STOUGHTON, Mass. -- The hate-filled profile that the suspect in the New Bedford gay bar attack allegedly posted on MySpace.com has led to questions about free speech and community safety.
NewsCenter 5's Rhondella Richardson reported Monday that Jacob Robida, 18, of New Bedford, died Sunday after a shootout with Arkansas police, but not before he killed an Arkansas police officer and a female passenger in his car.
Last week, Robida allegedly attacked patrons of Puzzles' Lounge in New Bedford. Police have labeled the attack a hate crime. Robida posted his thoughts about homosexuals and people of other races on his MySpace.com Web site, officials said.
"The tragedy is worse because it looks like you should have prevented it," said Andrew Tarsey, Anti-Defamation League regional director.
By typing in the word "hate" in a MySpace.com search engine, nearly 4,000 matches were found by NewsCenter 5.
"It's tough. The Internet's pretty big," Tarsey said. "We try and focus on known locations on the Internet, where there is a lot of hate activity."
Robida had a swastika tattoo, but he had no known affiliation with any hate group, officials said.
"We noticed that his screen name appears on some hate sites," Tarsey said.
The Anti-Defamation League and law enforcement officials said that they were concerned that Robida's friends and family didn't see warning signs in the case.
"If someone in your life is putting (on) racial tattoos and is playing with guns, you have to get involved and interrupt the escalation of the hate," Tarsey said.
In Stoughton, Mass., police surf the Web as part of their investigations. Officials have received a complaint from one MySpace.com 16-year-old.
"They say we are invading their space. We are invading their private chat room," Stoughton Police Department spokesman Chris Ciampa said.
Stoughton police plan to charge three teens with the malicious destruction of property after they found some vandalism language on MySpace.com.
"It was a matter of them searching through, literally, hundreds of Web pages, you know, just reading a lot of the mindless blabber that is on these things," Ciampa said. Copyright 2006 by TheBostonChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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