An Arizona man delivered a racist rant in a Utah courtroom as he was sentenced to nine months in prison for a hate crime against a black child and his father.
Mark Porter used a racial slur against the 7-year-old boy Nov. 3, 2016, at their apartment complex and then zapped the child's father with a stun cane when he intervened, and a jury convicted him in March of committing a federal hate crime with a dangerous weapon, reported KSTU-TV.
"I just said, 'Get out of here you little stinking n*gger,'" Porter told FBI agents during his arrest, which was recorded on body camera video. "I said, 'I got something for you,' and I come out, and I held my Zap Cane out, right? And [the father] walked up against it, and it went against his chest."
The 59-year-old Porter moved from Draper to Arizona since the incident but was extradited back to Utah to face charges.
Porter ranted against black people during his arrest in September, and he delivered another racist tirade during his sentencing.
"See, Hitler had the right idea, the wrong people," Porter told FBI agents. "Should’ve gassed n*ggers."
He asked the agent if he was a "white trash n*gger lover," and says, "I don't respect them -- they're not human."
Porter told federal agents that he had notified apartment management about his racist views before his attack on the family.
"I don’t want nothing to do with them, and I even told them when I moved in, I said, ‘I don’t want to live next to any of them,’" Porter told authorities. "I told them at the complex."
Porter was sentenced Thursday to nine months in prison, with credit for time he's already served, which means he's eligible for release June 15 -- but that didn't stop him from trying to justify his racism to U.S. District Judge Dee Benson.
"I just don't like seeing them or being around them," Porter said.
He described black people as pimps and drug dealers, and said they commit home invasion robberies.
"They are dangerous people," Porter said, adding that they were "very violent."
The president of the NAACP's Salt Lake City branch called the sentence a "slap on the wrist," and federal prosecutors were disappointed that Porter would be released so soon.
"It seems like he hasn't heard a thing," said Dave Backman, criminal chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office. "It was painful to sit there through the sentencing, and to hear what he had to say. He is obviously racist, and we’re very concerned that he has not learned from this."
Victim Mark Waldvogel, the boy's father, agreed with prosecutors -- who said the sentence would not likely change his long-held racist beliefs.
"My little family and I are extremely disappointed in the judge’s decision regarding the sentencing," Waldvogel said in a statement. "It’s sad & disheartening. Mr. Porter is a violent and hateful individual who has deep rooted erroneous beliefs. We hope that no one else becomes a victim at the hands of Mr. Porter in the future."
