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{{otherpeople|Matthew Hale}}
{{Infobox Person
|name = Matthew F. Hale
|image = MattHalePME.jpg
|image_size =
|alt =
|caption =
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1971|07|21}}
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In August 1989, Hale entered [[Bradley University]], studying [[political science]]. In September 1989, Hale began writing editorials in the college newspaper, the ''Bradley Scout'', espousing his views of White Separatism. A student at Bradley, Robert Bingham, also a political science major, began a debate in the college newspaper editorial about [[civil rights]] and the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Upon coming out to give his surname, Matt Hale invited the KKK to the campus of Bradley in the spring of 1990; the same year, he was expelled from Bradley. At the age of 19, Hale burned an [[Israel]]i [[Flag of Israel|flag]] at a demonstration and was found guilty of violating an East Peoria ordinance against open burning. The next year, he passed out [[racism|racist]] pamphlets to patrons at a shopping mall and was fined for littering. In May 1991, Hale and his brother allegedly threatened three [[African-American]]s with a gun, and he was arrested for mob action. Since he refused to tell police where his brother was, Hale was also charged with [[felony]] [[obstruction of justice]]; he was convicted of obstruction, but won a reversal on [[appeal]]. In 1992, Hale attacked a security guard at a mall and was charged with [[criminal trespass]], resisting arrest, [[battery (crime)|aggravated battery]] and carrying a concealed weapon. For this attack, Hale was sentenced to 30 months [[probation]] and six months [[house arrest]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=310 | title=Youth, Hate and Crime | publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |date= Summer 2004 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-08-17}}</ref>
In 1993, Hale graduated from Bradley University and received a degree in [[political science]]. In 1996, Hale
After Hale was appointed "Pontifex Maximus" (supreme leader), he changed the name of the organization to the [[World Church of the Creator]]. The name was again changed to the [[Creativity Movement]] when a religious group in [[Oregon]] (the [[Church of the Creator]]) sued Hale's group for [[copyright law|trademark infringement]]. Hale ran the church from
==Controversy over law license==
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Two days after Hale was denied a license to practice law, a World Church of the Creator member and fellow law student named [[Benjamin Nathaniel Smith|Benjamin Smith]] resigned from The Church and went on a three-day shooting spree in which he randomly targeted members of racial and ethnic minority groups in Illinois and [[Indiana]]. Beginning on July 2, 1999, Smith shot nine [[Orthodox Jew]]s walking to and from their [[synagogue]]s in [[Chicago]]'s West Rogers Park neighborhood, killed two people, including former [[Northwestern University]] basketball coach [[Ricky Byrdsong]], in [[Evanston, Illinois]], and a 26-year-old Korean graduate student named [[Won-Joon Yoon]] who was shot as he was on his way to church in [[Bloomington, Indiana]]. Smith wounded nine others before committing [[suicide]] on July 4. [[Mark Potok]], director of intelligence for the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]], believes that Smith may have acted in retaliation after Hale's application to practice law was rejected.<ref>Wilgoren, Jodi (March 2, 2005). [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/national/02chicago.html Haunted by Threats, U.S. Judge Finds New Horror]. ''The New York Times''.</ref>
After Smith's shooting spree, Hale appeared on television and in newspapers saying, "We do urge hatred. If you love something, you must be willing to hate that which threatens it."{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} He also referred to non-whites as "mud races." According to Hale, America should only be occupied by whites.{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}} During a television interview that summer, Hale stated that his church didn't condone violent or illegal activities. Meanwhile, Hale was distributing thousands of copies of the ''White Man's Bible''
Hale's reactions to Smith's shooting spree were also recorded by a police informant, and on the tapes Hale supposedly laughs about the murders and imitates the sound of gunfire.{{fact|date=February 2010}}
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On January 8, 2003, Hale was arrested, charged with soliciting an undercover FBI informant to kill [[Joan Lefkow|Judge Joan Lefkow]], the United States district court judge presiding over his trademark case.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/01/08/white.supremacist/index.html | title=Race extremist jailed in plot to kill judge | publisher=[[CNN]] |date=January 9, 2003|accessdate=2007-08-17}}</ref>
On February 28, 2005, Lefkow's mother and husband were murdered at her home on [[Chicago]]'s North Side. Chicago Police revealed on March 10 that Bart Ross, a plaintiff in a [[medical malpractice]] case that Lefkow had dismissed, admitted to the murders in a suicide note written before shooting himself during a routine traffic stop in [[Wisconsin]] the previous evening.<ref>(March 10, 2005) [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050310lefkow,1,487378.story Police: Wisconsin death has Lefkow tie] ''Chicago Tribune''</ref>
On April 6, 2005, Hale was sentenced to a 40-year prison term for his conviction for attempting to solicit the murder of Lefkow.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?site_area=1&aid=102 | title=Matthew Hale gets maximum 40-year sentence | publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |date= April 7, 2005 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-08-17}}</ref>
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==External links==
* [http://www.rahowadirectory.com/hale "About Matt Hale"
* [http://www.rickross.com/groups/hale.html "The Creativity Movement" Rick A. Ross Institute]
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