The FBI is investigating death threats against Leonard Pitts, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Miami Herald, after a column he wrote about black-on-white crime triggered a furor on white supremacist Web sites, McClatchy Newspapers reports. After the Herald published Pitts’ column, Overthrow.com posted his address, his home phone number, and his wife’s name. Several other white supremacist Internet sites followed suit, and one gave directions to his house along with a satellite image of the neighborhood. Pitts said someone leafleted his neighborhood with a flier attacking him for the column.
Reached in Roanoke, Va., where Overthrow.com is based, White said he’s 30 years old and is the “commander” of the American National Socialist Workers Party, which aspires to build a nation “modeled on the German Third Reich.” He said the group has about 280 contributors. Pitts’ June 3 column challenged the claims of white supremacists that the recent murders of a white couple in Knoxville, Tn., reflected a surge in racially motivated violence by African-Americans against whites. Five African-Americans have been arrested, but Pitts emphasized that the killings weren’t being investigated as a hate crime, and he rejected the groups’ contention that black-on-white crime is underreported.