A 21-year-old Mason City man has been sentenced to prison for a "hate crime" that targeted a black family.
Justin Hanson of Mason City pled guilty in late April to one count of "interfering with the housing rights of an African American family." Hanson admitted he put a "racially offensive" sign in the family’s yard on May 9th, 2008. The sign featured a swastika and the words "Hitler Lives." Hanson, who lived in the same neighborhood, wrote this on the sign, too: "Give the Whites their town and country back or it will be taken back by force."
Hanson admits that the next day, he fired a B-B gun at the family’s home and broke a bedroom window.
Hanson has been sentenced to eight months in a federal prison.