North Carolina
Governor signs bill defining antisemitism
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday signed legislation that places an official definition of antisemitism into state law, which supporters say could help law enforcement determine whether someone should be charged under current hate crime prohibitions based on race, religion or nationality.
The measure came to Cooper’s desk after the Senate and House approved it in near-unanimous votes last week. The bipartisan backing followed recent heated nationwide campus protests over the Israel-Hamas War and supporters’ concerns that some comments by pro-Palestinian demonstrators had crossed the line into being antisemitic.
The act adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which is outlined as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” It also includes several examples of antisemitism, such as the denial of Jewish people’s right to self-determination and applying double standards to Israel’s actions.
In a statement Monday, Cooper said the now-enacted “SHALOM Act” addresses rising antisemitism.
A coalition of civil liberties and multifaith groups opposed the legislation, saying it could stifle protesters’ otherwise free speech, particularly of words critical of Israel. Opponents demonstrated outside the governor’s mansion late last week urging that he veto the bill.
Florida
Man flies to Florida to attack another player over an online gaming dispute
FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online gaming dispute made its way to the real world when a New Jersey man flew to Florida to attack another player with a hammer, authorities said.
Edward Kang, 20, is charged with attempted second-degree murder and armed burglary with a mask, according to Nassau County court records. He was arrested early Sunday morning.
“I just want to let you know, this is a weird one,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said during a news conference on Monday. “Some things you just can’t make up.”
Kang and the victim, another young man around the same age as Kang, had never met in real life, but they both played ArcheAge, a medieval fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Leeper said.
The game’s publisher announced in April that it would be shutting down servers in Europe and North America on June 27, citing a declining number of active players.
Kang flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Jacksonville, Florida, last Thursday after telling his mother that he was going to visit a friend that he had met while playing a video game, officials said. Officials didn’t say how Kang learned where the victim lives. Upon arrival, Kang took an Uber to a hotel in Fernandina Beach, about 35 miles north of Jacksonville, and then bought a hammer at a local hardware store, deputies said.
Kang went to the victim’s Fernandina Beach home, which was unlocked, around 2 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. The victim was walking out of his bedroom when he was confronted by Kang, who hit him on the head with the hammer, officials said. The two struggled as the victim called for help. His stepfather responded and helped to restrain Kang until police arrived.
The victim suffered several head wounds that were not considered life-threatening, officials said. He received staples at the hospital.
Once in custody, Kang told investigators that the victim is a “bad person online,” officials said. He also asked deputies how much jail time people got for breaking and entering and assault.
“I would say Mr. Kang, it’s going to be a long time before you play video games again,” Leeper said.
Online court records didn’t list an attorney for Kang. He was being held without bond.
Virginia
Court orders white nationalists to pay $2M more for Unite the Right violence
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Four years after violence erupted during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, a jury ordered white nationalist leaders and organizations to pay a total of more than $26 million in damages to people with physical or emotional injuries from the event.
Most of that money — $24 million — was for punitive damages, but a judge later slashed that amount to $350,000 — to be shared by eight plaintiffs. On Monday, a federal appeals court restored more than $2 million in punitive damages, finding that each of the plaintiffs should receive $350,000, instead of the $43,750 each would have received under the lower court’s ruling.
A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s award of $2 million in compensatory damages, but found that a state law that imposes the $350,000 cap on punitive damages should be applied per person instead of for all eight plaintiffs, as a lower court judge ruled.
The ruling stems from a federal lawsuit against two dozen white nationalists and organizations that participated in two days of demonstrations in Charlottesville to protest the city’s plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
On the second day, after the “Unite the Right” rally had been declared an unlawful assembly, James Alex Fields Jr., a white supremacist from Maumee, Ohio, intentionally drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens more. Fields, who was one of the defendants in the civil case, is now serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes.
The 4th Circuit panel rejected a request from the defendants that the court ask the Supreme Court of Virginia to rule on the question of whether each plaintiff can receive $350,000 in punitive damages, saying in its ruling that it found the state law’s language and history “clear enough to predict how Virginia’s high court would rule.”
“Over two years ago, the jury used its $24 million punitive damages award to send an unmistakable message to the defendants and to the public about the outrageous misconduct that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. While the law compels us to reduce the award, it’s long past time for that message to be delivered,” Chief Judge Albert Diaz wrote in the 3-0 ruling.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they were pleased by the court’s ruling.
“Today’s decision restores over $2 million in punitive damages from the jury’s verdict, which sent a clear message against racist and antisemitic hate and violence,” attorneys Roberta Kaplan, David E. Mills and Gabrielle E. Tenzer said in a statement.
The verdict from the 2021 trial was a rebuke to the white nationalist movement, particularly for the two dozen individuals and organizations accused in a federal lawsuit of orchestrating violence against African Americans, Jewish people and others in a meticulously planned conspiracy.
Governor signs bill defining antisemitism
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday signed legislation that places an official definition of antisemitism into state law, which supporters say could help law enforcement determine whether someone should be charged under current hate crime prohibitions based on race, religion or nationality.
The measure came to Cooper’s desk after the Senate and House approved it in near-unanimous votes last week. The bipartisan backing followed recent heated nationwide campus protests over the Israel-Hamas War and supporters’ concerns that some comments by pro-Palestinian demonstrators had crossed the line into being antisemitic.
The act adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which is outlined as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” It also includes several examples of antisemitism, such as the denial of Jewish people’s right to self-determination and applying double standards to Israel’s actions.
In a statement Monday, Cooper said the now-enacted “SHALOM Act” addresses rising antisemitism.
A coalition of civil liberties and multifaith groups opposed the legislation, saying it could stifle protesters’ otherwise free speech, particularly of words critical of Israel. Opponents demonstrated outside the governor’s mansion late last week urging that he veto the bill.
Florida
Man flies to Florida to attack another player over an online gaming dispute
FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online gaming dispute made its way to the real world when a New Jersey man flew to Florida to attack another player with a hammer, authorities said.
Edward Kang, 20, is charged with attempted second-degree murder and armed burglary with a mask, according to Nassau County court records. He was arrested early Sunday morning.
“I just want to let you know, this is a weird one,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said during a news conference on Monday. “Some things you just can’t make up.”
Kang and the victim, another young man around the same age as Kang, had never met in real life, but they both played ArcheAge, a medieval fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Leeper said.
The game’s publisher announced in April that it would be shutting down servers in Europe and North America on June 27, citing a declining number of active players.
Kang flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Jacksonville, Florida, last Thursday after telling his mother that he was going to visit a friend that he had met while playing a video game, officials said. Officials didn’t say how Kang learned where the victim lives. Upon arrival, Kang took an Uber to a hotel in Fernandina Beach, about 35 miles north of Jacksonville, and then bought a hammer at a local hardware store, deputies said.
Kang went to the victim’s Fernandina Beach home, which was unlocked, around 2 a.m. Sunday, authorities said. The victim was walking out of his bedroom when he was confronted by Kang, who hit him on the head with the hammer, officials said. The two struggled as the victim called for help. His stepfather responded and helped to restrain Kang until police arrived.
The victim suffered several head wounds that were not considered life-threatening, officials said. He received staples at the hospital.
Once in custody, Kang told investigators that the victim is a “bad person online,” officials said. He also asked deputies how much jail time people got for breaking and entering and assault.
“I would say Mr. Kang, it’s going to be a long time before you play video games again,” Leeper said.
Online court records didn’t list an attorney for Kang. He was being held without bond.
Virginia
Court orders white nationalists to pay $2M more for Unite the Right violence
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Four years after violence erupted during the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, a jury ordered white nationalist leaders and organizations to pay a total of more than $26 million in damages to people with physical or emotional injuries from the event.
Most of that money — $24 million — was for punitive damages, but a judge later slashed that amount to $350,000 — to be shared by eight plaintiffs. On Monday, a federal appeals court restored more than $2 million in punitive damages, finding that each of the plaintiffs should receive $350,000, instead of the $43,750 each would have received under the lower court’s ruling.
A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s award of $2 million in compensatory damages, but found that a state law that imposes the $350,000 cap on punitive damages should be applied per person instead of for all eight plaintiffs, as a lower court judge ruled.
The ruling stems from a federal lawsuit against two dozen white nationalists and organizations that participated in two days of demonstrations in Charlottesville to protest the city’s plan to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
On the second day, after the “Unite the Right” rally had been declared an unlawful assembly, James Alex Fields Jr., a white supremacist from Maumee, Ohio, intentionally drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens more. Fields, who was one of the defendants in the civil case, is now serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes.
The 4th Circuit panel rejected a request from the defendants that the court ask the Supreme Court of Virginia to rule on the question of whether each plaintiff can receive $350,000 in punitive damages, saying in its ruling that it found the state law’s language and history “clear enough to predict how Virginia’s high court would rule.”
“Over two years ago, the jury used its $24 million punitive damages award to send an unmistakable message to the defendants and to the public about the outrageous misconduct that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. While the law compels us to reduce the award, it’s long past time for that message to be delivered,” Chief Judge Albert Diaz wrote in the 3-0 ruling.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they were pleased by the court’s ruling.
“Today’s decision restores over $2 million in punitive damages from the jury’s verdict, which sent a clear message against racist and antisemitic hate and violence,” attorneys Roberta Kaplan, David E. Mills and Gabrielle E. Tenzer said in a statement.
The verdict from the 2021 trial was a rebuke to the white nationalist movement, particularly for the two dozen individuals and organizations accused in a federal lawsuit of orchestrating violence against African Americans, Jewish people and others in a meticulously planned conspiracy.
