A federal judge has sentenced a self-described white supremacist from Vancouver for an unprovoked attack on an African-American man in a local bar.
Prosecutors say Kory Boyd and two other people ordered the black man out of the bar last January before one of them threw a punch and the other two shattered a bottle and shouted racial insults and threats.
"This was purely racially motivated. All three of these individuals are skinheads with ties to white supremacist groups" said assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Miyache. He says there's been a resurgence of white supremacist groups in the Vancouver area.
Miyache says the impact of hate crimes go beyond a tavern.
"They're similar to terrorism in that they don't just affect the victim, they affect the community at large and you can bet that when other African-Americans living in the Vancouver area heard about this, that it scared them" said Miyache.
A judge sentenced Boyd to almost three years in prison while Zachery Beck is set for trial in March. The third man, Lawrence Silk, pleaded guilty to a state charge.
