, "we believe she's responsible for all of them." Kim Henry was booked at the Orange County Jail.

On this date in 2011 outside the American Legion Hall on Route 107 in Deerfield, New Hampshire, a Christmas nativity scene was severely damaged by vandals. It is unknown to us if the Deerfield Police Department labelled the vandalism a hate crime. It is not uncommon for residents of predominently white towns to commit bias-motivated crimes (regardless of the bias motivation for the hate crime); and, as of the 2000 U.S. Census, Deerfield, New Hampshire was 98.53% White and only 0.16% Black or African-American, 0.30% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 0.14% Native-American, and 0.14% Asian.

On this date in 2011, at the Statesville Correctional Center—a maximum-security state prison in Crest Hill, Illinois—a white hate crime convict, Randy J. Deskin, 33 (DOB: July 28, 1977), of Green Valley, Illinois, was scheduled to be paroled after serving part of a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for committing an aggravated battery in a public place in Tazewill County Illinois. However, on January 7, 2011, the Illinois State Police instead arrested Deskin—who previously had been convicted of a hate crime in 2001 (for which he was given a three-year sentence), of obstruction of justice in 2001, transporting anhydrous amonia in 2002, along with committing a drug-related crime involving crystal methamphetimine in 2008, all committed in Tazewell County, and who also had a prior history of violating the conditions of parole—for the murder of a white man, Dustin Englebrecht, 27, of rural Mason City, Illinois, who at the time of his slaying was engaged to be married. Mr. Englebrecht was found in a shallow grave near his property outside Mason City, Illinois, on September 7, 2009; he disappeared on August 28, 2009. Randy Deskin—who was friends with Mr. Englebrecht—was indicted January 7, 2011, on three counts of first-degree murder by a Mason County grand jury. Deskin is also a suspect in the murder of Ritchie Neavear, 18, of Pekin, Illinois, who was killed in 1995. Randy J. Deskin's murder trial is scheduled for July, 2011. It is not uncommon for those who have been charged and/or convicted of hate crimes to have been involved in other criminal activity. In addition, 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 Randy Deskin's hometown of Green Valley, Illinois, was 99.04% White, and only 0.14% African-American, 0.27% Native American, 0.27% Asian, and only 0.69% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

On this date in 2012 in Huntington, New York (on Long Island) a white man, Stephen Pratt, 55, of Centerport, New York, was arrested after police officers saw him throw a glass bottle from his vehicle on the driveway of the Masijid Noor mosque on Park Avenue. Pratt was charged with second-degree harassment in the incident; and, he was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime for allegedly tossing a container of white concrete sealer on the driveway of the mosque on December 31, 2011. He was arraigned out of the First District Court in Central Islip, New York, on January 11, 2012.