Hal Turner's history of hate and intimidation

SPLC

Here in the United States people have the right to engage in a wide variety of public speech, even when a majority of their fellow citizens find that speech to be hateful or offensive. White supremacist Hal Turner has taken advantage of that right for years. Yesterday he was arrested by the FBI for threatening federal judges.

Turner has been engaging in hateful and threatening speech for years.  I first heard of him during the investigation into the murder of Judge Lefkow's husband and mother in 2005.  He was already well known to the Southern Poverty Law Center as a prominent white supremacist who openly advocated violence against judges, and was considered one of 40 prominent hate figures in an SPLC Intelligence Report in 2003.

Let me give you some examples of Turner's speech.  These quotes were compiled by the Anti Defamation League:

"I think a full day of violence against blacks . . . would be a really nice thing . . . complete with lynchings, church burnings, drive-by shootings and bombings to put these subhuman animals back in their place."

"Let me blunt; by 'violence' I mean KILLING elected officials and judges whose sinister, evil exercise of power has struck at the very heart of what America really is : A Constitutional Republic based upon White Christian values...I am ready to do what's needed.  Are you?"

"Let me just take this opportunity to remind U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton, that I, me, Hal Turner, uttered on this radio show that a ruling that had been made by a different Federal Judge, Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, in Chicago...I uttered that her ruling made her worthy of being killed and in March of this year her family was murdered.  I don't like this ruling that was issued by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in San Francisco, saying that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. I hope I don't have to make a similar utterance about Judge Karlton like I made about Judge Lefkow.  You people on the Federal Bench think you can't be gotten to...you *can* [asterisks in original] be gotten to."

"To my knowledge, mine is the only web site in the world that talks about killing Supreme Court justices and members of Congress in THIS piece....I actually use the term "patriotic assassination!"....So, here it is for all to see. The corridors of power DO IN FACT tremble at what is spoken on this web site and on my radio show. We ARE being heard. They apparently FEAR us."

You get the idea.  So, if Turner has been going on like this for years, why was he only arrested yesterday?  Can Turner claim, as Amy Guth mentioned, that he is only engaging in "creative non-fiction"?

Chicago Bar-Tender Marian Wang went looking for more information and found that Turner's blog has been flagged.  She helpfully posted a link to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Apparently Turner crossed the line when, in addition to making threats and encouraging others to kill judges, he posted the judge's photographs, phone numbers and addresses on his website.  Even if Turner himself wasn't going to pull the trigger, he knew that one of his readers surely could, especially given the information that Turner provided.

Turner had also spoken out on the Matthew Hale case, posting information on judges who heard Hale's appeal.  Hale is currently serving a 40 year sentence for attempting to hire someone to kill a federal judge.  Matthew Hale was the founder of a white supremacist group called "World Church of the Creator". 

In 1998, a north shore skinhead named Benjamin Smith, a close friend and follower of Hale, went on a killing spree over the fourth of July weekend.  Smith wounded 6 Orthodox Jews in Rogers Park, killed former Northwestern baskeball coach Ricky Byrdsong (an African American) in Skokie, wounded an African American minister in Decatur, Illinois, killed a Korean student in Bloomington, Indiana, and then killed himself after a police chase.  Smith also shot at a number of other intended victims along the way.  Hale met with Smith shortly before the attacks, and Hale subsequently referred to Smith as a hero and martyr.

People need to understand that, for the Hal Turners and Matt Hales of the world, words do in fact have consequences.