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Hal Turner

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Harold "Hal" Turner is an Internet radio talk show host from North Bergen, New Jersey, USA sometimes labeled a white supremacist and supporter of violence against minorities and government officials. His program, The Hal Turner Show, was broadcast from his home in North Bergen, New Jersey via the Internet on Wednesday evenings. He is also the owner and operator of the Turner Radio Network.

In 2000, Turner sought the local Republican Party nomination for election in his local congressional district but lost to Democrat Bob Menendez and six other candidates (including another Republican, Theresa de Leon).

Turner was also the campaign manager for Murray Sabrin, who is Jewish, in a number of campaigns in New Jersey in the 1990s according to various sources including Sabrin's website. Turner has made monetary contributions to the Sabrin campaign as recently as 2000, according to the Federal Election Commission.


The Hal Turner Show

Turner has been criticized by the Southern Poverty Law Center for saying, "I advocate using extreme violence against illegal aliens. Clean your guns. Have plenty of ammunition. Find out where the largest gathering of illegal aliens will be near you. Go to the area well in advance, scope out several places to position yourself and then do what has to be done."

"Rally against violence"

On November 19, 2005, a rally was organized in response to the assault of a 14-year old white student, seriously injured by an older black student at Kingston High School. The white student's injuries required several reconstructive surgeries, and Turner made much of the suffering of the child on his radio show, often even engaging the child's mother on the air, to discuss her sadness and outrage; while Turner occasionally implied that the black boy "did not face any sanction" on his radio show, the 16-year old was in actuality charged as an adult with two felony counts, assault and attempted assault.

According to the mother of the victim, the assailant referred to the victim as a "white nigger" prior to the assault. A grand jury investigated the incident, and found that race was not a factor in the assault. Nonetheless, Turner aggressively pursued his "Rally Against Violence" by appealing to "pro-whites" with unsubstantiated allegations of black students terrorizing white students throughout the high school in the town; Turner claimed to have received a barrage of emails from "students in that high school that tell me these things are so terrible that they are afraid to go to (school)", marketing the appeal of the rally jointly not only to white supremacists, but also to anyone who misperceived the rally as indeed a rally "against violence." While the victim's mother at first suggested that she would attend the event, she ultimately declined, indicating that she is "not a racist".

Fight with Former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Jaime Vazquez

On April 12, 2006, Turner had a physical altercation with Jaime Vazquez, a former Jersey City Deputy Mayor and member of the Jersey City Council, at that time, Jersey City Commissioner of Veterans' Affairs. Commissioner Vazquez, a disabled, Purple Heart-awarded Vietnam veteran, was conducting a protest in front of Turner's house in response to Turner's hiring an airplane to carry a banner with an anti-Mexican slur over a political rally at Jersey City's Liberty State Park, and to comments he made about the rally. The North Bergen (N.J.) Reporter quoted Turner as saying "(t)he illegal immigrants are breaking the law, and people like me should break the law as well by shooting them down." In response, Vazquez protested with a sign that stated: "Hal Turner -- shoot me! Racists and bigots like you are cowards." Turner confronted Vazquez and a fight ensued, in the course of which Vazquez hurt his back and fractured his wrist.

Turner and Vazquez filed criminal charges against each other, but a Municipal Court Judge of the North Bergen Municipal Court subsequently found neither man criminally liable on July 16, 2006. Judge Joseph "Jay" Romano stated in his ruling:

"Frankly, I find both witnesses to be credible. I find both witnesses to be vehement in espousing their views and because their views diverge, there has to be some tension. Who pushed who is something this court cannot determine beyond a reasonable doubt."

Website controversies

Hal Turner's radio show was taken offline in February 2007 after a number of incidents on the Internet.

On December 31, 2006 a message was posted on his blog stating that he is "as of now, DEFEATED", due to alleged ongoing attacks against his web site by various individuals, who Turner claims are working together against him. He has stated he believes many originate from several websites, namely 4chan.org, ebaumsworld.com and 7chan.org. He claimed to file suits against these individuals, the details of which are available on PACER. However, he soon edited his blog post to state that his show will continue to be aired on the radio even if presently unavailable on the Internet, and his intention to rebuild his Internet presence with better hosting services. His site has undergone numerous periods of downtime, as of February 1, 2007, it has been removed from its original data center, and was briefly re-hosted until members of the One People's Project sent the host a notice that Hal's site was in violation of the AUP. Hal's site is currently not hosted. Mr. Turner claims that his was the brunt of a widespread DDoS attack, organized by individuals against his cause. Three hosting centers have canceled their contracts with him short, due to the massive amounts of traffic, which affects not just Hal's server, but their other customers too. Others are refusing to allow his server to be collocated with them at all.

Causes

Hal has stated numerous times that the negative attention he was receiving (in the form of mail harassment, prank calls, and web traffic), was due to his pro-white agenda. Hal used the argument that his opponents should use logical arguments instead of base attacks to reason with him.

The attackers on the other hand, claimed that their intent was to destroy Hal out of revenge. Hal Turner posted personal information on his web site about certain individuals, and the close knit community struck hard and fast after Hal refused to remove the information. Turner removed it for a short time, but put it back up when he became frustrated with the situation. This only made the attackers more angry.

"Assassination schedule"

On December 6, 2006, Turner announced on his website,

We may have to ASSASSINATE some of the people you elect on Nov. 7! This could be your LAST ELECTION CHANCE, to save this Republic... Sorry to have to be so blunt, but the country is in mortal danger from our present government and our liberty is already near dead because of this government. If you are too stupid to turn things around with your vote, there are people out here like me who are willing to turn things around with guns, force and violence. We hope our method does not become necessary.

According to news reports, the Secret Service would not comment and the FBI had no statement about ongoing investigations of Hal Turner.

References

  1. "White Supremacist Radio Host Urges Bombings, Assassinations". Anti-Defamation League. 2005-03-22. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  2. "Hal Turner in His Own Words". Anti-Defamation League. 2006-04-06. Retrieved 2007-01-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  3. "Congressional Races". Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  4. "F.E.C. IMAGE 20020212929 (Page 13 of 25)". Retrieved 2007-01-01.
  5. Buchanan, Susy and Holthouse, David (2006-03-30). "Extremists advocate murder of immigrants, politicians". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2007-01-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Fairchild, Mary (2005-12-14). "KHS teen indicted for assault, not hate crime". DailyFreeman.com. Retrieved 2007-01-01. Cite error: The named reference "DailyFreeman-assault" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ Paul Kirby (2005-11-08). "Supremacist vows KHS rally". DailyFreeman.com. Retrieved 2007-01-01. Cite error: The named reference "DailyFreeman-rally" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. "Media do not agree about Hal Turner's Kingston Rally". national-socialism.us. 2005-11-20. Retrieved 2007-01-01. (Warning: Neo-Nazi site, might be illegal to view in Germany and other countries)
  9. UPI Wire Hate Talker's Assault Trial Delayed The Post Chronicle May 19, 2006
  10. Jim Hague No charges in case of ex-councilman v. white supremacist Hudson Reporter/NorthBergenReporter.com July 16, 2006
  11. Dallas Morning News. Hate-talk radio host down in mouth. 6 February 2007
  12. The US PACER Site
  13. Official show blog
  14. Hal Turner's blog]
  15. ^ 'Assassination' schedule announced for Congress: Radio-show host says leaders won't be allowed to 'betray' nation World News Daily, December 6, 2006

External links

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