Hardy Lloyd Pennsylvania white supremacist sentenced to two years jail after urging lone wolves to carry out attacks against Jews following last year’s Pittsburgh’s Synagogue shooting attack.
A Pennsylvania white supremacist and self avowed Neo Nazi who urged ‘lone wolves‘ to kill Jews has been sentenced to two years in federal prison. The sentencing comes despite the man’s family saying, ‘the former zealot’ having reformed his views.
Hardy Lloyd, 41, of Dormont was sentenced by a judge, Thursday in Pittsburgh for threats he posted on social media in April after lawmakers in the city approved three gun control bills in the aftermath of a gunman killing 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in October, KDKA reports.
‘Anyone who supports such laws must be targeted, and their families murdered,’ Lloyd posted. ‘Lone Wolves GET BUSY.’
A day later, Lloyd called for the city’s move to ban certain assault-style weapons and ammunition to be defeated, while making an apparent reference to Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood where the Tree of Life massacre occurred, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
‘If not, well, disobey and kill, my Lone Wolves,’ Lloyd wrote. ‘Target: Jewhill!’
Lloyd posted the comments — which showed ‘intent and advocacy for killing,’ according to Assistant US Attorney Stephen Kaufman — while on probation for violating terms of his probation after being originally convicted of gun possession in 2010.
A history of breaking probation but claiming ‘this time’ he had changed:
Six years earlier, Lloyd was acquitted of homicide in the 2004 shooting death of his girlfriend, claiming he acted in self-defense. He was convicted of illegal gun possession in that case and was sentenced to up to 23 months in jail.
In 2016, after serving 30 months in prison for having a ‘small arsenal’ in his apartment despite being a convicted felon, Lloyd violated his probation again by threatening police and being sent back to prison. He then violated his probation the following summer, sending him back to prison for another 13 months, the Post-Gazette reported.
During Thursday’s hearing, Lloyd’s attorney and relatives sought leniency for the guns advocate, insisting that he was reformed, saying that he’d gone from ‘defiant and rebellious’ to someone committed to changing his ‘repugnant’ views.
Testifying on his own behalf Lloyd said that he accepted the fact that he is mentally-ill and that he had made efforts to address his condition – having begun seeing a therapist and attempting to change.
‘I’m not going to stand here and make excuses. I was wrong and I regret it. I apologize for the anger and pain it caused the community,’ Lloyd said.
Lloyd’s attorney Patrick Livingston said his client suffered from mild autism, describing him as an ‘adult with a child’s mind’ after being bullied as a child. Lloyd’s father, meanwhile, said therapy sessions that began last year had helped his son immensely.
‘There must be a balance between therapy and punishment,’ the father told US District Judge Arthur Schwab. ‘My son’s illness is as real as a broken bone or colon cancer.’
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kaufman asked the judge to reject further supervised release in favor of prison time noting that it had been the third time Lloyd had violated probation, and that each time, Lloyd’s attorneys said he was making an effort to change.
‘Once again we are here,’ Kaufman said.
‘This time with a disgusting threat of killing people in Squirrel Hill. Unimaginable. Less than 6 months after the Tree of Life assault when 11 people were slaughtered.’
Judge Schwab imposed a 24 month prison sentence.
