A 24-year-old Gulfport, Miss., man was sentenced last week to three-and-a-half years in prison for burning a cross to intimidate his Black neighbors, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In addition to the prison time, U.S. District Judge Halil S. Ozerden sentenced Axel Cox to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $7,810.
Per the Justice Department, Cox had a dispute with a Black family he lived near on Dec. 3, 2020. Following the dispute, he allegedly “wedged two pieces of wood together to form a cross, placed it in clear view of the victims’ residence, doused it in oil and set it alight.”
Cross burning has been a popular image of discrimination and terror since the 1900s and it is connected with the Ku Klux Klan hate group, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“This cross burning was an abhorrent act that used a traditional symbol of hatred and violence to stoke fear and drive a Black family out of their home,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “While one might think cross-burnings and white supremacist threats and violence are things of the past, the unfortunate reality is that these incidents continue today. This sentence demonstrates the importance of holding people accountable for threatening the safety and security of Black people in their homes because of the color of their skin or where they are from.”
As Cox burned the cross, he allegedly also yelled threats and racial slurs at the family. He admitted that his actions were intended to scare the family into moving out of the neighborhood because they are Black, said the Justice Department.
“No one should endure such hatred and intimidation because of the color of his skin,” said U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca for the Southern District of Mississippi. “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.”
A federal grand jury indicted Cox in September and he “faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for interfering with the victims’ housing rights and a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, for using fire to commit a federal felony,” said the Justice Department. “Cox also faced a fine of up to $250,000 with respect to each charge.”
More information about Justice Department efforts to fight hate crimes is available at www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.
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