A man burned a cross for a hate crime. Now he is sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.

A Mississippi man was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for burning a cross in his front yard to intimidate his black neighbors, according to the Justice Department.

Axel Kox, 24, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to a federal hate crime and violation of the Fair Housing Act in December.

On December 3, 2020, Cox burned a cross in his front yard and used “racially threatening and derogatory language” against his black neighbors, according to the Justice Department.

A 24-year-old man built a cross from scrap materials in his home – he assembled a wooden cross and placed it in the yard, propping it up so that his black neighbors could see it. He then doused it with engine oil and set it on fire.

Cox said he chose to burn the cross in front of his black neighbors because of their race, stating that he “intended to scare them into leaving the neighborhood.”

Cox’s cross-burning actions are, according to federal prosecutors, subject to the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (sections of which are called the Fair Housing Act), which prohibits discrimination in a person’s housing rights based on race, religion, national origin, sex, or marital status. .

According to the Justice Department, Cox’s 42-month prison term will be followed by three years of parole. In addition, he was also ordered to pay $7,810 in compensation for his actions.

The act of burning the cross is racist

According to the Anti-Defamation League, cross-burning, also called cross-fire, is considered a hate symbol often associated with the Ku Klux Klan since the early 1900s.

In 2013 Fresh air interview, David Cunningham, author Clansville, USAtold Terry Gross that the Klan’s act of burning crosses was a symbol of “intimidation and terror”.

“The crosses they burned there were often 60 or 70 feet high, so they were huge crosses they burned. [they] were just a symbol of how ambitious the clan organization was,” Cunningham said.

“So the act of this huge cross-burning was an act of convincing theatre, as well as a kind of signal that the Klan was able to achieve organizationally,” he added.

Vangela M. Wade, president of the Mississippi Justice Center, told The Associated Press last September that cross burning brings back the blatant racism often associated with the Jim Crow South.

“This is another stark reminder that bigotry, racism and hate-mongering violence are alive and well in our country. Mississippi is no exception,” Wade told AP.

Content Source

California Press News – Latest News:
Los Angeles Local News || Bay Area Local News || California News || Lifestyle News || National news || Travel News || Health News

Related Articles

Back to top button