(no subject)
Patrol officers ready for Klan rally
TRISH R. TILBY, Staff Writer
Published June 11, 2006
Extra patrol officers will be on the roads in New York City Saturday to ensure that a scheduled Friends of Humanity rally remains peaceful.
The NYC-based chapter of Friends of Humanit and its ladies' auxiliary group have planned a "homo sapien pride unity rally" and cross-burning beginning at 5 p.m. at an undisclosed location.
Graydon Creed, 31, said the group is not violent. The purpose of the rally is to speak for the rights of non-mutants in the United States, which Creed considers the God-given Promised Land to the non-mutant people.
"We are mutant separatists -- we believe the races can't co-exist together, and we want to be totally separate from other races," he said. "We're not mutant supremacists."
Ruby Rice, president of the NYC branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Mutants, knows the FoH has the right to demonstrate. But their rallying cry, she said, is one of terrorism.
"They represent hate, and that's what they've done throughout the life of their organization," she said.
The FoH group last held a rally in November, Creed said. FoH members from across the state and as far away as Chicago attended, he said.
Creed did not know how many people would participate in Saturday's rally.
County Councilman Rock Adams of New York, a retired highway patrolman who once helped maintain law and order near FoH gatherings, said the group has the right to peaceful assembly under the U.S. Constitution.
A FoH rally in his backyard doesn't faze him because the group has lost the power of intimidation it once had, he said.
"They don't bother me, because I don't see them as being any kind of threat or anything," Adams said. "I'm not a member, don't plan to become a member, but I don't think they can do much anymore."
According to the New England-based, anti-Foh New YorkPoverty Law Center, the number of FoH groups nationwide increased from 162 in 2004 to 179 last year.
Two of the five known FoH groups in New York are in New York City, according to the center. Two of them are the groups run by Creed, and a third one is in Albany.
Although he can't stop the group from legally demonstrating, New York City County Sheriff Chuck Wright said he opposes the FoH's ideology and presence in New York City County.
"It represents the county in a negative way, because that's totally about hate," Wright said. "It's not like other groups that appeal to the leaders and ask for help in bringing about change.
"You don't target people because of their gender or race -- you just accept."
TRISH R. TILBY, Staff Writer
Published June 11, 2006
Extra patrol officers will be on the roads in New York City Saturday to ensure that a scheduled Friends of Humanity rally remains peaceful.
The NYC-based chapter of Friends of Humanit and its ladies' auxiliary group have planned a "homo sapien pride unity rally" and cross-burning beginning at 5 p.m. at an undisclosed location.
Graydon Creed, 31, said the group is not violent. The purpose of the rally is to speak for the rights of non-mutants in the United States, which Creed considers the God-given Promised Land to the non-mutant people.
"We are mutant separatists -- we believe the races can't co-exist together, and we want to be totally separate from other races," he said. "We're not mutant supremacists."
Ruby Rice, president of the NYC branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Mutants, knows the FoH has the right to demonstrate. But their rallying cry, she said, is one of terrorism.
"They represent hate, and that's what they've done throughout the life of their organization," she said.
The FoH group last held a rally in November, Creed said. FoH members from across the state and as far away as Chicago attended, he said.
Creed did not know how many people would participate in Saturday's rally.
County Councilman Rock Adams of New York, a retired highway patrolman who once helped maintain law and order near FoH gatherings, said the group has the right to peaceful assembly under the U.S. Constitution.
A FoH rally in his backyard doesn't faze him because the group has lost the power of intimidation it once had, he said.
"They don't bother me, because I don't see them as being any kind of threat or anything," Adams said. "I'm not a member, don't plan to become a member, but I don't think they can do much anymore."
According to the New England-based, anti-Foh New YorkPoverty Law Center, the number of FoH groups nationwide increased from 162 in 2004 to 179 last year.
Two of the five known FoH groups in New York are in New York City, according to the center. Two of them are the groups run by Creed, and a third one is in Albany.
Although he can't stop the group from legally demonstrating, New York City County Sheriff Chuck Wright said he opposes the FoH's ideology and presence in New York City County.
"It represents the county in a negative way, because that's totally about hate," Wright said. "It's not like other groups that appeal to the leaders and ask for help in bringing about change.
"You don't target people because of their gender or race -- you just accept."