"The organization led by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke demanded Wednesday that Charlottesville authorities prosecute a group of recently arrested black teen-agers for hate crimes in what police have described as a string of race-based assaults and robberies near the University of Virginia.

Ron Doggett, president of the Virginia chapter of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, said the group wil1 launch a protest unless the six black city teen-agers arrested Friday face hate crimes charges for the six attacks between September and Jan. 25. Police said several of the suspects confessed to choosing victims who looked white, even though one victim is Asian and one Indian.

'There seems to be a one-sidedness to these cases,' Doggett said. 'There is a lack of fairness in enforcing the hate crimes laws and if they are not going to apply it fairly, it shouldn't be a law.'

Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy J. Longo said labeling the attacks as hate crimes was a 'premature overreaction.'

'We're still gathering evidence and taking statements. Who knows what could come from the statements not taken?' Longo said. 'The bottom line is that the elements of a hate crime are either there based on the evidence, or they're not there. It doesn't matter how you feel about it.'

'It's a matter for the commonwealth's attorney to decide,' Longo said.

All the attacks and robberies occurred along streets near UVa and all but one of the victims were UVa students. Four took place in January and injuries from the assaults varied from a concussion and broken cheekbone to minor scrapes, police said. One victim was shoved in front of a car just before it stopped, the victim said.

Two 17-year-old girls and three 16- and 17-year-old boys are charged with crimes ranging from misdemeanor assault and battery to robbery. Gordon Lathan Fields, 18, a senior and star defensive end at Charlottesville High School, is charged with malicious wounding in the Jan. 25 attack.

The high school's principal on Monday suspended the four CHS students who have been charged.

Police have said white teen-agers were with the suspected assailants during some of the attacks but were not throwing punches. An affidavit for a search warrant indicates that two white female teen-agers told city police they were with the assailants during the attacks. They have not been charged.

Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman has said his office will prosecute everyone it can prove was involved. He said Monday that he did not have enough evidence to make a decision about the hate crime question. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Henry Silva, a local civil rights activist and treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said his main concern is that everyone implicated is prosecuted.

'What would concern me is if these black kids were prosecuted and the white kids with them weren't,' Silva said Wednesday. Doggett, whose organization opposed a state resolution last year apologizing for Virginia's 20th-century history of eugenics and proposed a European-American history and heritage month, said he will continue to put pressure on Chapman.

Virginia's hate crimes provisions provide penalty enhancements for three misdemeanors: assault, assault and battery and trespassing. If a judge finds that an assault and battery victim was selected based on race, religion, color or national origin, the misdemeanor becomes a felony.

As for any possible protest by Doggett's group, Silva said: 'I welcome them to come here and protest. Maybe I'll call a couple of my friends and we'll go out and have a counter-protest.' " (Adrienne Schwisow, The Daily Progress, February 7, 2002)