• Vandals draw Hitler mustache on baby Jesus in nativity scene

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    By Janet Kwak and Jason Kandel, NBCLosAngeles.com

    Police on Sunday were searching for the person or people responsible for vandalizing Nativity scenes at a Catholic church and a home in a Southern California city.

    Someone misspelled "Hail (sic) Hitler" and drew a Hitler mustache on the baby Jesus outside a home in Huntington Beach, police said.

    They also put a Nazi symbol on one of the wise men with a black pen.

    Homeowner Richard Candlish reported it to police and cleaned up the scene he said he spent a month putting up.

    "It probably took less than 15 minutes for someone just to deface all of it," he said.

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    The case followed another one in which similar scrawlings were found about three blocks away on a Nativity scene at Saint Bonaventure Catholic Parish.

    Parishoners reported the vandalism to the police.

    Parishoner Max Periolat, 10, said he was offended.

    "Who would do such a thing?" he said. "If I saw them I would give them a whopper."

    Police said they were investigating.

  • Boy, 12, set to stand trial over shooting death of his neo-Nazi dad

    Sandy Huffaker / AP, file

    Jeff Hall holds a neo-Nazi flag near his home in Riverside, Calif., on Oct. 22, 2010. His son told police he pulled a .357-Magnum from a closet and aimed it at Hall's ear and pulled the trigger before running upstairs and hiding the weapon, according to court papers.

    By The Associated Press

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Nearly two years after a neo-Nazi leader was gunned down at point-blank while sleeping on his sofa in Riverside, Calif., his son — who was 10 at the time of the killing — is going on trial for murder.

    Prosecutors want a judge hearing opening statements Tuesday to rule after the proceedings that the boy, now 12, murdered Jeff Hall, an out-of-work plumber who as regional leader of the National Socialist Movement headed rallies at a synagogue and a day labor site.

    The boy told police he pulled a .357-Magnum from a closet and aimed it at Hall's ear and pulled the trigger before running upstairs and hiding the weapon, according to court papers.

    "He decided, as he put it, it was time to end the father-son thing," said Michael Soccio, chief deputy district attorney. "This child started at five years old being expelled from school for violence. ... His violence started way before his dad ever joined any Nazi party."

    Soccio, citing a history of violent behavior including choking a teacher with a telephone cord, wants to keep him locked up as long as possible. If held responsible, the boy would become the youngest person currently in the custody of the state's corrections department.

    The boy's public defender, Matthew Hardy, did not immediately return calls for comment.

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    Hardy told the New York Times his client has neurological and psychological problems and was exposed to neo-Nazi "conditioning" at home.

    "He's been conditioned to violence," Hardy told the newspaper. "You have to ask yourself: Did this kid really know that this act was wrong based on all those things?"

    The Associated Press is not identifying the boy — who is not charged as an adult — because of his age.

    Hall, 32, who said he believed in a white breakaway nation, ran for a seat on the local water board in 2010 in a move that disturbed many residents in the recession-battered suburbs southeast of Los Angeles. The day before his death, he held a meeting of the neo-Nazi group at his home.

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    Hall had previously taken the boy — his oldest of five children — on a U.S.-Mexico border patrol trip and showed him how to use a gun, according to papers filed by police against the boy's stepmother alleging child endangerment and criminal storage of a gun.

    Last year, the boy told investigators he went downstairs and shot his father before returning upstairs and hiding the gun under his bed, according to court documents. He told authorities he thought his father was going to leave his stepmother, and he didn't want the family to split up, Soccio said.

    Custody dispute
    The boy's stepmother told authorities that Hall had hit, kicked and yelled at his son for being too loud or getting in the way. Hall and the boy's biological mother had previously slugged through a divorce and custody dispute in which each had accused the other of child abuse.

    Kathleen M. Heide, a professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa who wrote "Why Kids Kill Parents," said children 10 and under rarely kill their parents and that only 16 such cases were documented between 1996 and 2007. Heide also said parenting and home life would undoubtedly play a role in the case.

    "It would be inaccurate to say who the child's parents are is superfluous," she said. "That is going to have an effect on how the child grows up, on the values that child learns, on problem solving abilities, so all of that is relevant."

    If a judge finds the boy murdered Hall, he could be held in state custody until he is 23 years old, said Bill Sessa, spokesman for California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

    The state currently houses fewer than 900 juveniles.

    "We don't have anybody that young," Sessa said. "We have had 12-year-olds in the past, but it's rare."

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    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Mormon church restricts online access to Jewish names

    Al Hartmann / AP file

    Helen Radkey is a researcher who has publicized the LDS Church's proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims and Catholic Saints.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    SALT LAKE CITY -- Mormon leaders have put up a virtual firewall in their massive genealogical database to block out anyone who attempts to access the names of hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims the church has agreed not to posthumously baptize.

    The move comes amid criticism that the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hasn't done enough to live up to commitments to stop its members worldwide from performing the baptism ritual on Holocaust victims and other notable Jews.

    The new system will immediately block church members' access should they try to seek out names of Holocaust victims or other notable figures that have been flagged as not suitable for proxy baptisms. The church said the move is aimed at ending the practice.

    But critics say it merely serves to block anyone from monitoring whether the posthumous baptisms continue.

    "By not allowing public access to the records, it creates the illusion they have something to hide," said Jewish genealogist Gary Mokotoff, who was involved in negotiations with the church over ending the practice for the past two decades.

    Mormons believe the baptism ritual allows deceased people a way to the afterlife — if they choose to accept it.

    But the practice offends members of many other religions, especially Jews, who have expressed outrage at attempts to alter the religion of Holocaust victims.

    Vote (on Facebook): Does this practice offend you?

    Nobel-laureate Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel called on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last month to use his affiliation with the church to block Mormon members from the posthumous practice, The Washington Post reported. A spokeswoman for Romney said his campaign would not comment on the matter, directing all comments to the church.

    In the 1990s, after negotiations with Jewish leaders, the church agreed to end to the practice, but revelations by an ex-Mormon researcher have shown it continues.

    In recent weeks, researcher Helen Radkey, using confidential Mormon sources who had access to the LDS database, revealed that Mormon temples had posthumously baptized the family of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal, Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager forced into hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust and killed in a concentration camp, and Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a Jewish writer who was murdered while on assignment in Pakistan.

    Mormon church leaders, in a letter to temples worldwide, asked that members be reminded of the policy during Sunday services this past weekend.

    "The church is committed to preventing the misguided practice of submitting the names of Holocaust victims and prominent individuals for proxy baptism," LDS spokesman Michael Purdy said this week. "In addition to reiterating its policy to members, the church has implemented a new technological barrier to prevent abuse."


    Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement he appreciated steps taken by church leaders to warn its members to stop the practice.

    "We can only hope and pray that those who have persisted in this practice will heed the pain it caused to the families of those who lived and died as Jews and adhere to the LDS Church's policy," Cooper said in a statement last week.

    ‘System set up to block’
    Radkey said Thursday she had already been blocked from the database under the new system, and was considering how she might continue her efforts toward revealing the ongoing practice.

    "I don't believe for five minutes that they're going to stop baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims," Radkey said.

    Purdy dismissed claims that the church was merely seeking to block Radkey's access, and said this week's move was just another step in the church's effort to stop the practice worldwide. He said that while nothing is foolproof, the church remained committed to keeping its word.

    "We are doing exactly what we have been asked to do and what we said we would do — denying access to names that should not be submitted because they are against our policy," Purdy said. "There is no account for a Helen Radkey. If she, or anyone else, is misusing a Church member's identity to search for Holocaust names, then the system is set up to block those kinds of activities."

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Defense Secretary Panetta orders new look into Marines' flag bearing Nazi SS logo

    Scout snipers in the Marine Corps shown with a flag bearing an "SS" similar in design to one used in Germany by the SS, a paramlitary force that operated under the Nazi party.

    By The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Marine Corps on Friday to re-investigate and take appropriate action against the Marine snipers who posed with a logo resembling a notorious Nazi symbol.

    The top Marine officer apologized for the incident and ordered his commanders to look into the use of such symbols by snipers and reconnaissance Marines and make sure they are educated on how inappropriate such actions are.

    The rapid-fire announcements came on the heels of demands from a leading Jewish organization and others for President Barack Obama to order an investigation into the incident and to hold the troops accountable.

    Earlier story: Marines posed with flag resembling Nazi SS symbol

    Panetta met with Marine Corps Commandant James Amos on Friday to discuss, among other things, a spate of problem incidents involving Marines that have surfaced in recent months. A U.S. defense official said Panetta approved of the actions being taken by Amos to address the problems. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.

    An initial Marine investigation into the matter concluded that the troops would not be disciplined because there was no malicious intent. The Marines mistakenly believed the "SS" in the shape of white lightning bolts on the blue flag were a nod to sniper scouts — not members of Adolf Hitler's special unit that murdered millions of Jews, Catholics, gypsies and others, said Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, California.

    But the furor over the photo — which was taken in September 2010 in Afghanistan — grew as Jewish leaders and others questioned whether it was an innocent mistake.

    Pentagon press secretary George Little said that racist and anti-Semitic symbols have no place alongside U.S. service members.

    And in a statement released Friday, Marine Corps Commandant James Amos ordered individual instruction for the sniper and reconnaissance Marines about the prohibitions against inappropriate symbols.

    "I want to be clear that the Marine Corps unequivocally does not condone the use of any such symbols to represent our units or Marines," Amos said. "On behalf of the Marine Corps and all Marines, I apologize to all offended by this regrettable incident."

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    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Marines posed with flag resembling Nazi SS logo in Afghanistan

    Scout snipers in the Marine Corps shown with a flag bearing an "SS" similar in design to one used in Germany by the SS, a paramlitary force that operated under the Nazi party.

    By NBC News, msnbc.com and news services

    SAN DIEGO -- The U.S. Marine Corps confirmed Thursday that a sniper team in Afghanistan posed for a photograph in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS.

    Use of the SS symbol is not acceptable, and the Marine Corps has addressed the issue, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton said in a statement. He did not specify what action was taken.

    Upton said the Marines in the photograph, posted on an Internet blog, are no longer with the unit. The picture was taken in September 2010 in Sangin province, Afghanistan.

    The photo shows a flag with what appear to be the letters "SS" in the shape of jagged lightning bolts. The symbol resembles that used by SS units in World War II.

    Another photograph, which showed a stylized “SS” on a rifle held by a Marine, also recently began circulating, the Marine Corps Times reported.

    The SS, or Schutzstaffel, was the police and military force of the Nazi Party, which was distinct from the general army. Members pledged an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler. SS units were held responsible for many war crimes and played an integral role in the extermination of millions of Jews along with gypsies and other people classed as undesirables. The SS was declared to be a criminal organization at the Nuremberg war crime trials.

    The Knights Armament Company blog published the photo in May 2011, and attributed it to Tayler Jerome, of the 1st recon BN Charlie Co. 

    The Military Religious Freedom Foundation in Washington D.C., which found the picture online and alerted the Marine Corps Times, said it was outraged and wants a full investigation.

    Foundation officer Mikey Weinstein said he has been flooded with calls from former Marines offended by the photo and from one member of his organization who is an Auschwitz survivor.

    "This needs to be fully investigated. This is a complete and total outrage," he said.

    War stresses to blame in Marine urination video?

    Weinstein said his organization was sending a letter to the head of the Marine Corps and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

    Master Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva, a spokesman at Camp Pendleton, Calif., said the photo was brought to the attention of the 1 Marine Expeditionary Force inspector general in November, and he found there was no intent on the part of the Marines to identify themselves with a racist organization.

    Oliva said the investigation found that the SS symbol was meant to identify the Marines as scout snipers, not Nazis, but it was nonetheless not acceptable.

    This is the second time this year the Marine Corps has had to do damage control for its troops' actions.

    The Marine Corps is also investigating a separate group of Marines recorded on video urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters.

    Here is Upton's statement on the SS symbol, also called "runes." It was emailed to msnbc.com by Capt. Gregory Wolf, Marine Corps spokesman.

    In November, the I MEF Inspector General became aware of the "SS" flag photo.  They then received confirmation from the 1st Recon Battalion Commanding Officer in Afghanistan in November 2011 that several of the personnel in the photo were from 1st Recon Bn from the OEF 10.2 deployment (Afghanistan deployment in 2010).  These Marines are no longer with the command.  1st Recon Bn is deployed forward again, but none of the personnel in the photo are still in the unit.

    Certainly, the use of the "SS runes" is not acceptable and Scout Snipers have been addressed concerning this issue ("SS runes" are prohibited from use as a symbol or any other use). 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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