Bigotry Monitor: Volume 8, Number 47
December 5, 2008
“A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious Persecution in the Former Communist World and Western Europe.”
Edited by Charles Fenyvesi // Published by UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
Rising hostility to migrants, crimes by migrants and against them, and far-right xenophobic activism spilling over to antisemitism are the trends pointing to a new, potentially unstable period ahead for Russia.
1. INTERIOR MINISTRY: EXTREMIST CRIMES IN RUSSIA TRIPLED IN FOUR YEARS.
2. RACIST VIOLENCE CLAIMED 18 VICTIMS IN NOVEMBER. A different summary of extremist violence was presented by a nongovernmental organization that tracks hate crimes in Russia. The Sova Center for Information and Analysis reported on December 1 that in the month of November, up to 18 people became victims of racist and neo-Nazi violence, including three fatalities. Besides Moscow, the crimes were reported in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, and Kaliningrad.
3. ANTI-MIGRANT MARCH TURNS ANTISEMITIC.
4. PUTIN: GLOBAL CRISIS AFFECTS RUSSIAN ECONOMY MINIMALLY.
5. NEO-NAZIS ATTACK MINORITY STUDENTS, THEN POLICE BEAT THE STUDENTS.
6. THREE NEO-NAZIS ATTACK JEWISH MUSICIAN.
7. AZERI REFUGEE BEATEN IN MOSCOW.
8. NEO-NAZIS STAB AZERI IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD.
9. ANTI-FASCIST STABBED IN IZHEVSK. An anti-fascist activist was hospitalized with stab wounds after a brawl with neo-Nazis in an Izhevsk, Russia (Republic of Udmurtiya) concert hall, according to a December 3 report by the Regions.ru news web site. The 20-year-old victim, identified only as Dmitry S., was stabbed on November 29, spent two days in the emergency room, and is now in stable condition. Security guards detained several neo-Nazis and turned them over to police who are currently deciding how to charge the suspects.
10. MOSCOW COURT FINDS 7 BONEHEADS GUILTY OF 20 KILLINGS.
11. EXTREMIST WEEKLY TO SHUT DOWN.
12. STONES THROWN AT UKRAINIAN SYNAGOGUE’S WINDOWS.
13. TURKMEN POLICE THREATEN INCARCERATION AND RAPE.
14. KAZAKHSTAN: RESTRICTIVE LAW ON RELIGION GOES TO PRESIDENT.
- “As I stated on the Bombshell forum Andy, you are a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash that you fight against.” ~ Dion, December 2007
“No offence but honestly who gives a shit about some skinhead in Russia.” Nowave, Melbourne Punx Forum, October 2008
“Why are people so unkind?” ~ Kamahl, May 1978
Burnout: Vinlanders Social Club on the Decline
David Holthouse and Laurie Wood
Intelligence Report
Winter 2008
Indianapolis, Ind. — It was judgment day for the Butcher.
Wearing a blood-red prisoner’s jumpsuit, the co-founder of the Vinlanders Social Club, a once-mighty racist skinhead gang, sat in silence at a sentencing hearing while his attorney listed the jailhouse self-improvement courses that had been completed this year by Eric “The Butcher” Fairburn.
“Impulse control,” the lawyer said. “Anger management. Coping skills. Values clarification.”
That’s quite a turnaround for Fairburn, 34, who’s better known for specializing in drunkenness, self-aggrandizement, racial hatred and spontaneous violence. It was the latter tendency that landed him in a Marion County Superior Court room last August for sentencing after Fairburn pleaded guilty to felony battery for beating a black homeless man unconscious on a busy street in downtown Indianapolis.
It happened the night of March 26, 2007. Fairburn was drinking on the patio of an Irish pub along with two other Vinlanders, Tim Dumas and Josh Kern. They could have been toasting their gang’s success. At the time, the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC) was riding high…
