Three Vancouver, WA Men Sentenced for January 2010 Hate Crime 09/28/2011

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Zackary Beck, right, with Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler, 2003

Zackary Loren Beck, Kory Boyd, and Lawrence Silk were sentenced this year following their attack on a black man in a Vancouver sports bar in January, 2010. The attackers--all of whom had ties to white supremacist groups--shouted, "White power!" and racist slurs as they attempted to kick the lone black patron out of the bar. Outside, the man defended himself, reportedly blocking Beck's punch and putting him in a headlock. Boyd and Silk threw bottles at the man until a friend of the victim intervened and the three white supremacist attackers fled. The victim suffered minor physical injuries.

Beck--who had a 2003 hate crime charge for attacking a Mexican man in Idaho and was formerly tied to the white supremacist group Aryan Nations--was convicted in June of conspiracy to violate civil rights, interfering with federally protected civil rights, and witness tampering (for asking an ex-girlfriend to provide a false alibi). He was sentenced to 51 months imprisonment, followed by three years supervised release. In January of this year, after the investigation was under way for the 2010 attack, Beck denounced his white power belief system.

Kory Boyd pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge in January and received a 34 month sentence. Lawrence Silk pleaded guilty to malicious harassment charges and received a 2 year sentence.