Saturday, March 05, 2005
WHERE HOMELAND SECURITY SHOULD LOOK...
Ever get that creepy feeling, like someone just “walked over your grave” as they say? I had that feeling this past week when someone in the newsroom asked me if I knew a judge name Joan Lefkow from Chicago.
Having lived and worked as a reporter and television and radio anchor in the Windy City for a number of years before arriving in Northwest Arkansas, I did remember Judge Lefkow’s name, and do recall having met her at some point during my travels.
The thing that stood out in my mind was that the good judge managed to have racist idiot Matthew Hale put in jail, and probably for the rest of his life.
Maybe you don’t know Mr. Hale.
I’ve had the occasion to do stories about him, and about his misguided and racist group of followers who call themselves “The World Church of the Creator.” A few years ago, Mr. Hale graduated from an Illinois law school, but the bar association wouldn’t let him get his license because of his white supremacist beliefs. Mr. Hale went on the warpath, speaking to any journalist who would listen. He’d done quite a bit of time as a guest on the “Jerry Springer Show” and other low-life television talkfests. Hale is a professional hater of people he sees as “inferior.”
Speaking to him was a revelation.
He came across as what he is – a person with a high native intelligence, who can read, write and express himself in intelligent ways, but with a totally insane and incoherent message.
My impression, which I shared with Mr. Hale, was that he didn’t believe any of the patently illogical things he said about people of other races. I felt he actually knew the truth – that none of that means anything. I felt he put on his little show for everyone because he wanted attention, or because he wanted to scam the less intelligent among us and because he wanted “power.” I’ve never yet heard him disagree with that assessment – in fact, he wouldn’t respond to it when I brought it up.
The problems for him really started in 1999 when a skin-head follower of the “church” by the name of Benjamin Smith went on a multi-state shooting rampage, starting with college basketball coach Ricky Birdsong at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Smith killed Birdsong and another person, and then died when confronted by police.
When I covered that story, Matt Hale swore to anyone who would listen that he had nothing to do with Smith’s bloodthirsty behavior.
Police sources in Skokie, Illinois told me Hale remained in touch with Smith through the entire pursuit by cell phone, while denying the same.
Hale is a liar of gigantic proportions, and no one knows if he “ordered” or “encouraged” Smith to take lives.
However, federal authorities did catch Hale trying to hire someone to kill Judge Lefkow.
In a case before her court, Lefkow ordered Hale to stop using the name “World Church of the Creator” on websites and other business materials for copyright reasons.
That is apparently when Hale cracked, and tried to have Lefkow murdered. Instead of talking to a “hit man,” Hale ended up instead speaking with federal agents, who caught the whole thing on tape – bam, into the slammer Hale went. It almost seemed inevitable.
So, back to that creepy feeling again – the one I got when I heard someone had murdered the Judges 89 year old mother and husband in a Chicago home. Hale’s name immediately came to mind – as it did for the Chicago police, who consider him a prime suspect.
Police sketches released of “two people of interest” in the case look suspiciously like some of Hale’s followers. As for the judge, she told the Chicago Sun Times that the murders were, “a hit – not a random thing.”
Creepier still is a recent on-line post by an Arkansas moron named Billy Roper.
Roper runs a Natural-state based hate group called “White Revolution” or something along those lines.
Read his stuff, if you have the stomach, and you’ll see what a self-aggrandizing individual he is. He’s also a disgrace to the state many of us call “home.”
Roper, who considers himself a close personal friend of Mr. Hale, issued a “statement” smarmily comparing the murders of the Lefkow family to the in-combat casualties suffered by the family of another lunatic, Randy Weaver of Idaho, a cause celebre of many in the militia set.
No death is acceptable, not a single one – not from the Weaver family, not from the Lefkow family, but to compare the two cases sends an icy chill down my spine, and sure sounds like some sort of veiled threat or even worse, a veiled form of jubilation over revenge enacted by those who prefer to live their lives outside society.
Extremists will do their worst.
They don’t have to be followers of Osama Bin Laden to prove that.
We’ve got our own homegrown terrorists, and some, like Matthew Hale and his friends live just down the corner from you.
Who knows, maybe the Department of Homeland Security can do its job by paying some of them a visit before more innocent Americans become victims.
Ever get that creepy feeling, like someone just “walked over your grave” as they say? I had that feeling this past week when someone in the newsroom asked me if I knew a judge name Joan Lefkow from Chicago.
Having lived and worked as a reporter and television and radio anchor in the Windy City for a number of years before arriving in Northwest Arkansas, I did remember Judge Lefkow’s name, and do recall having met her at some point during my travels.
The thing that stood out in my mind was that the good judge managed to have racist idiot Matthew Hale put in jail, and probably for the rest of his life.
Maybe you don’t know Mr. Hale.
I’ve had the occasion to do stories about him, and about his misguided and racist group of followers who call themselves “The World Church of the Creator.” A few years ago, Mr. Hale graduated from an Illinois law school, but the bar association wouldn’t let him get his license because of his white supremacist beliefs. Mr. Hale went on the warpath, speaking to any journalist who would listen. He’d done quite a bit of time as a guest on the “Jerry Springer Show” and other low-life television talkfests. Hale is a professional hater of people he sees as “inferior.”
Speaking to him was a revelation.
He came across as what he is – a person with a high native intelligence, who can read, write and express himself in intelligent ways, but with a totally insane and incoherent message.
My impression, which I shared with Mr. Hale, was that he didn’t believe any of the patently illogical things he said about people of other races. I felt he actually knew the truth – that none of that means anything. I felt he put on his little show for everyone because he wanted attention, or because he wanted to scam the less intelligent among us and because he wanted “power.” I’ve never yet heard him disagree with that assessment – in fact, he wouldn’t respond to it when I brought it up.
The problems for him really started in 1999 when a skin-head follower of the “church” by the name of Benjamin Smith went on a multi-state shooting rampage, starting with college basketball coach Ricky Birdsong at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Smith killed Birdsong and another person, and then died when confronted by police.
When I covered that story, Matt Hale swore to anyone who would listen that he had nothing to do with Smith’s bloodthirsty behavior.
Police sources in Skokie, Illinois told me Hale remained in touch with Smith through the entire pursuit by cell phone, while denying the same.
Hale is a liar of gigantic proportions, and no one knows if he “ordered” or “encouraged” Smith to take lives.
However, federal authorities did catch Hale trying to hire someone to kill Judge Lefkow.
In a case before her court, Lefkow ordered Hale to stop using the name “World Church of the Creator” on websites and other business materials for copyright reasons.
That is apparently when Hale cracked, and tried to have Lefkow murdered. Instead of talking to a “hit man,” Hale ended up instead speaking with federal agents, who caught the whole thing on tape – bam, into the slammer Hale went. It almost seemed inevitable.
So, back to that creepy feeling again – the one I got when I heard someone had murdered the Judges 89 year old mother and husband in a Chicago home. Hale’s name immediately came to mind – as it did for the Chicago police, who consider him a prime suspect.
Police sketches released of “two people of interest” in the case look suspiciously like some of Hale’s followers. As for the judge, she told the Chicago Sun Times that the murders were, “a hit – not a random thing.”
Creepier still is a recent on-line post by an Arkansas moron named Billy Roper.
Roper runs a Natural-state based hate group called “White Revolution” or something along those lines.
Read his stuff, if you have the stomach, and you’ll see what a self-aggrandizing individual he is. He’s also a disgrace to the state many of us call “home.”
Roper, who considers himself a close personal friend of Mr. Hale, issued a “statement” smarmily comparing the murders of the Lefkow family to the in-combat casualties suffered by the family of another lunatic, Randy Weaver of Idaho, a cause celebre of many in the militia set.
No death is acceptable, not a single one – not from the Weaver family, not from the Lefkow family, but to compare the two cases sends an icy chill down my spine, and sure sounds like some sort of veiled threat or even worse, a veiled form of jubilation over revenge enacted by those who prefer to live their lives outside society.
Extremists will do their worst.
They don’t have to be followers of Osama Bin Laden to prove that.
We’ve got our own homegrown terrorists, and some, like Matthew Hale and his friends live just down the corner from you.
Who knows, maybe the Department of Homeland Security can do its job by paying some of them a visit before more innocent Americans become victims.