Hate Crimes In United States
Hate crime is targeted against an individual or group by virtue of their association with certain groups based on religion, race, political affiliation, class, gender, nationality and so on. |
In the US, hate crimes are still reported. The killings of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd are amongst the worst of senseless acts based on prejudices like race. The shootings of 4 Jul 1999 in Indiana and Illinois motivated by hate; murder of two men who were gay in California or arson attacks on the Sacramento synagogues are gruesome reminders of hate crimes. In 1999, a person having associations with white supremacist organization opened fire on a daycare center run by Jews in Los Angeles in which a postal department worker who was a Filipino got killed. In 2000, an African-American gay called J.R. Warren who was barely 26 years old was attacked and savaged by running him over back and forth till he died by two 17 year olds. The list is endless.
Different reasons become motives for hate crimes. In a report presented by FBI Hate Crime statistics, a total of 8,152 crimes were reported from all over the country. Almost 53.6 percent (4,368) of these were race based, 18.2 percent (1,483) were religion based, 16.3 percent (1,330) were sexual orientation based, 11.4 percent (927) were national or ethnic based and 0.4 percent (36) were disability based. Multiple biases accounted for the remaining 0.1 percent (8) crimes.
In January 2009, many African Americans and an Hispanic man were attacked by three individuals showing their political support for President Obama. One victim who was run over by their car and got into coma was mistaken for an African-American when he was not.
A controversial acquittal in 2009 in Pennsylvania of two teenagers on charges of ethnic intimidation of a 25 year old Mexican immigrant, Luiz Ramirez saw huge opposition to the verdict since the punishment was restricted for only 23 months of imprisonment. Civil right communities brought put many reports which amply proved that the attack was motivated on racial grounds.
In 2001, following the 9/11 incident, statistics proved that 243 hate crimes reported against Americans from South Asia occurred since they were mistaken for Arab Americans or Muslims. Statistics from study in the year 2002 brought out that approximately 1,700 cases were reported of discrimination against minorities like Sikh, Muslim, Arab or South Asian Americans.
The legal definition of the term hate crime differs from one state to the other, thus warranting different punishments for the same crime depending on the jurisdiction unless tried by federal court.
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Hate Crimes In United States
Crimes distinguished by motive of the criminal behind committing the crime fall under a different class called the Hate crimes. These types of crime may be driven by prejudice towards race, ethnicity, disability, religion or sexual orientation and the punishment for these crimes is usually harsher than the crime itself in order to de-motivate these motivations. Hate cases pose an extremely tough challenge to even the finest lawyers and the criminal may end up getting lifetime imprisonment or death penalty based on the crime committed. 
