NY Police: Islandia Man tried to run down Muslim mom, daughter — Joseph Ballance
— Newsday reports:
— “An Islandia man was charged thursday with threatening to kill a Muslim woman and her 20-year-old daughter and trying to run them down with his car at a Smithtown gas station, a misdemeanor charge that Muslim groups condemned as too light.”
— “Joseph Ballance, 23, pleaded not guilty Thursday at an arraignment in First District Court in Central Islip, where he was charged with second-degree aggravated harassment.”
— “Prosecutors asked for $5,000 bail, but Judge Joseph A. Santorelli ordered Ballance held on $10,000 cash bail or $30,000 bond. He also issued an order of protection for the victims and ordered a mental health screening for Ballance.”
— “According to the police report, on Aug. 20 at 3:50 p.m. at the Hess gas station on Smithtown Bypass, Ballance threatened the victim, stating, ‘Get in my car so I can — the — out of you and chop you up into little pieces and kill you.'”
— “The victim and her daughter were dressed in an abaya, a traditional Muslim garment that completely covered their bodies and face, except for their eyes.”
— “The report said Ballance then started driving a 1999 green Mercury toward the victim. Det. Sgt. Robert Reecks, who heads the Suffolk County Police Department’s Hate Crimes unit, said the man drove the car in reverse but didn’t get close enough to the victim to be charged with attempted assault.”
— “In the victim’s statement, she said a white male came up behind them yelling, ‘Take that stuff off. What do you think it is, Halloween?’ The man followed them into the store, continuing to yell.”
— “The woman said the man then drove his car so close to hers that she couldn’t open the gas cap and he ‘kept striking a match on a matchbook like if I was to start pumping the gas he would threw the match at me,’ according to the statement.”
— “In a statement signed by Ballance, he said that while he was at the station, ‘two people dressed for Halloween looking like the wicked witch,’ pulled in.”
Month: August 2009
North Carolina: Neo-Nazi gathering stirs police preparations
North Carolina: Neo-Nazi gathering stirs police preparations
— National Socialist Movement in Greensboro
German neo-Nazis attack Briton in Hamburg: police
Communist China: Secret CPC Directive Calls for the Dismantling of Six House Churches in Beijing
Pakistan: Girls victimized by Taliban find safe haven to learn
Pakistan: Girls victimized by Taliban find safe haven to learn
— “girls hide textbooks in their shawls to escape harassment”
Canada: ‘Honor killing’ of women “is terrorism”
(Canada) ‘Honour killing’ is terrorism
— “In just the same way the Ku Klux Klan used violence to enforce white supremacy in the southern United States honour killings seek to keep women as second-class citizens unable to choose how to live their lives. Let’s call honour killing what it really is. Call it terrorism.”
Petition to U.N. on Violence Against Christians
(Pakistan) Petition to U.N. on Violence Against Christians
— “The European Center for Law and Justice has filed a petition with the U.N.’s Special Rapporteurs seeking prosecutions in Pakistan for those responsible for the attacks and killings of Christians”
Pakistani Christian shall launch movement if Blasphemy Law not repealed. Nazir Bhatti
Pakistan: Police issue warrant for Bishop of Faisalabad and 128 other Christians of Gojra — in retaliation for complaints of incompetence in massacre
Pakistan: Police issue warrant for Bishop of Faisalabad and 128 other Christians of Gojra
— “The First Information Reports or FIRs were filed this week by the Punjab police against the Rt. Rev. John Samuel, the Church of Pakistan’s Bishop of Faisalabad and 28 other Christians, in retaliation for complaints of police incompetence in the wake of the attacks on Christians in the town of Gojra that left ten dead and destroyed three Churches and over 100 homes.”
August 28: R.E.A.L. Event Challenging Racial Supremacism – Robert E. Lee Memorial “Arlington House”
On August 28 beginning at 10 AM at the Robert E. Lee Memorial “Arlington House,” Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) will be leading a public awareness event regarding the continuing challenge of racial supremacism, and proposing a new approach to encouraging racial healing in America. This will be held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s and other brave black Americans’ August 28 “March on Washington” . Our public awareness event at the Robert E. Lee memorial will be the first public awareness event ever held there.
Be part of this historical event! Join us there in solidarity to promote racial harmony and our universal human rights!
Purpose of Public Awareness Event:
Our public awareness event on the continuing issue of racial supremacism will challenge the growth and the nostalgia about our national divisions, including the nostalgia regarding Confederates that is frequently leveraged by the nearly 100 Neo-Confederate and many hundreds more racial supremacist groups in America. We have seen the tragic results of permitting such racial hate to go unchallenged by a message of love and support for our universal human rights.
We plan to call for a new direction in national healing that no longer is nostalgic about the divisions of our past, but instead focuses on what we have in common – our universal human rights and our shared national commitment to equality and liberty as a United States of America and as human beings.
At the Robert E. Lee Memorial, we will call for the United States to create a new memorial to an idea in Washington DC on the hill that overlooks the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke on August 28, 1963. We will call for a new memorial to the truth of our universal human rights of equality and liberty as individuals. We will call for the creation of this new memorial – a Universal Human Rights Memorial – to provide a symbol of unity and love to replace the history of division and hate from the past. We will call for the United States government to replace the Robert E. Lee memorial of the past with a monument to our Universal Human Rights of the present as an inspiration to the future.
See also R.E.A.L. news and postings on Racial Supremacism.
For more information, email us at realpublic@earthlink.net
Directions and Logistics:
Contact:
Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), realpublic@earthlink.net
Event Location:
Robert E. Lee Memorial, Washington DC (also known as “Arlington House”)
National Park Service-managed area in the northeastern portion of Arlington National Cemetery
Important: Go to Visitor’s Center (first):
There is no way to drive directly to the Robert E. Lee Memorial – you need to go to the Arlington Cemetery, and walk up the hill northeast to arrive. Alternatively, you can take a short “Tourmobile” ride.
Make certain that you go to the Arlington National Cemetery Visitor’s Center, go to the “Information” Desk, and get a map of the area – tell them you are going to the Robert E. Lee Memorial and have them outline the walking path for you.
It is very important to have a map of the area. On the printed version of their map, the Robert E. Lee Memorial is item 15. On this interactive web-based version of their map, the Robert E. Lee Memorial is item 14.
You walk north of the Visitor’s Center up Roosevelt Drive then turn right at Weeks Drive and walk up the area on Sheridan Drive past the John F. Kennedy Memorial – the Robert E. Lee Memorial is up the hill directly north of it.
Pre-Event Meetup Location:
Arlington National Cemetery Visitor’s Center – 35 minutes prior to the public awareness event — I will be near the painting of the Robert E. Lee memorial on the wall in the Visitor’s Center. We will leave for the Robert E. Lee memorial 20 minutes prior to the event.
Dates and Times:
Friday, August 28 – 10 AM to 12 Noon
Note: due to Senator Kennedy’s funeral – we will not have a second day of this public awareness event on Saturday August 29.
Background on Robert E. Lee Memorial (also known as “Arlington House”)
National Park Service (NPS) Website for Robert E. Lee Memorial
Travel Logistics:
Arlington National Cemetery Address:
The address for Arlington National Cemetery is:
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, Virginia 22211
Subway:
The Memorial is accessible by the Blue Line of the Metro subway system. The Arlington Cemetery subway station is near the Visitor Center for the cemetery. WMATA subway system provides an on-line trip planner.
Car:
Arlington House is inside Arlington National Cemetery. From Washington DC you can drive to the cemetery by crossing the Memorial Bridge. In Virginia access to the cemetery is from the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Additional driving directions can be found in the Carpooling/ Vanpooling section.
Plane:
The closest airport is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, just 3 miles to the south and accessible on the Blue line of the Metro subway system. Dulles International Airport is approximately 25 miles west. Baltimore Washington International Airport is located north of Washington, about 36 miles from the site.
Public Transportation
The Memorial is also accessible by the Blue Line of the Metro subway system. The Arlington Cemetery subway station is near the Visitor Center for the cemetery.
Getting Around
Arlington House can be reached by a 10-minute walk from the cemetery Visitor Center/parking area. You can also get to the memorial on Tourmobile. For a small fee you can ride a shuttle bus and hear a narrated tour of Arlington Cemetery. The shuttle bus stops at the President Kennedy gravesite, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington House and then returns to the visitor center. You can get off and reboard the shuttle at any of the stops.
Rally Limitations – Important:
As the Robert E. Lee Memorial is on the boundary of the Arlington National Cemetery, there will be no use of amplified sound. Any signs brought into the area must be covered until you are at the actual Robert E. Lee Memorial itself.
We are only permitted 15 minutes to speak at the portico area (“between the cedar tree and the NE corner of the portico”), then we will be permitted the remainder of our public awareness event to speak during “between the conservatory and the south bench.” See images of both below.
A New Beginning America Needs
It is time to end the towering of the Robert E. Lee Memorial on the hill looking down upon the Lincoln Memorial and all other symbols of freedom in America’s capital city. It is time for a new beginning of a new monument to our Universal Human Rights of Equality And Liberty – which will be a symbol to generations as to who and what America really is.
