Hate crime charge in Rockland: Man with KKK shirt accused in BB attack on Latino

September

Reporter Steve Lieberman has this story today from Rockland County:

AIRMONT – An 18-year-old Montebello man wearing a shirt with racist insignias has been charged with a second hate crime since April involving an attack on a Hispanic male, authorities said today. Ramapo police accused Michael Conklin of shooting a 17-year-old Hispanic man three times with a BB gun at 10:45 p.m. Monday on Cragmere Road.

Conklin wore a “shirt with a Ku Klux Klan insignia on the back and a (Nazi) swastika on the arm,” District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said today.

In April, Conklin and four other young men were each charged with a felony assault count as a hate crime after being accused of shouting “white power” while beating up a Hispanic male in the woods in Sloatsburg.

That case is pending in court and should be resolved within a week, Zugibe said.

On Monday, Conklin is accused of shooting the Hispanic teenager twice in the left forearm and once in the buttocks, Ramapo Detective Sgt. John Lynch said today. The teen’s wounds were not serious.

Conklin was being held today in the county jail on $75,000 bail on one count of second-degree assault and a single count of second-degree assault as a hate crime.

Police had been looking for Conklin on a misdemeanor charge of second-degree criminal trespass involving an incident that occurred Aug. 11 at a home on Laura Drive in Airmont, Lynch said.

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 4:24 pm by Leah Rae.
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2 Responses to “Hate crime charge in Rockland: Man with KKK shirt accused in BB attack on Latino”

Pat Young September 11th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
The teens arrested in the April assault, one of whom was Conklin, were released on $1,000 bail (or less, in one case). Is it any surprise that when courts take hate crimes against Latinos so lightly that the message sent to young people is that this is an activity tolerated by the white community?

Here is more on the original assault: http://www.longislandwins.com/blog/in_the_news/rockland_county_teens_in_attac_1.php?page=email
BULLDOG September 14th, 2009 at 9:12 am
yes stop the hate!!! Stop the Latino racist hate group
LA RAZA also which makes the KKK look like alter boys.

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A blog about immigration in the New York region