Causes Of Hate Crime

Introduction Colin Ferguson was convicted of the December 7, 1993 shooting of 25 people aboard the Long Island Rail Road commuter train out of Penn Station at Merillon Avenue station in Garden City, New York, New York. He killed six and wounded nineteen before being stopped by three of the passengers: Kevin Blum, Mark McEntee, and Mike O'Connor. Ferguson's trial was notable for a number of unusual developments, including his firing of his defense counsel and insisting on representing himself and examining himself as a live witness. Before the trial, William Kunstler and Ron Kuby attempted to argue that Ferguson was driven to mental illness through years of living in an oppressive and racist society.

In the recent news, everyone’s heard of the rise in hate crime. Most hate crime is “motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence,” (Dictionary.com). Hate crimes have spanned across the country and impact thousands of lives each year. The FBI started investigating hate crimes at the turn of the 20th century. The FBI define hate crime as, “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity,” (FBI). The discussion of hate crime has been very delicate over the past few months, from ISIS to police brutality. In this paper situations involving hate crime will be discussed such as the background; history of hate crime like the holocaust; special groups and genders that get “hated” on such as blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, and Jews; examples of hate crime; prominent figures like Donald Trump and his anti- Muslim and anti-immigrant policies as well as news pieces of hate crime; groups for and against other races like the black lives matter movement; statistics of hate crime and hate groups in the U.S.; the argument that

Hate crimes do not say they only protect black people, or transgender people. They protect every sexuality. It would not just protect homosexuals or bisexuals, it would also protect heterosexuals. If a crime was committed against a heterosexual, because they were heterosexual, then the hate crime laws would apply to them as well. We are not saying one group of people is more important than another.

Hate crimes have been a long-lasting reality in the United States beginning in the nation’s history with eradicating Native American populations, slavery, and xenophobia. As a result, forty-five states have adopted hate crime laws to combat organized hate groups from preying upon the most vulnerable groups in society. Hate crime laws provide special protections to the groups that are most frequently targeted by hate crimes including African Americans, LGBT, Jews, and Muslims. Although there has been much debate over what groups should be protected by hate crime laws, evidently there are groups that have been historically targeted at a much higher rate than others. Hence why most states exclude other groups that are not in as much need for protections in hate crime legislation.

Only you are in a dull back street late around evening time. All of a sudden a man rises up out of an entryway. If you are a white American and he is a youthful black man, inside of a couple of tenths of a second you will feel a fear as your brain consequently orders him. Your heart pulsates speedier and your body tenses. On this occasion, nothing happens. He looks at you and moves away from you. You still walk on, feeling stupid for reasons for fear construct just with respect to his enrollment in a racial group. Tension and suspicion between gatherings—whether, taking into account racial, ethnic, religious, or some other distinction—fuel a significant part of the world 's viciousness. The United States of America is a multicultural country.

Hate Crime is a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” If an African American commits the same crime as an Caucasian it is more likely for the black person to be charged and arrested due to the racial issues we have today. There are many pros and cons towards the issue of racial crime, but hate crime is still a very difficult issue for our country to overcome. In order to overcome the issue of hate crime it would require changing legislation, public and police attitudes.

looks at how it ultimately affects society and targeted groups. There are a myriad of arguments for and against the allowance of hate speech. Some citing Democracy and the first amendment others stem from the fear of eroded freedoms of expression and have valid points, but ultimately, it corrodes society’s human rights and freedoms. The two fold issue being intolerance of the freedom of self-determination and the fact that some are born a color or culture and have no choice. Therefore, hate speech is anti-social and damaging to society as a whole. While politicians can control the masses through society, they can always manipulate their agendas using such tactics against the population.

According to the congress, a hate crime is a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” (2015, January 07). Hate Crime—Overview. FBI. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov

According to Gerstenfeld, hate crimes “may or may not include sexual orientation, gender, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or political affiliation.” Some argue that every group should be protected by hate crime legislation, but this runs the risk of watering down the significance of such protections. The groups that are most frequently targeted by hate crimes including African Americans, gays and lesbians, Jews, and Muslims should be prioritized over other groups. Historically, the most targeted groups in the United States are African Americans, LGBT community, Jews, and Muslims. These groups are undoubtedly in the most need for protections provided by hate crime laws.

Sakia Gunn was a fifteen-year-old black teen who was violently targeted for a murdering due to her identifying as a lesbian. Leah Lakshmi realized the magnitude of this hate crime and used it as a platform to bring awareness to the situation. There has been and currently exists a structural problem that consistently harms people of color. Historically hate crimes were blatant, showing up as lynchings and other publicly violent portrayals. However, recently hate crimes have become more invisible.

-Hate crimes, are not justifiable the reason why is because they’re, ‘bias.’ The definition of a ‘Hate Crime’ on page 604 is defined as “a bias related crime, committed against an individual that is motivated by bias regarding race, color, religion, disability, and sexual orientation.” Committing a crime just because of the color, sexuality, religion, or disability of a person isn’t justifiable. The reason why it’s not justifiable is because, the person committing the hate crime wouldn’t want someone else, to commit such an act towards themself.

Furthermore, those who reported fair treatment during encounters with law enforcement had fewer symptoms of PTSD and anxiety. In addition to the mental health symptoms of individuals who have encounters with law enforcement, those who witness these events directly or indirectly may also be impacted negatively. In an attempt to capture how racism and discrimination negatively impacts the physical and mental health of people of color, many scholars have coined the term “racial trauma” or race-based traumatic stress. Racial trauma may result from racial harassment, witnessing racial violence, or experiencing institutional racism (Bryant-Davis, & Ocampo, 2006; Comas-Díaz, 2016). The trauma may result in experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, feelings of humiliation, poor concentration, or

Even a decade after 9/11 Muslims still received hate threats, such as, burning the holy Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 and vandalizing Mosques. According to “Gendered Islamophobia: Hate Crime Against Muslim Women” “In Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 7, 2011, a motorist pulled up to a 21-year-old Palestinian woman while she was stopped at a red light and screamed racial epithets, yelling, ‘You’re a terrorist,’ and, ‘Your people need to be killed,’ before pointing a handgun at her” (Perry 84). These types of scenarios are happening all throughout the US today. Disha et al. , states, while racially and ethically motivated hate crimes declined after 9/11, the number of Arab/Muslim hate crimes dramatically increased (40).

For people to show up and make their support present. One student spoke about the fear that marginalized groups deal with everyday due to recent events involving hate. She said acts like these must stop. In Barbara Perry’s article, Hate Crimes, she talks about America’s color-coded society. She explains that whiteness has been constructed to be the normal American standard.

Or even more strikingly, nearly half of all hate crimes committed in America have to do with race.(FBI, 2016). As we can see, although there is no obviously racism like massacre happens nowadays, the racial discrimination phenomena is like a dirty mud which has split to many tiny pieces hiding in the corner of our