Hate Crimes

[Soon]

I am not sure if this is the correct forum for this topic.

I know it can be depressing to just list hate crimes that are committed against our community and humanity as a whole.

I just think that sharing sometimes might raise awareness that our (for some) safe bubble isn't so safe for some.

I would like to start off with this story. Daniel (Stearns) showed me this and my heart just breaks.


Lesbian couple in Vonore says house fire is hate crime

[Jet]

i think things will get worse for us.

[Soon]

Originally Posted by Jet

i think things will get worse for us.

care to expand?

[Nat]

There seems to be an increasing fervor in the US around race, nationality, religion, orientation and gender - and it's being preached on the tv and from the pulpits. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently stated that since Obama became president, there has been a significant increase in the amount of hate groups. People are poor and fearful and angry, and many embrace an apocalyptic end-of-days fundamentalist Christianity that really stokes the fires of hopelessness and blame. I had a sweet, funny lady at work tell me in all sincerity the other day that she was reading the "Left Behind" series, and it's really sad how many people are going to be tortured here on earth for 7 years before descending into hell just because they refused to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I said, "Sounds like a merciful god," and she replied, "They all had plenty of chances to save themselves."

If we win any of our rights battles, I think there definitely will be more violent backlash.

Thanks for this thread.

[T D]

Quite honestly, I feel less safe now than I did say nearly 40 years ago. Times they are a changin, but at this very moment it doesn't feel very safe out there to me....

Just sayin.

[Nat]

Rapper 50 Cent Jokes About ‘Shooting Up’ Gay Wedding

Rapper 50 Cent made a joke about violence against gays in his Twitter feed on September 6, in response to an insult made by Perez Hilton. As reported by AfterElton and Queerty, after Hilton referred to him as a “douchebag,” 50 Cent responded on Twitter, saying: “Perez Hilton calld me douchebag so I had my homie shoot up a gay wedding. wasnt his but still made me feel better. “ The tweet was accompanied by a photo of two men in suits running from an angry mob.

[Nat]

Mississippi prosecutor says video turns hit-and-run case to hate crime

"Smith says the video shows a group of white teens beating black auto worker James Craig Anderson in a parking lot, before one of the teens gets into a pick-up truck and intentionally runs him down. A motel worker said one of the teens yelled "white power" during the beating, and Smith says the group drove from the mostly white Rankin County to Jackson solely in order to find a black person to assault."

This video does start with a warning about graphic footage. I didn't watch the video footage, but the interviews/reporting better illustrate the awfulness of this. Like, these kids went to mcdonalds afterwards.

[Nat]

Stuart Walker, gay bartender in Scotland, beaten and burned alive



http://www.towleroad.com/2011/10/tee...rt-walker.html

Teen Arrested in Connection with Murder of Gay Scottish Barman Stuart Walker
A teenager has been arrested in connection with the murder of gay Scottish barman Stuart Walker. Walker's body was found beaten and burned in a rural area outside Cumnock in Ayrshire in Scotland early on Saturday after spending a night out with friends.

STV reports:

Strathclyde Police confirmed the man was taken into custody on Thursday evening, less than a week after Mr Walker's body was discovered at an industrial estate in Cumnock, Ayrshire.

A police spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that an 18-year-old man is currently detained in connection with this inquiry."

No further details have been offered.

Divisional Commander John Thomson of the Strathclyde Police said earlier this week that the victim’s lifestyle was the "main focus" of his inquiries: "I don’t think it was a random attack by someone who will strike again. I suspect Stuart may have known this individual or met this individual shortly before his death."

UPDATE: Those allegations that Walker was facing an indecency probe were reportedly made by a malicious liar. "But the Record can reveal the man who made the allegation was a 44-year-old with a long criminal record including rape, assault, car theft and housebreaking. And prosecutors planned to throw out the case. The man who lodged the complaint cannot be named because it would identify his son, the subject of the allegation."

[Kobi]

The Boston Herald spotlights a fascinating criminal case today: Last Sunday, Erika Stroud, 21, her sister Felicia Stroud, 18, and a third woman, Lydia Sanford, attacked a gay man in a stairwell of a Boston subway station viciously enough to break his nose.

Prosecutor Lindsey Weinstein said they repeatedly punched and kicked him "after he bumped them with his backpack." As they beat him, they also "called him insulting homophobic slurs," according to the victim's account, and he told police he believed he was attacked because of his sexual orientation.

They were swiftly arraigned yesterday on hate crime charges. But here's the thing: All three identify as lesbians. It's a legal conundrum: Do hate crime laws apply to members of the minorities they seek to protect?

City prosecutors and the Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU think they do, and are pursuing a charge of assault and battery with intent to intimidate -- a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison.

“Someone who is Jewish can be anti-Semitic,” said ACLU staff attorney Sarah Wunsch. “The mere fact that someone is a member of the same class doesn’t mean they could not be motivated by hatred for their very own group.” [...]

“The defendants’ particular orientation or alleged orientations have no bearing on our ability to prosecute for allegedly targeting a person who they believe to be different from them,” [Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley] said.

But not everyone sees it that way:

“My guess is that no sane jury would convict them under those circumstances, but what this really demonstrates is the idiocy of the hate-crime legislation,” said civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate. “If you beat someone up, you’re guilty of assault and battery of a human being. Period. The idea of trying to break down human beings into categories is doomed to failure.”

Hate crime laws as we now know them were born on October 29, 2009, when President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded the definition of a hate crime to include "crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability." But they have been frequently challenged by the same people they seek to protect, who see the legislation as an increase in power of the penal system, there to make politicians look like heroes without doing anything to actually target the roots of the problem. And all too often, the problems begin in government policy itself. Blackandpink.org has a great compilation of arguments against hate crime legislation.


The three women are POC in this case. Dont know about the man they allegedly attacked.


http://www.theatlanticwire.com/polit...e-crime/49164/
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from blackandpink.org


A Compilation of Critiques on Hate Crimes Legislation

Many liberal, and even self-proclaimed progressive, organizations are fighting for “hate crimes” legislation nationally and state-by-state. The Senate just voted in favor of the “Matthew Shepard Bill”. Challenges and critiques are made over and over again by queer/trans/gender non-conforming folks, people of color, low-income/poor folks, and others most impacted by the many tentacles of the prison industrial complex, yet the campaigns continue on.

This document is intended to be a bullet point compilation of materials put out by the following organizations (in no particular order): Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Audre Lorde Project, FIERCE, Queers for Economic Justice, Peter Cicchino Youth Project, Denver Chapter of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, Denver on Fire, and the article “Sanesha Stewart, Lawrence King, and why hate crimes legislation won’t help” by jack. The intention behind this document is to present a somewhat simplified critique that can inspire a desire for more information.

If a particular crime is deemed a hate crime by the state, the supposed perpetrator is automatically subject to a higher mandatory minimum sentence. For example, a crime that would carry a sentence of five years can be “enhanced” to eight years.


Plain and simple, hate crimes legislation increases the power and strength of the prison system by detaining more people for longer periods of time.

Trans people, people of color, and other marginalized groups are disproportionately incarcerated to an overwhelming degree. Trans and gender non-conforming people, particularly trans women of color, are regularly profiled and falsely arrested for doing nothing more than walking down the street.


If we are incarcerating those who commit violence against marginalized individuals/communities we then place them behind walls where they can continue to target these same people. It is not in the best interest of marginalized communities to depend on a system that already commits such great violence to then protect them.

Hate crime laws do not distinguish between oppressed groups and groups with social and institutional power.

This reality of the state makes it so that white people can accuse people of color of anti-white hate crimes, straight people accuse queers, and so on. Such a reality opens the door for marginalized people to be prosecuted for simply defending themselves against oppressive violence. This type of precedent setting also legitimizes ideologies of reverse racism that continuously deny the institutionalization of oppression.

Hate crime laws are an easy way for the government to act like it is on our communities’ side while continuing to discriminate against us. Liberal politicians and institutions can claim “anti-oppression” legitimacy and win points with communities affected by prejudice, while simultaneously using “sentencing enhancement” to justify building more prisons to lock us up in.

Hate crimes legislation is a liberal way of being “tough on crime” while building the power of the police, prosecutors, and prison guards. Rather than address systems of violence like health care disparities, economic exploitation, housing crisis, or police brutality, these politicians use hate-crimes legislation as their stamp of approval on “social issues”.

Hate crimes laws focus on punishing the “perpetrator” and has no emphasis on providing support for the survivor or families and friends of those killed during an act of interpersonal hate violence.

We will only strengthen our communities if we take time to care for those who have experienced or been witness to violence. We have to survive systems of violence all the time and are incredibly resilient. We must focus on building our capacity to respond and support survivors and create transformative justice practices that can also heal the perpetrator (though focusing first and foremost on survivors).

Hate crime law sets up the State as protector, intending to deflect our attention from the violence it perpetrates, deploys, and sanctions. The government, its agents, and their institutions perpetuate systemic violence and set themselves up as the only avenue in which justice can be allocated; they will never be charged with hate crimes.

The state, which polices gender, race, sexuality, and other aspects of identity, is able to dismiss the ways it creates the systems that builds a culture of violence against marginalized communities as it pays prosecutors to go after individuals who commit particular types of interpersonal violence. Hate crimes legislation puts marginalized communities in the place of asking the state to play the savior while it continues to perpetuate violence.

Hate crimes don’t occur because there aren’t enough laws against them, and hate crimes won’t stop when those laws are in place. Hate crimes occur because, time and time again, our society demonstrates that certain people are worth less than others; that certain people are wrong, are perverse, are immoral in their very being.

Creating more laws will not help our communities. Organizing for the passage of these kind of laws simply takes the time and energy out of communities that could instead spend the time creating alternative systems and building communities capable of starting transformative justice processes. Hate crimes bills are a distraction from the vital work necessary for community safety.

Passing hate crimes legislation will not bring back those who have been killed by hateful violence, it will not heal the wounds of the body or spirit, it will not give power to communities who have felt powerless after episodes of violence.

Organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and others take advantage of our pain and suffering to garner support for these pieces of legislation. Advocates in the campaigns for hate crimes legislation tokenize individuals like Sanesha Stewart and Angie Zapata while still pushing forward the white, class privileged, gay and lesbian agenda. To truly honor those we have lost and to honestly heal ourselves we must resist the inclination to turn to the state for legitimation or paternalistic protection; let us use the time to build our communities and care for our selves.

[Nat]

Dallas - Gay couple brutally beaten with baseball bats

Police said the victims were walking to a corner store at about 2 a.m. when five men in a car pulled up alongside them and shouted anti-gay slurs.

"The language used against the victims indicated they were motivated by the perception that they were gay," said Cece Cobb, CEO of the Resource Center of Dallas, one of the primary nonprofit GLBT organizations in North Texas.

Investigators said two of the attackers got out of the car with baseball bats, hitting one of the victims at least four times in the head and knocking him unconscious for a short time.

The other victim tried to fight back and got caught in the car's passenger side door as the attackers sped away.

"It makes me very sad, very sad," said a friend of the victims, who asked not to be identified for all of their safety. "I hate it for my friends to be in so much pain."

The friend, who is taking care of the victims, said he had to get eight staples in his head.

The other victim has bruises covering his face and scabs down his arms and legs.

"It was because they were gay," the friend said.

"Hatred and discrimination still exist, and this is an example that unfortunately we live with that in our lives," Cobb said.

Dallas police are looking for a dark, four-door sedan, possibly a Buick, with tinted windows and 24-inch rims.

Because police have classified it as a hate crime, it carries much stiffer penalties.

[Nat]

9/11 hate crime victim's kin become US citizens

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. (AP) — Anum Hasan has seen many conflicting visions of America: the hope of a better life that brought her family from Pakistan, the hate-filled act that ended her father's life in the name of American vengeance; and an outpouring of compassion that her family has come to feel is the true face of the country they now call home.

"I think about what story I'll tell her one day about what happened to our family," Anum Hasan said, cradling her 1-year-old daughter Aisha on her lap. "It's important for her to know there's always a lot of hate going around in the world, but there is so much more good."

Hasan's father, Waqar Hasan, was shot to death four days after Sept. 11, 2001, in Texas, targeted by a white supremacist looking for revenge against Middle Eastern men for the terror attack. The family had every reason to want to leave, but on Friday, Hasan's widow and three of her four daughters were sworn in as U.S. citizens.

It was what happened in the aftermath of Hasan's killing that reinforced the family's decision to remain in the U.S.

The doorbell of their Milltown home did not stop ringing. Letters started pouring in. Hundreds of phone messages from across the country were left with their local congressman, decrying Hasan's killing. Fruit baskets and baked goods were brought to their home. Neighbors in their small town organized a candlelight peace vigil and Waqar Hasan's widow, Durree Hasan, recalled her amazement that the elderly, infirm woman who lived next door had found a way to attend the vigil, despite the pouring rain.

"It never occurred to us we'd have to leave (America). It's home," Durree Hasan said. "We never thought to leave, even to another town. It's a very small town, but like a big family; very supportive."

Durree Hasan, 45, of Milltown, was joined by her three American-born grandchildren clutching small American flags, and her four daughters; Nida, 28, of Mapleshade, Asna, 26 of Edison, Anum, 25, of New York City, and Iqra, 22 of Milltown.

The women wore full Muslim hijab, or headscarves and long garments, and three of the daughters wore niqabs, or traditional Muslim face coverings, as they participated in a moving naturalization ceremony Friday at the New Jersey office of U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, with officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"It was his dream come true today," Usna Hasan said about her father, moment after she was sworn in as an American citizen. "It was his dream that became our dream, and it's an extreme sense of accomplishment, of overwhelming joy and gratitude."

Waqar Hasan was shot in the head and killed on Sept. 15, 2001, as he grilled hamburgers in a Dallas convenience store he had opened that year while Durree remained in New Jersey with the children, working the midnight shift at a factory that makes drinking cups.

White supremacist Mark Anthony Stroman admitted killing the 46-year-old Hasan, thinking he was Arab-American, as part of a series of revenge attacks for 9/11. Stroman was executed last year for the October 2001 killing of an Indian immigrant. He was never tried for Hasan's killing.

Durree Hasan and her daughters faced the threat of deportation as a result of Hasan's death, because their visas were tied to his.

The family, who emigrated legally, had been living in Milltown, in central New Jersey, when Hasan moved to Dallas in 2001 to search for a home and open a convenience store in hopes of eventually relocating the entire family. He had applied for a green card, but the application became invalid when he died.

Holt intervened in 2004 to give them permanent legal residency, introducing a rare "private bill" in Congress that granted the family legal resident status. He hosted the naturalization ceremony Friday and marveled at how the women he'd met a decade ago had grown from teenagers into married, working women with families.

"It's a story of bravery, perseverance and ultimately, I think it's a story of justice and compassion," said the New Jersey Democrat. "Our laws have imperfections, but America continues to strive toward fairness and community and compassion, and that's what you see today."

Stroman, who had a criminal background dating back to his childhood, was put to death in July by lethal injection for the Oct. 4, 2001, killing of Indian immigrant Vasudev Patel at a gas station.

He admitted at the time of his arrest that he shot Hasan and two other South Asian men: "I did what every American wanted to do but didn't. They didn't have the nerve."

He told authorities he belonged to the Aryan Brotherhood when he was arrested in Patel's killing, but said he was not a white supremacist.

"I wanted those Arabs to feel the same sense of vulnerability and uncertainty on American soil much like the mindset of chaos and bedlam that they were already accustomed to in their home country," he said on a website devoted to his case.

During his shooting spree, Stroman also shot and wounded an immigrant from Bangladesh who, despite being blinded in one eye, unsuccessfully sued to stop the execution on the grounds his Muslim beliefs dictated he forgive him. Durree Hasan also sought to get Stroman off death row, officials said.

Holt first lobbied for Hasan to be considered a victim of the 9/11 attacks, but then got a bill passed in 2004 granting the family permanent residency.

They became eligible for citizenship after holding green cards for five years.