Hate Crime

5/22/2012

I would like to start off by saying a living creature is capable of hating his or her own self. Let's not kid ourselves here. We all have days when we don't like something about ourselves that is out of our control. This could be our appearance, our ethnic background, our parents, our religion and so on. The dislike can grow inside to overflowing means until the person does something to another person who shares the same out of control qualities. The victim doesn't have to dislike themselves, but just share the same qualities. I'm talking about hate crimes to a victim of the same background as the predator. 

I was representing someone a little over a month ago who was a victim of a hate crime at a high school. A noose was tied around the neck of the victim's stuffed animals and the eyes were gauged out. However, it was only played off as bullying and not premeditated like it obviously was. The worse part was that this was played off as less than it was because the predator is the same ethnic background and sexual orientation.

The predator's physical background should not even be considered when such a psychopathic act occurs. What you see is not what you get! Just because someone is the same ethnicity doesn't mean he or she was nurtured nor raised the same culturally as the victim. This person targeted another person similar to herself to release pent up anger through this threat. Yes, I said threat. 

Obviously, I am not a person to let a noose not have any symbolic meaning when directed to another person so of course I did get the police involved. 

My question is....Do you think the idea of a hate crime is even considered when the predator and victim are of the same background? Does that make the crime any less hateful or wrong? If the minors are not punished for their crimes nor even scolded, what will become of this new generation of psychopaths?