{"id":29309,"date":"2017-02-08T15:29:46","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T23:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=29309"},"modified":"2017-02-08T15:31:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T23:31:38","slug":"florida-man-admits-hate-crimes-threatening-two-muslim-grocery-store-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=29309","title":{"rendered":"Florida Man Admits to Hate Crimes: Threatening Two Muslim Grocery Store Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>FLORIDA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THE NEWS-PRESS - Embed Player\" src=\"http:\/\/www.news-press.com\/videos\/embed\/87107934\/?fullsite=true\" width=\"540\" height=\"304\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n(News-Press.com 2016)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>James Benjamin Jones<\/strong>, 35, plead guilty Wednesday to two federal hate crimes for threatening two Muslim grocery stores in Fort Myers, Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">During the plea proceedings, officials said Jones admitted that he threatened the owners of two Muslim grocery stores last year.\u00a0\u00a0In June, he threatened to harm the owner of Halal Meat and Grocery, if he did not close down his business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>These are the facts and circumstances surrounding this case:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Specifically, Jones threatened the owner \u201cto shut down the business\u201d and said that \u201cfour people will come with guns and they will blow up [the owner]\u201d if the store was not closed in one month.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The defendant further stated that he and others would be \u201ckeeping an eye\u201d on the owner to ensure that the owner was closing the business, as Jones and others \u201cwill blow up all Muslims and get this land back.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Later in July, Jones threatened the owner of Sahara Mediterranean Market to close his business down.\u00a0\u00a0Jones told the owner of this grocery store that he (Jones) was from \u201cthe good temple\u201d and that \u201cwe decided whatever happened in Orlando is not gonna (sic) happen again.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">We don\u2019t need no halal business in the area either you or the other guys (referring to the Halal Meat and Grocery Store) back there.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Jones then told the owner, <\/span>\u201cSo<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0for your safety and your family\u2019s safety, you got two months to go, to leave.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThe defendant made violent threats in an attempt to extinguish people\u2019s economic livelihood simply because of their religion,\u201d said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting the federal laws that prohibit such conduct.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cOur Office is committed to prosecuting those who threaten others on the basis of their national origin or religious beliefs,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FLORIDA (News-Press.com 2016) James Benjamin Jones, 35, plead guilty Wednesday to two federal hate crimes for threatening two Muslim grocery stores in Fort Myers, Florida. During the plea proceedings, officials said Jones&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Florida Man Admits to Hate Crimes: Threatening Two Muslim Grocery Store Owners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"James Benjamin Jones, 35, plead guilty Wednesday to two federal hate crimes for threatening two Muslim grocery stores in Fort Myers, Florida.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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