Hal Turner, New Jersey's top white-supremacist internet-radio show hosting lunatic is back in the news today, for pretty much the same reason he was in the news earlier this month: threatening public officials with bodily harm, and subsequently getting arrested for it!
This time out, Turner's calls to vigilantism ranged beyond the Tri-State area, all the way to Chicago. WGN has the news:
Hal Turner, an occasional talk show host on internet radio and blogger, was arrested today by the FBI in his New Jersey home on charges he threatened to murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago following their recent ruling upholding handgun bans.
According to the U.S. attorney's office, postings on Turner's web site included photos of the judges and addresses for them, with statements such as: "Let me be the first to say this plainly; These judges deserve to be killed."
Actually, Turner went even further. A day after Turner posted the original threat, urging readers that "it appears another lesson is needed," he posted an update with the names of the judges, along with photographs, phone numbers, and work addresses, right down to office numbers. In the update, Turner wrote: "Judges official public work addresses and a map of the area are below. Their home addresses and maps will follow soon. Behold these devils."
Well this is about to get REAL for Turner, because now he's run afoul of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. From the official complaint (which can be seen in its entirety, via PDF, here):
Hal Turner, an intermittent internet radio talk show host and blogger, was arrested today by FBI agents at his home in North Bergen, N.J., on a federal complaint filed in Chicago alleging that he made internet postings threatening to assault and murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago in retaliation for their recent ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago and a suburb.
Internet postings on June 2 and 3 proclaimed "outrage" over the June 2, 2009, handgun decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer, of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, further stating, among other things: "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed." The 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.
Turner, 47, of North Bergen, N.J., was arrested this morning after FBI agents went to his residence to execute a search warrant. He was charged with threatening to assault and murder three federal judges with intent to retaliate against them for performing official duties in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Chicago. He is scheduled to have an initial court appearance at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday) before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Shipp in U.S. District Court in Newark.
"We take threats to federal judges very seriously. Period," said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who announced the charges with Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey and the FBI Office in Newark are providing local assistance.
PREVIOUSLY, on the HUFFINGTON POST:
Hal Turner, Talk Radio Host, Facing Charges For Inciting Violence Against Officials
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