Mississippi man sentenced to prison for cross burning

A Mississippi man used to be sentenced to 42 months in prison for intimidating his Black neighbors via burning a cross of their entrance backyard, in accordance to the Department of Justice.

Axel Cox, 24, used to be sentenced on Thursday, after pleading to blame to a federal hate crime and violating the Fair Housing Act in December, according to the Department of Justice. 

Cox stated he constructed the cross to intimidate his Black neighbors and pressure them to transfer out of the community, the feds stated. He constructed the cross via wedging two items of wooden in combination, doused it in oil, and lit it in transparent view of his neighbors whilst the usage of threatening and racially derogatory language, stated the Department of Justice.

Cross burning is “one of the vital potent hate symbols within the United States, popularized as a fear symbol via the Ku Klux Klan for the reason that early 1900s,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.  Although cross burnings don’t seem to be as a lot of as they were during the civil rights years, in recent years the Department of Justice has prosecuted or investigated a handful of cross-burning instances.

In 2019, Louis Revette used to be sentenced to 11 years for burning a cross in Seminary, Mississippi. Revette admitted he went to position the cross in what he knew used to be a predominately Black community, in accordance to court docket information.  In 2021, James Brown used to be sentenced to 18 months in prison for burning a cross within the entrance backyard of a Black circle of relatives within the early morning hours, in accordance to the Department of Justice. The circle of relatives had participated in a civil rights protest the day sooner than in Marion, Virginia, the feds stated.

The Feds investigated a cross burning out of doors the house of a Black circle of relatives within the wealthy, majority white California coastal group of Arroyo Grande close to San Luis Obispo.

Cox’s prison time period will probably be adopted via 3 years of supervised unlock and he has to pay restitution within the quantity of $7,810, in accordance to the Department of Justice.

“No one should endure such hatred and intimidation because of the color of his skin,” stated U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca for the Southern District of Mississippi in a Department of Justice observation. “This defendant has been held accountable. His sentence should permeate among his kind and declare that Mississippi and the Department of Justice will not tolerate this hateful behavior.”