Hate Crimes

Hauslohner, Abigail. "Hate Crimes on Steady Rise, FBI Says." Washington Post, 19 Nov, 2017, pp. A.3, SIRS Issues Researcher,https://sks.sirs.com

A necessary and common fight for equality has been one that has survived throughout all of man’s existence. Due to recent racial divide and the product of racial profiling, a movement has risen up to combat these common issues. The most recent and most well-covered is the Black Lives Matter Movement. Even though it has been lauded by some media sources and individuals as the next great movement to champion for civil rights, the Black Lives Matter movement is not the same as the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s nor is it likely to be as successful. If the Black Lives Matter Movement continues with discrepancies in ideology, lack of clear leadership, and trends of hate, the movement is doomed to fail.

America’s history is overrun with oppression and injustice based on race, ethnicity, and other traits that innocent victims have no control over. As a result, the reputation of the United States is forever tainted by it’s dark past, and still practices these surviving habits of hatred. Civil liberty issues faced since the establishment of the country have yet to be resolved because of the ever-present mistreatment, corruption in positions of authority, and the dehumanization of minorities.

While hate crime is a fairly new label for a crime, the existence of hate crimes has been present since the early days of the United States. Throughout US history, murders, assaults, and destruction of property has occurred against African Americans, American Indians, Irish immigrants, Asian Americans, Latino’s, gays, the mentally handicapped, and all other groups of minorities. Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, there has been an increase in racial based attacks against those of Middle Eastern descent, whether they are Muslim or not. Of all of these, African Americans are subjected to the highest number of hate crimes (Martin 1996), with Muslims, homosexuals, and transgendered people on

The Klu Klux Klan, one of the most recognised hate groups in US history, was founded in 1865. They were under the impression that people of color were less valuable than white people, some even believing that they weren't human. Something people don’t realize is that groups like that are still around today, and just as active as ever. Hate groups, and just random unorganised hate crimes are just as real as me and you, and they are still an active threat. Hate Crime is relevant, and as a society, we should be doing our best to snuff out the flames of prejudice and resentment that burn in the hearts of anyone willing to participate in such unjust behavior. This kind of activity is not only hurtful emotionally, but sometimes, it turns to violence. Innocent people getting picked off the street simply because of their beliefs, who they love, or the color of their skin. This is something that nobody should stand for, especially now, in this constantly progressing world. All in all, Hate Crimes are a real problem, and in order to stop injustice such as this, we need to work together as human beings to accept people, regardless of who they are.

A hate crime is a crime of prejudice. The commitment of hate crimes is motivated by racial, sexual and even religious differences that often result to violence and death. America today is besieged by hate crimes. It seems that everywhere we turn, in the newspapers, on television and on social media, hate crimes are not only reported but are actually supported. It is unprecedented in American history how much bigotry is thrown out in our faces from the news and in social media. (Patillo, 2017) Behind every hate crime is a message. This is why the mainstream media and social media have become platforms for various groups to brag about their religious and racial biases and what they intend to do about those who against their beliefs. Hate crimes are espoused by religious and racial bigots to sow hate and dissension in order to convince people that their religious and racial prejudices are correct. Politicians, law enforcement units and the local community have to take firm steps to prevent such acts of violence from occurring in their locality.

Many people are aware of the largest hate groups found in the United States. Two of them being the Ku Klux Klan and the New Black Panther Party. They threaten or harm a specific population, and both cause diversity in the United States. The Black Lives Matter movement is a hate group because they threaten and harm a specific population using physical abuse and speech while causing diversity in the United States.

Many issues impacted by hate crimes can be informed by psychological research. For example, are hate crimes more harmful than other kinds of crime? Why do people commit hate crimes? What can be done to prevent or lessen the impact of hate and bias-motivated crimes? Social scientific research is beginning to yield information on the nature of crimes committed because of real or perceived differences in race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or gender. Current federal law defines hate crimes as any felony or crime of violence that manifests prejudice based on “race, color, religion, or national origin”. Hate crimes can be understood as criminal conduct motivated in whole or in part by a negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons. Hate crimes involve a specific aspect of the victim’s identity. Hate crimes are not simply biases, they are dangerous actions motivated by biases.

The United States FBI defines hate crimes as “a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias.” This type of bigotry-driven crime has been a huge issue in the area of politics and justice ever since history began. Such crimes have become increasingly visible over the years due to the advances in technology, and social networking sites that have given a new platform to these issues. As the visibility of hate crime conditions become commonplace, they also become easily identifiable in everyday life. The issue that then arises is that these conditions have not yet become illegal to the degree that they should be held to. Hate crimes should be held at a higher penalty, at the federal level, due to the nature and intent of the crime at hand.

Jo isn't trying to attack a political party, a social demographic, or anyone in particular. He is a person who is worried about his country and wants what is best for it. Jo doesn't believe that hate crime legislation falls into the category of improving his country. He feels that it worsens tension between opposing groups. He illustrates this by using 3 distinct groups of people in America: occupation, sexual orientation, and pedophiles. These people are not all one race, religion, color, creed, etc. There are people from every social demographic that can fall into any one of those categories. The 'currency' of this article is over 10 years old. Meaning that many things have changed since the publication of Jo's article in 2002. Regardless, I felt that most of what Jo has to say in his findings applies to us still today. What is wrong is wrong, it doesn't matter if it was previously tolerated in the past. That is why despite the age of this paper, I still felt that it was a valuable

Crime in America is an extremely plaguing issue. However, recently hate crimes specifically have been on the rise. Those targeted by these awful crimes include those from specific race, sex, and sexuality groups, as well as those with disabilities. While, all hate crimes are indeed terrible, those targeting the disabled are especially heinous. To attack someone who can not physically or consciously defend themselves is very cowardly. The authors of Hate Crimes and Disability in America, Brian T. McMahon, Steven L. West, Allen N. Lewis, Amy J. Armstrong, and Joseph P. Conway address the issue of hate crimes against the disabled as well as the statistics and legality of this matter.

A toxic combination was nurtured within this new version of the nearly century old movement. The present-day Antifa is representing much more than just the anti-fascist beliefs of the past; the new Antifa is just anti-far right in general. This widening of hate combined with the more liberal use of violence has allowed for recent events like Charlottesville to occur.

The human service workers play a vital role in helping people to overcome, psychological, physical and alienation problems etc. The increasing of human problems in the modern world had become an issue. The human service professionals use different kinds of techniques to resolve the issues of people in the community (Woodside & McClam, 2012). Human service workers often witness some of the saddest sides of humanity, as when working with homeless, abused or neglected children, or those who have experienced a recent loss (Burger, 2013). This paper selects a hate group from Georgia State in US. The website ‘www.splcenter.org’ was used to identify a hate group in Georgia.

In 2007, according to the Federal Bureau Investigation of the Nation’s law enforcement agencies “there were 9,535 victims of hate crimes; of these victims17.1 percent were victimized because of a bias against a religious belief which totaled to be 1,628 victims of an anti-religious hate crime” (1). Almost ten thousand people were victims of hate crimes alone in 2007. That is something to be alarmed about because part of living in the U.S.A as minority is to have freedom to do and be anything you want and yet we find that you really don’t have that freedom because you get attacked for practicing that freedom. The increasingly rate of hate crimes is soaring that many states like New York, New Jersey and California now have the highest

remains the most unresolved issue on campus [in the US] today” (Bikson & Law p. 91). Frequent campus reports of racially-motivated hate crimes imply that this remains a huge issue. Proponents