Harold “Hal” Turner, the white supremacist New Jersey blogger and former radio shock jock who was recently arraigned on felony charges in Connecticut for urging his blog readers to “‘take up arms’” against lawmakers and suggesting state officials “‘obey the Constitution or die,’” has been arrested again, this time by FBI agents on a federal complaint filed in Chicago. It is now alleged that Turner posted threats to assault and murder three federal appeals court judges there in retaliation for their recent ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago and a suburb, according to the Justice Department.
For a summary of Turner’s dangerous tirade against the judges, go here.
But this quote from Turner — once a favored guest of Sean Hannity –probably says it all: “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.” His hate-filled postings included photographs, phone numbers, work address and room numbers of these judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location. In the Justice Department statement, U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who announced the charges, said, “We take threats to federal judges very seriously. Period.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Turner as “A belligerent, foul-mouthed talk show host…the maestro of radio hate “a man who rants about a “Portable Nigger Lyncher” machine, “faggots,” ‘savage Negro beasts,” “bull-dyke lesbians” and “lazy-ass Latinos ” slithering across the border.’”
For more background the Turner/Hannity connection, see this 2005 Nation article.
