In Lubbock, Texas on this date in 1995 two white men, Roy Ray Martin, and Eli Trevino Mungia, and Ricky Rivera Mungia, a Native American man , were indicted on nine counts of violating federal criminal civil rights and gun laws. The three are alleged to have driven through the streets of Lubbock in October, 1994 hunting black for men, luring them to their car, and shooting them at close range with a short-barreled shotgun in hopes to start a race war. One black man was murdered and two others were seriously wounded. Martin and Eli Mungia are serving life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado; Ricky Mungia is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Louisiana.

In New York on this date in 2007, Kevin M. Brown pleaded guilty to second and third-degree assault as a hate crime for attacking two Asian teenagers. Brown, who is white, was sentenced to 3½ years in prison, and 2½ years of post-release supervision for beating two 19-year-olds, Reyold Liang and John Lu, who were driving in the city's Queens borough in August, 2006, when they were rammed by a car carrying Brown who was shouting racial slurs and cursing. Paul Heavey, a white 21-year-old college student from Queens, also pleaded guilty for his alleged role in the attack days later. He faces five years probation and 75 hours of community service at his May 21, 2007 sentencing. Heavey also must apologize.

On this date in 2009 in Roosevelt, New York on Long Island (Nassau County), an African-American man, Daryl Jackson, 52, of Roosevelt, was beaten with baseball bats and fists while standing in from of a deli on Nassau Road allegedly by a group of five to eight Latino assailants some of whom hurled racial slurs at him according to both eyewitnesses and the victim. Mr. Jackson was hospitalized at the Nassau University Medical Center, where he was treated for head, neck and back injuries sustained in the attack. Arrested were three members of the Vargas family who run the deli where Mr. Jackson was attacked: Jose Miguel Vargas, 35, of Freeport, New York, was charged with weapons possession in addition to assault; Percio Vargas, 53, of the Bronx, Jose's father; and, Kelvin Vargas, 24, of Freeport, Jose's nephew. Also arrested was Juan Nuñez, a New York City police officer at the 101st Precinct in Queens, who is from Freeport. Despite racial epithets used by the attackers, including the N-word, Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said those charged would not face hate crime charges. This exemplifies why Long Island, New York, topped our list of the most hateful places to live in 2008.

On this date in 2011 along Highway 334 east of Forrest City, Arkansas, the murdered body of an African-American transgendered woman, Marcal Camero Tye, 25, of Forrest City, was discovered. On March 10, 2011, just as the investigation was getting underway, St. Francis County Sheriff Bobby May, who is white, said, "I think at this point we can safely say, and the federal authorities feel this way too, that this was not a hate crime." However, an FBI spokesman from Little Rock, Arkansas, said the FBI opened an investigation of the murder of Ms. Tye because they believe it could have been a hate crime (and, if so, the perpetrator(s) could be prosecuted under federal law). Perhaps Bobby May knew something about the FBI's investigation before it started: five days after his statement, the FBI had concluded that Ms. Tye was not the victim of a hate crime. Yet, they offered no motive for her slaying. Authorities believe that a car dragged Ms. Tye's body about 300 feet; it was also reported that she had been shot in the head with a .32-caliber weapon. Arkansas does not have a hate crime statute, so even if the perpetrator is arrested and even if it were to be believed then that Ms. Tye's murder was a hate crime, the perpetrator(s) cannot be charged under Arkansas state law with a hate crime. If you have any information about this homicide, please contact the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department at 870-633-2611.

On this date in 2011 in Palo Alto, California, Travis Wellman, 26, of San Bruno, California, was arrested and booked on suspicion of battery and committing a hate crime in the 500 block of Ramona Street. We have no further information about this incident.

On this date in 2011 it was reported in the press that someone spray-painted anti-Semitic symbols (including a swastika), anti-Semitic phrases ("Juden Go Home" and "Go Home Jews"), and a white-supremacist directive ("White Revolution Only Solution") on a shed at the Comstock Cemetery on Depot Road in the Uncasville area of Montville, Connecticut. Town council member Donna Jacobson, who is Jewish, correctly called the vandalism a hate crime and correctly called the crime "absolutely unacceptable." Several tombstones at the cemetery were also defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti in June 2010.