Armed Neo-Nazis Patrolling Sanford, Say They Are “Prepared” For Post-Trayvon Martin Violence

Neo-Nazis are conducting armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida in preparation for any race riots that may occur over the Trayvon Martin case. The patrols are to protect “white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety” says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement.

“We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it,” he says. “We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over.”

The New Black Panther Party recently offered $10,000 for a citizens’ arrest of George Zimmerman, Martin’s shooter. Schoep said the bounty is a sign that “the possibility of further racial violence is brimming over like a powder keg ready to explode into the streets.”

The patrols are comprised of between 10 and 20 locals and “volunteers” from across the state. He wouldn’t go into specifics on what kind of weapons the patrols were carrying.

“In Arizona the guys can walk around with assault weapons and that’s totally legal,” Schoep said, referring to the group’s patrols of the US-Mexico border. “What I can tell you is that any patrols that we are doing now in Florida are totally within the law.”

Asked if the patrols wouldn’t just make things worse, Schoep insisted they were simply a “show of solidarity with the white community down there” and “wouldn’t intimidate anybody.”

“Whenever there is one of these racially charged events, Al Sharpton goes wherever blacks need him,” Schoep said. “We do similar things. We are a white civil rights organization.”

Schoep said the NSM and the Black Panthers are actually alike in that they are both racial separatists, but sees a double-standard in the government’s treatment of the two groups.

“The Black Panthers have been offering bounties and all that,” he says. “But if we called for a bounty on someone’s head, I guarantee we’d be locked up as quick as I could walk out of my house.”

Schoep was also quick to clarify that he isn’t taking sides in Trayvon Martin’s controversial shooting. “That’s for the courts to decide,” he says. Besides, Schoep says, Zimmerman’s not even white.

“I think there is some confusion going on,” Schoep says. “A lot of people think that this guy who shot Trayvon was white… but he’s half Hispanic or Cuban or something. He certainly doesn’t look white to me.”

To some, armed patrols of Neo-Nazis seems like a sure way to incite, not prevent, a race riot. But Schoep doesn’t believe that is the case.

“We don’t wish for things like that,” he says. “But there have been race riots in Detroit and L.A… So we know those types of things happen.”

“You can either be prepared or you can be blindsided,” he adds. “This way, if something were to touch off a race riot, we’d already be in the area.”

Former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush: Self-defense Law Doesn’t Cover Trayvon Martin’s Death

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says the “Stand Your Ground” law he signed while in office should not apply to George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed Treyvon Martin.

Bush spoke Friday at the University of Texas at Arlington, just outside Dallas. He told reporters afterward that the Florida law doesn’t apply in the incident that left the 17-year-old dead.

“Stand your ground means stand your ground. It doesn’t mean chase after somebody who’s turned their back.” he said.

Bush, who signed the law in 2005, called Martin’s death a tragedy.

George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin in Sanford, Fla., in February. Martin was walking back to the home of his father’s fiancée. Zimmerman says he acted in self-defense and has not as of yet been arrested or charged.

Legislators in Fla/Ariz Want to Lower Minimum Wage

Republican lawmakers in Arizona and Florida are pushing for legislation that would lower the legal minimum wage for tipped workers such as restaurant servers. The legislation in Arizona goes a step further in that it would also lower the minimum wage for younger part-time workers.

The Arizona proposal, HCR 2056, would allow employers to pay a teenage worker $3 less than the current minimum wage if the worker is either part-time or a temp. The Arizona minimum wage is $7.65, forty cents more than the federal rate. If the proposal is approved teenagers could end up being paid $4.65 per hour.

Employers who must pay tipped employees would be able to lower their workers pay by more than $2 per hour. The minimum wage for servers and other tipped workers in Arizona is $4.65 an hour. If a worker’s tips don’t add up to the normal minimum wage of $7.65, the employer must cover the difference, a stipulation that would not change with the legislation.

In Florida the Tourism and Commerce committee is considering giving businesses the option of dropping the state minimum wage for servers, currently $4.65, in favor of the lower federal one of $2.13. However, if the employer opts for the lower wage and the employee doesn’t earn at least $9.98 per hour after tips, the employer would have to make up the difference.

Advocacy groups have denounced the proposed legislation in Florida as an attack on low-wage workers. Members of the Florida AFL-CIO have been leaving literature on restaurant tables to inform servers of the potential changes, and the group also put together a protest outside an Outback Steakhouse in Miami Lakes. To mock the minimum wage they described as being from a long gone era they encouraged attendees to dress in 1980’s garb.

Outback Steakhouse’s parent company, OSI Restaurant Partners, supports the Florida measure.

The Tampa-based company, which lists Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Bonefish Grill among its holdings, donated more than $120,000 last year to 32 Republicans running for state office.

Carol Dover, president of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, told The Huffington Post that the proposal under consideration has been mischaracterized.

“There appears to be confusion as to the legislation,” said Dover, whose trade group supports the proposal. “No one is having their wages cut. Employees are being guaranteed 130% of the state minimum wage if the employer elects to offer that option.”

Rich Templin, legislative and political director of the Florida AFL-CIO, says that the measure would let employers save money at workers’ expense.

“We believe that many people in the legislature, from both sides of the aisle, once they understand what it’s about will not be supportive of this,” says Templin. “It really is a pretty despicable idea.”

Tea Party summer camp brainwashing kids?

The “Tampa 912 Project” an offshoot of the Tea Party is hosting a week long seminar in Tampa, Florida about our nation’s founding principles. Three of the principles that will be taught to children between the ages of 8 and 12 are “America is good,” “I believe in God,” and “I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.”

Organizer Jeff Lukens said of the camp’s purpose “We want to impart to our children what our nation is about, and what they may or may not be told,” and that he was not familiar with public school curriculum, but what he did know is that “they have a lot of political correctness. We are a faithful people, and when you talk about natural law, you have to talk about God. When you take that out of the discussion, you miss the whole thing.”

Some of the activities are as follows:

Children will win candy to use as currency for a store, representing the gold standard. On the second day, the “banker” will issue paper money. Over time, students will realize their paper money buys less and less, while the candies retain their value. “Some of the kids will fall for it,” Lukens said. “Others kids will wise up.”

Starting in an austere room where they are made to sit quietly, symbolizing Europe, the children will pass through an obstacle course to arrive at a brightly decorated party room (the New World). Red-white-and-blue confetti will be thrown, but afterward the kids will have to clean up the confetti, learning that with freedom comes responsibility.

Children will blow bubbles from a single container of soapy solution, and then pop each other’s bubbles with squirt guns in an arrangement that mimics socialism. They are to count how many bubbles they pop. Then they will work with individual bottles of solution and pop their own bubbles. “What they will find out is that you can do a lot more with individual freedom,” Lukens said.

“We’ve had classes for adults,” said Karen Jaroch, who chairs the Tampa 912 Project. “Now we want to introduce a younger generation to economics and history, but in a fun way.”

If successful, Jaroch and Lukens will look to run more sessions, either during the summer or after school resumes and may try to bring its curriculum to public schools during Constitution week in September.

“We definitely teach the Constitution, especially during Constitution Week,” said Linda Cobbe, a school district spokeswoman. She said the district would need to make sure the organization does not have a political agenda, and that they would need to be approved by SERVE, a nonprofit agency that clears volunteers in the schools.

 

Dead dolphins linked to BP oil spill…

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists have linked oil found on 8 of the 406 dolphins that washed ashore over the past 14 months to the massive BP oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in April of last year. This past February, after seeing a dramatic rise in the number of dead dolphins turning up on the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, the NOAA declared “an unusual mortality event”. There have been 153 deaths this year, 65 of which were newly born or stillborn. Some experts had suggested at the time of the spill that there would be delayed damage done to marine life. They also speculated that oil ingested or inhaled by dolphins could lead to miscarriages.

“It is significant that even a year after the oil spill we are finding oil on the dolphins, the latest just two weeks ago,” said Blair Mase, southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA Fisheries. There has also been 87 dead sea turtles found, but so far there hasn’t been any visible traces of oil found on their bodies, said NOAA Fisheries national sea turtle coordinator, Barbara Schroeder. She also added “But we do not have very much information about how oil products find their way into turtles,”. There are five species of sea turtles that live in the gulf, all of which are considered at risk of extinction.

Samples have been sent for testing to determine if the oil spill contributed to the dolphins’ deaths but the Obama administration is keeping all lab findings under lock and key due to the ongoing civil and criminal investigation involving BP.

“Because of the seriousness of the legal case, no data or findings may be released, presented or discussed outside the (unusual mortality event) investigative team without prior approval,” NOAA stated in a February letter that was obtained by Reuters.