Sunday, June 15, 2008

Why isn't it a hate crime

when a man kills a woman; when a husband kills his wife, mother of his children, or his girlfriend, or a prostitute? Remember the Akron policeman who killed his pregnant girlfriend, mother of his toddler son? When a woman kills her husband I'd say hate had something to do with it, but I've never seen it called a hate crime. Why does someone have to be gay or black or some other ethnicity for it to be hate? Probably 99% of blacks are killed by other blacks. Same with gay men--it's usually a lover's quarrel. Call it whatever, but love, respect or camaraderie wasn't the motivation. Not even more freedom or money, because those things are pretty easy to come by these days. The word games we play! I'm thinking about Carol Evans, a white retired school teacher/principal whose white husband hired three white people to kill her. The paper called it "a crime of greed," because the little weasels took money, but he's the one who did the planning and paying. They'll get time; he'll probably get the death penalty. You can play scrabble with the words, but I'm betting he hated her. I'm guessing he didn't get any Father's Day card today.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is no such thing as a hate crime. A crime is a crime no matter what the motivation of the criminal.

I abhor the idea of enhanced penalties for 'hate crimes', is calls to mind the thought police.

If you punched someone, or killed someone, or painted offensive things on a building you are still a criminal.

If I go to Temple Beth Shalom and paint I love puppies on the walls is it any less work to clean it up?

If I kill my neighbor because she is black is she any more dead than if I kill her because she parked in my spot?

You want to use the words hate and crime together. Read the story about a man who beat and stomped a baby to death on a California road. He committed a crime, and I hate him.
Was it a hate crime? Who knows, who cares?

(Oh, I don't hate anyone and my neigbhor is a nice woman and we each park in our respective spots.)

Lady-Light said...

I wanted to write a similar comment, but mdoneil did it first! I think the designation of crimes as "hate crimes" is utterly ridiculous. If a person steals something, it's THEFT. If he defaces private property, it's VANDALISM. If he murders someone, it's MURDER (in its varying degrees: manslaughter, 2nd degree, 1st degree, pre-meditated, etc.)
A man hiring people to murder his wife has committed premeditated murder. How he felt, is irrelevant. It's what he did , that is important.
Which can lead me to discuss other subjects, such as the value and equality of different cultures and religions, but I won't here. Suffice it to say, that actions speak louder than words. I judge a people, culture, religion, by its actions. 'Nuff said...