White restaurant manager enslaved disabled black man for years, federal prosecutors say

From [HERE] A white restaurant manager accused of enslaving and abusing a mentally disabled black man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in South Carolina on a charge of forced labor.

Federal prosecutors say Bobby Paul Edwards used “force, threats of force, physical restraint, and coercion” to compel John Christopher Smith to work as a buffet cook at J&J Cafeteria in Conway, S.C., for more than five years.

Edwards, 52, was arrested this week and pleaded not guilty in open court on Wednesday, shortly after prosecutors announced the indictment, records show.

The full title of the charge is “attempt to establish peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude or human trafficking.” It carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. If convicted, Edwards will have to pay restitution to Smith.

Edwards’s attorney Scott Bellamy didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Though the indictment was unsealed, it remained inaccessible to the public as of Thursday morning. But details about Smith’s alleged enslavement were documented in a federal lawsuit civil attorneys filed on his behalf in late 2015.

Smith, a 39-year-old with a mild cognitive disability, had worked for more than two decades without issue at the J&J Cafeteria, washing dishes, busing tables and later cooking food at the folksy small town diner. But when Edwards took over as manager in 2010, Smith said, the job turned into a nightmare.

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Organizers behind armed Neo-Nazi Anti-Islamic protest in Houston revealed as Russian

From [HERE] Last May, nearly 100 demonstrators gathered around the Islamic Da’wah Center in downtown Houston, squaring off against one another in competing camps.

The “Stop Islamization of Texas” protest was, on its face, largely similar to any number of other tense, vitriolic demonstrations that percolated through 2016. On the one end: a crew carrying Confederate flags, #WhiteLivesMatter banners, and heavy weaponry. On the other: counter-protesters with signs decrying Islamophobia, calling for communal unity, and a bubble machine going at full blast.

Despite the presence of AR-15s, the demonstrations ended without violence. The white supremacists screaming “Fascist and proud!” dissipated, as did those supporting the Islamic center.

The organizers behind the anti-Islam protesters, however, never showed. And now, over 16 months later, we know why.

As CNN reported last week, the protest was put together by the “Heart of Texas” Facebook page – a page that was revealed last month as one of the fake accounts operated out of Russia. Unlike the November anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-secession rallies the page attempted to organize across Texas, the May protest not only brought armed protesters, but a raft of counter-protesters to face down those calling for “white power!”

At the time, there was little to differentiate the “Stop Islamization of Texas” protest from the other Islamophobic protests wracking the state, especially in Dallas. “I figured it was the same manifestation of what was happening in Dallas,” Ramon Mejia, of About Face: Veterans Against the War, told ThinkProgress.

Indeed, until CNN’s revelations, there was little to suspect that the protest wasn’t organically homegrown. After all, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign helped generate a greater Islamophobic tail-wind than any campaign prior – and given that people like Aryan Renaissance Society National Director Ken Reed showed up at the Houston protest, claiming the U.S. is “being threatened by the influx of Islam,” the protest clearly carried a distinctly American flavor.

But the revelations point to an even darker reality than the protest itself unveiled. Not only did the “Heart of Texas” page call – successfully – for protesters to bring firearms (“concealed or not!”) but Russian operatives were able to convince armed white supremacists to congregate in downtown Houston, facing off with dozens opposed to their message. Given recent events in Charlottesville, the fact that Russian operatives organized rifle-toting white nationalists into a confrontation with counter-protesters should give pause to politicians on both sides of the aisle – all the more as one of the comments on the “Heart of Texas” page called to “blow … up” the Islamic center.

“What’s relevant about the Russia thing is it absolutely validates the concern that people have that the Russians were putting out completely fabricated stories,” Faisal Shah, a lawyer for the Islamic center, told ThinkProgress. Or as Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of CAIR Texas, told Houston’s ABC affiliate, “This stuff where we see the Russians instigating – you know, that’s crazy.”

Despite the new disclosures about the “Heart of Texas” group, questions remain. For instance, an Instagram page, which posts identical material to the “Heart of Texas” page, went live just as the Russian-linked Facebook pages were taken down. Representatives from Facebook didn’t respond to queries about the Instagram account – which mirrors other Instagram accounts already removed – and questions sent to the account went unanswered.

Likewise, the Islamic Da’wah Center wasn’t exactly a well-known organization, at least internationally – which raises questions about how the “Heart of Texas” page found out about the center in the first place.

“What’s kind of remarkable is that a Russian agent would be burrowing down that deep in the weeds to find a story that’s that local, and cooking up something, fabricating something, at such a small picture, such a detailed picture,” Shah added. “It really gives an indication of the extent to which there must be a major Russian apparatus, that they’re willing to put the kind of resources to drill down that deep. So I’m actually kind of fascinated by just the depth of fake news.”

While Texas secessionists from the Texas Nationalist Movement have made multiple trips to Moscow over the past few years, attending meetings organized by a Kremlin-funded group, they have denied coordinating with the “Heart of Texas” Facebook page.

As with racial tensions and gun rights, the “Stop Islamization of Texas” protest appears the latest indication of Russian operatives targeting socio-political divides in the U.S. However, it also highlights that these tensions were extant prior – and that the protest, despite non-American organization, only pointed to the issues already at play.

“Off-the-cuff, my reaction is it doesn’t make me feel any better that the group was started in Russia, or in Timbuktu, because at the end of the day the problem is that there’s an element of society, unfortunately, that grabbed onto it,” Shah said.

Mejia, one of the counter-protesters, agreed, especially as it pertains to Islamophobic elements in the U.S. “Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry exist in the U.S.,” he added. “The fact that someone outside of the country was able to capitalize on it shows what a real issue this is and the real harm present for Muslim communities with or without outside intervention.”

North Carolina gerrymandering bill pits black judges against other incumbents

From [HERE] While the North Carolina legislature is working under a tight deadline to redraw election districts that courts have struck down for discriminating against black voters, it also made time to pass a measure to gerrymander state trial courts. The bill could result in a dramatic reduction in the number of African-American judges and other judges of color.

The North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill today that would redraw the boundaries of the state’s court districts, over the objection of judges and other stakeholders. Rep. Marcia Morey (D), a former judge, said at a North Carolina General Assembly session on Wednesday that this bill is part of the legislature’s “systematic attack on our independent judiciary.”

Jim Blaine, an aide and “right hand man” to the president of the state senate, told judges in August that the goal of the bill is to get more Republican judges on the bench.

Since November 2016, when voters chose a new liberal majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court, the legislature has considered proposals to limit the governor’s authority to appoint judges, make judicial elections partisan, pack the state supreme court, and “unpack” the court of appeals to preserve the conservative majority. These attacks occurred as the state and federal courts began standing in the way of the legislature’s agenda by protecting voting rights.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Justin Burr (R), was criticized for initially trying to rush judicial redistricting through the legislature, and he has since toured the state to solicit feedback on the proposal. Judges across the state have spoken out against the changes. The North Carolina Courts Commission last week asked the legislature to postpone the changes, and several judges warned that the redistricting would cause disruption that would harm the citizens relying on the courts.

Many critics of the proposal, including judges, have expressed concerns about the impact on judicial diversity. An analysis by NC Policy Watch reported that judges of color on the district courts are more likely to be “double bunked,” meaning that they are in a new district with another incumbent. The analysis found that 10 of the 12 districts that double-bunk judges are “majority Democrat,” and more than half of all judges of color are pitted against another incumbent.

“This craven attack on our courts illustrates how far an illegally-gerrymandered legislature will go to maintain power and influence,” Melissa Price Kromm, director of North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections, told ThinkProgress.

“The same legislators that have gerrymandered themselves into safe districts are now trying to eliminate the opportunity for voters to make their voices heard in the judicial branch,” she added. Kromm participated in a march to the legislature on Wednesday to oppose judicial gerrymandering.

Jim Blaine, an aide and “right hand man” to the president of the state senate, told judges in August that the goal of the bill is to get more Republican judges on the bench.

Since November 2016, when voters chose a new liberal majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court, the legislature has considered proposals to limit the governor’s authority to appoint judges, make judicial elections partisan, pack the state supreme court, and “unpack” the court of appeals to preserve the conservative majority. These attacks occurred as the state and federal courts began standing in the way of the legislature’s agenda by protecting voting rights.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Justin Burr (R), was criticized for initially trying to rush judicial redistricting through the legislature, and he has since toured the state to solicit feedback on the proposal. Judges across the state have spoken out against the changes. The North Carolina Courts Commission last week asked the legislature to postpone the changes, and several judges warned that the redistricting would cause disruption that would harm the citizens relying on the courts.

Many critics of the proposal, including judges, have expressed concerns about the impact on judicial diversity. An analysis by NC Policy Watch reported that judges of color on the district courts are more likely to be “double bunked,” meaning that they are in a new district with another incumbent. The analysis found that 10 of the 12 districts that double-bunk judges are “majority Democrat,” and more than half of all judges of color are pitted against another incumbent.

“This craven attack on our courts illustrates how far an illegally-gerrymandered legislature will go to maintain power and influence,” Melissa Price Kromm, director of North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections, told ThinkProgress.

“The same legislators that have gerrymandered themselves into safe districts are now trying to eliminate the opportunity for voters to make their voices heard in the judicial branch,” she added. Kromm participated in a march to the legislature on Wednesday to oppose judicial gerrymandering.

The bill is the latest of many other changes the legislature has made to the courts that could inhibit diversity on the bench. A 2013 bill ended the state’s widely-respected public financing program for judicial elections. The program — supported by judges on both sides of the aisle — offered candidates for appellate courts several hundred thousand dollars for their campaigns, if they qualified by raising a certain number of small contributions. These programs can help diverse candidates, who often lack connections to networks of wealthy campaign donors, win elections. Democracy North Carolina, an organization seeking to increase voter participation, noted that in 2011, all of the female and black appellate judges in the state had been elected with public financing.

To allow more time to reorganize judicial election districts, the legislature is also considering a bill to cancel the 2018 primary elections for North Carolina judges, as well as a bill to end judicial elections altogether and allow the legislature to appoint judges.

“Eliminating primaries for judicial elections in 2018 is about buying more time to figure out how to agree on either new and gerrymandered judicial maps or some other plan like merit selection,” Rob Schofield, policy analyst for NC Policy Watch, told the Winston-Salem Journal.

Kromm criticized the bill. “You can’t eliminate an election to grease the wheels of partisan politics,” she said.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: Trump is a 'racial arsonist' but not a racist

From [HERE] Rep. Hakeem Jeffries says that Donald Trump's response to the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, led many Americans "to conclude that the President of the United States chose to pull the sheets off and reveal himself."

The Democratic congressman from New York made the remark Monday in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "The Situation Room."

Jeffries was asked by Blitzer to compare the President's reaction to NFL players protesting racial injustice with Trump's response after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last month led to clashes and a death.

"(Trump's) reaction to Charlottesville was clearly inadequate, unacceptable, inappropriate, and for many people throughout America, led them to conclude that the President of the United States chose to pull the sheets off and reveal himself, in terms of his tendency to be a racial arsonist, fanning the flames of hatred," Jeffries said.

Jeffries told Blitzer that he doesn't believe all of Trump's supporters are racist. "That is not the case, but his behavior is deeply troubling to Americans of all race and religious backgrounds who believe in the values of tolerance, decency and diversity," Jeffries said.

"Are you suggesting he's a racist?" Blitzer asked.

"No," Jeffries said, "He's a racial arsonist. He uses race to advance his own ends -- that's troubling."

In August, Trump said that "both sides" shared blame for the violent protest in Charlottesville that left counterprotester Heather Heyer dead.

"In that context (Trump) suggested there was violence on 'all sides,' when we understand it was neo-Nazis, it was the KKK who were responsible for the loss of life of one courageous American and the damage that was done to so many others," Jeffries said.

Blitzer asked Jeffries to clarify his "pull the sheets off" comment, an apparent reference to Ku Klux Klan regalia.

Jeffries replied: "Time and time again, (Trump) has refused to distance himself from individuals like David Duke -- an avowed white supremacist -- as well as others, for reasons that many of us can't figure out."

"We know that Donald Trump has a history of fanning the flames of racial hatred using stereotypes to advance his own personal and political agenda. For five years, he perpetrated the racist lie that Barack Obama was not born in the United Stated of America and then rode that lie into the White House, which is why we're all being subjected to what we're dealing with right now," Jeffries said.

Regarding Trump's statements about players taking a knee or otherwise protesting during the national anthem, Jeffries said, "It's in this atmosphere that we find it troubling, with all that's happening in the world and in the country, Donald Trump would choose to go after a few black athletes in the NBA and the NFL."

Kansas inmate says prison force-fed Christianity to prisoners, lawsuit claims

WashPost

Church and state are too cozy at the Topeka Correctional Facility, according to a convicted murderer who has spent the past 23 years inside Kansas’s prison system.

Shari Webber-Dunn — who in 1994 was handed a 40-year-minimum prison sentence for her role in the murder of her estranged husband — claims in a federal lawsuit filed last week that inmates at Kansas’s only women’s prison are subjected to an endless profusion of Christian imagery and propaganda, from the material posted on bulletin boards to the movies played in the common room.

The net effect, Webber-Dunn claims, adds up to an institutional message “imposing Christian beliefs on inmates” in a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit argues the prison has created a “coercive atmosphere where inmates are pressured to spend their time in a high religious atmosphere and to participate in religious activities and prayers, thus violating the establishment clause.”

Webber-Dunn’s case is being brought by the American Humanist Association, a D.C.-based organization that says it has 34,000 members nationally and is geared toward “advancing and preserving separation of church and state and the constitutional rights of humanists, atheists, and other freethinkers.” According to the legal complaint, the inmate identifies herself as a practitioner of Thelema, a religious sect rooted in the writings of early-20th-century mystic Aleister Crowley. [MORE]

People of Color Exposed to More Air Pollution Than Whites

From [HERE]A new study out of the University of Washington has found that exposure to air pollution is greater among communities of color. In response, communities of color puts down their inhalers and said, "No shit."

Published this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the study looked specifically at nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant primarily released by automobiles and power plants. Researchers found that between 2000 and 2010, while air in the US generally got cleaner, people of color were still exposed to nearly 40 percent more pollution than white populations.

The study didn't look into the reasons that communities of color are more polluted, but prior research—and looking around—tells us that non-white communities are disproportionately located near major roads and heavy industries, where nitrogen dioxide pollution tends to be higher.

Nitrogen dioxide has been linked to health problems like asthma and heart diseases, which people of color also disproportionately suffer from.

The study confirms what people of color have been saying for a long time. "I'm not surprised with the study's findings but I do wonder about the value of white researchers rehashing the same investigation time and time again, each time concluding what people of color already know," says Aura Bogado, a journalist who writes about environmental justice. "Moving forward, perhaps the academic community could instead focus on equitable policies that center the people who are most affected by poor air quality." [Poor Aura has missed the point of a system designed to function this way]

Mike Zielinski: Racism is absurd

From [HERE] Racism is a topic so hot you have to hold it with oven mitts.

The evil of piping-hot racism has been the curse of mankind seemingly forever.

It wraps around people like a wet towel and smothers their intelligence and literally colors their perception.

Racism creates foolish dissonance and discord. It populates us with a bunch of jammers who have no hope of ever morphing into a symphony orchestra tuned to the belief that all men are created equal.

All this molten hatred served in a cast-iron skillet is all so insane and such a colossal waste.

Humans think they are so smart.

Guess what?

Sometimes they are as dumb as a fire plug. Thicker than concrete.

Especially racist humans. Their myopic focus is only skin deep.

If you think about it, racism is totally absurd.

It is all based on skin pigmentation. Variations in human skin color are adaptive traits that correlate closely with geography and the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Which is why people whose ancestors are from the tropics generally have darker skin.

People are people and skin color makes them no different from each other -- unless they see it as so.

All the racial hatred over generations comes down to negative attitudes toward people whose melanin levels differ from theirs.

In God's name, how stupid is that? And how tragic is that?

Maryland opens $35 million youth detention facility in Baltimore

Baltimore Sun

After community resistance stifled past plans, juveniles charged as adults in Baltimore will be held in a new $35 million detention center that state corrections officials say is better equipped to rehabilitate them.

“We intend to use this facility to help change the lives of our troubled youth,” Maryland Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Stephen T. Moyer said Friday during a media tour of the 60,537-square-foot, two-story Youth Detention Center at 926 Greenmount Ave.

He said the facility provides an “opportunity to get them back on the right side of the criminal justice system where they can be productive citizens in the city and not come back to this facility.”

The detention center’s opening comes as the number of youths charged as adults and held at such facilities has been dropping. While the new facility can house up to 60 youths — 50 males and 10 females — the city typically houses fewer than 15 on an average day, according to corrections department spokesman Gerry Shields. In fact, the average daily population has dropped from 44 in fiscal year 2013 to nine this past fiscal year, according to Moyer’s agency.

Many youth advocates and community leaders opposed spending money on a youth jail, urging the funds be directed to services like youth centers and summer jobs programs.

Melanie Shapiro, director of juvenile justice policy for the Office of the Public Defender, said the money could have been better spent helping to prevent young people from getting in trouble. [MORE]

House votes to curb asset forfeiture

Wash Post

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to curb federal asset forfeitures, a program that enables law enforcement officers to seize private property, often in cases where the owner was never even charged with a crime, much less convicted. The House bill passed by a virtually unanimous voice vote. It would defund a federal asset forfeiture program reinstated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, after Obama AG Eric Holder had previously taken steps to curb it:

The House voted Tuesday to curb the law enforcement practice of seizing cash and property from people who are suspected of illegal activity but who have not necessarily been charged.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers pushed an amendment to a government-spending package for 2018 that would prohibit the Trump administration from using funds to remove restrictions on the use of asset forfeiture. The practice allows law enforcement to seize cash and property and keep at least part of the proceeds.

Opposition to relaxing asset-forfeiture limits produced a strange-bedfellows effort by members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and liberal progressives. Sponsors of the amendment included Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.).

Their amendment would specifically restrict the use of what’s known as “adoptive forfeiture,” which allows the federal government to take assets seized by local authorities.

Critics say that the practice has allowed local authorities to circumvent state laws that were stricter than under federal statute. About two dozen states have laws that make it harder for authorities to seize property if a person has not been convicted of a crime.

The funding restrictions passed by a unanimous voice vote. Among the leaders in the effort to curb asset forfeitures were libertarian-leaning Republican Justin Amash and progressive Democrat (and longtime American University law professor) Jamin Raskin. [MORE]

Merriam-Webster dictionary is using Rep. Barbara Lee's words to explain what 'woke' means

LA Times

The brand new Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of "woke" includes a a quote from Rep. Barbara Lee as the example of how to use the word in a sentence.

The online dictionary defined woke on Monday as "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)."

The entry, which she proudly shared on her Twitter account, cites a passage from a June Essence article by Lee (D-Oakland).

"But we will only succeed if we reject the growing pressure to retreat into cynicism and hopelessness. ... We have a moral obligation to 'stay woke,' take a stand and be active; challenging injustices and racism in our communities and fighting hatred and discrimination wherever it rises." [MORE]

Supreme Court temporarily allows Muslim Travel Ban - blocking refugees w/o direct familial ties from entering US

NPR

The U.S. Supreme Court will temporarily allow the Trump administration to block many refugees from six mostly Muslim countries without direct familial ties in the United States from entering this country.

In a brief order issued Monday, Justice Anthony Kennedy delayed implementation of a ruling issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week that would have allowed entry to refugees with formal ties to resettlement agencies here.

Kennedy put that ruling on hold until lawyers opposing the travel ban can file their response to the administration's motion by noon Tuesday.

The action comes after an emergency request to set aside the appeals court ruling from the Trump administration which is seeking to enact the broadest travel ban possible before the full Supreme Court hears arguments on its constitutionality on October 10.

The appeals court also had ruled that grandparents and other relatives of people already living in the U.S. cannot be barred entrance under the president's travel ban. Lawyers for the Justice Department did not challenge that part of the ruling.

Kennedy's ruling Monday is the latest in the see-saw legal battle over the Trump administration's effort to block entry to travelers and refugees from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

In June, the Supreme Court partially backed the travel ban but said the administration could not bar people with "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States." The high court did not define what it meant by a "bona fide relationship."

The administration initially allowed entry to parents, children, spouses, siblings and in-laws. But it excluded grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins from its interpretation of that ruling. The administration also excluded some 24,000 refugees with ties to resettlement agencies.

In July, the justices sided with a lower court ruling that grandparents and cousins of a person in the U.S. fit the definition of a close relationship. But they disagreed with the lower court which also ruled in favor refugees "with formal assurances" from a U.S. resettlement agency. The justices sent the case back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for further consideration, setting the stage for last week's ruling.

Can Cops Force You to Unlock Your Phone With Your Face?

The Atlantic

Customers who shell out $999 for an iPhone X when it comes out in November will have a new party trick in their pockets: They’ll be able to unlock the phone with nothing more than a quick glance at the screen. When they look away, it will lock up again.

When new features like this one, which Apple is calling Face ID, make it easier to unlock a phone, they save time; Apple says iPhone users unlock their phones an average of 80 times a day. But make it too easy to get into a phone and people start to get nervous.

Apple executives emphasized the security of Face ID as they announced the latest generation of iPhones on Tuesday. Once a phone learns to recognize its owner, using a 3-D map made up of more than 30,000 infrared dots projected onto a person’s face, it’ll only unlock itself when it senses that the owner is looking straight at the device. The map can’t be fooled by photos or masks, said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for marketing, at Tuesday’s event, and it’s stored locally in a secure part of the device. Locking the phone just requires closing your eyes or glancing away, so waving a phone in front of its sleeping owner won’t unlock it. [MORE]

Hurricane Irma Unleashes the Forces of Privatization in Puerto Rico

The Intercept

VULTURES CIRCLING THE wreckage of Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Irma are closing in on a long-sought prize: the privatizing of the island’s electric utility.

Puerto Rico avoided the very worst of the storm, which darted just north of the U.S. territory. But it didn’t escape unscathed. Following a request from Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló, the White House declared a state of emergency. Three people were killed and more than 1 million were left without electricity in the storm’s wake.

The fragile body responsible for that power is the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, whose executive leadership warned ahead of the storm that parts of the island could be left without electricity for up to six months. Thanks to the change in the storm’s path and a crew of dedicated line workers, Prepa, the island’s sole electricity provider, now expects most towns to have their lights back on within two weeks and full power within a month. As of Monday, more than 70 percent of homes had already gotten electricity back.

But once the lights are turned on, Puerto Rican households will face a new threat. [MORE]

New York mayor considers Christopher Columbus statue removal

Guardian

Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor, has said he may order the removal of the landmark statue of Christopher Columbus that has overlooked Manhattan’s Columbus Circle since it was erected as part of the city’s 1892 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the explorer landing in the Americas.

The review, which comes amid a national drive to remove dozens of controversial statues and monuments, has prompted a passionate response. Italian American groups have argued that Columbus “was essential in truly legitimizing our transition from Italians to Americans”. [MORE]

White Men who forced black man into coffin convicted of Attempted Murder in South Africa

Guardian 

A South African judge has found two white farmers guilty of attempted murder after they filmed themselves forcing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive.

Supporters of the victim celebrated in the courtroom after the judge, Segopotje Mphahlele, told the accused that “for attempted murder of Mr [Victor] Mlotshwa, I hereby find you both guilty.”

Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson were also found guilty of kidnap, intimidation and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

They had pleaded not guilty over the incident last year in the eastern province of Mpumalanga, saying they only intended to scare Mlotshwa after he allegedly stole copper cables from their farm.

Two clips of footage taken on their mobile phones showed the assailants shoving Mlotshwa down into the wooden coffin and pressing the lid closed with their boots as he begged for his life.

Rival activists from the ruling African National Congress, the main opposition Democratic Alliance and the radical Economic Freedom Fighters rallied outside court and attended each day of the trial.

When the first phone footage emerged several months ago, it triggered national outrage and led to the arrest of the two men.

“Please don’t kill me,” Mlotshwa begged the men while in the coffin, the footage shown.

“Why shouldn’t we, when you are killing our farm?” one replied.

Mlotshwa was in court to hear the verdicts against the two men, who had alleged that Mlotshwa had threatened to kill their families and burn farm crops before being forced into the coffin.

South Africa is beset by deep-rooted racial inequality 23 years after the end of white-minority apartheid rule, and cases of racism have erupted regularly on social media in recent years.

Outside the court on Friday, protesters carried mock coffins with pictures of the accused and called for them to be found guilty on all charges.

Mlotshwa said he was walking to the town of Middelburg to buy provisions for his mother and had decided to use a short cut when the two men spotted him.

The two men’s families told local media they were shocked over the verdicts.

The sentencing date was to be set by the court later on Friday.