CAMDEN, N.J. (1010 WINS) — A New Jersey man was sentenced to a year and one day in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to conspiring with members of a white supremacist group to vandalize synagogues and minority-owned businesses across the United States.
Richard Tobin, 20, of Brooklawn, New Jersey, was also sentenced in a Camden federal court Tuesday to three years of supervised release.
Court documents show Tobin admitted that from Sept. 15 to Sept. 23, 2019, he was a member of a white supremacist hate group, "The Base," and communicated with other members, directing them to destroy and vandalize properties affiliated with African Americans and Jewish Americans.
Prosecutors said he nicknamed the attack "Kristallnacht," or "Night of Broken Glass," after the two nights in November 1938 when Nazis murdered Jewish people in Germany and burned and destroyed their homes, synagogues, businesses, schools and stores.
Tobin told members to post propaganda flyers and to break windows and slash tires belonging to African Americans and Jewish Americans.
On Sept. 21, 2019, "The Base" members vandalized synagogues in Racine, Wisconsin, and Hancock, Michigan, by spray painting them with hate symbols.
A conspirator, Yousef Omar Barasneh, previously pleaded guilty to his role in vandalizing the Racine, Wisconsin, synagogue.
"The defendant conspired with a white supremacist hate group to vandalize and destroy property owned by Jewish and Black Americans, intending to instill fear into those communities across the country," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
She continued, "This sentence makes clear that targeting persons owning and using property simply based on their race or religion will not be tolerated. The Department of Justice will continue to prosecute civil rights conspiracies and vindicate the rights of victims of bias motivated crimes."
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