Racist attack info sought

By LINDA BRADY

POLICE are seeking public information about a local branch of an American-based white supremacist group, after it targeted an Aboriginal community office with racist stickers last week.

Rockhampton police officer, Sergeant Greg Jones, said the attack on the Palmtree Wutaru Aboriginal Land and Culture Corporation on Wedneesday night was now officially being treated as a criminal offence of wilful damage, and urged anyone with information about the attack or the group calling itslef The World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) to contact police.

Under State law, the posting or promoting of racist propaganda itself is not an indictable offence, but police can prosecute for racially motivated violence, harassment or vandalism.

The attack has raised fears that the group may be planning a campaign of intimidation, harassment and possibly violence on the region's indigenous, ethnic and foreign communities.

The group's website, which espouses white supremacy and non-white "sub-humanity", claims it does not condone or encourage violence, but at the same time hails American racial killer Benjamin Smith as one of its martyrs.

In June 1998, 22-year-old law major Ben Smith killed two people and injured nine others during a three-day racially motivated shooting spree across Indiana and Illinois, before turning the gun on himself.

Smith who was a devotee of the World Church of the Creator, wrote in his journal : "Anyone who knows the history of the plague upon humanity who call themselves Jews will know why I have acted." Anyone with information about the WCOTC locally should contact the Rockhampton police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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