Have the targeted victims of hate crimes in the United States changed overtime and how is this addressed legally? 784 groups in the United States depend on the protection of free speech to assemble and practice their bigoted ideals. However, when these ideals manifest as criminal acts they’re called hate crimes. Hate Crimes are outlawed by federal law which has been semi-recently revised to expand its protections. Although under the 1st Amendment hate groups have the right to congregate, some radical hate group members express their beliefs through hate crimes, the changing nature of which warranted revisions to the law.
Hate groups are defined differently by various information sources but the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) defines a hate …show more content…
As defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) a hate crime is “ traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias.” Similarly to hate crimes, a biased incident is a verbal/non-verbal threat, or behavior that intimidates, is discriminatory or hostile. In a statistics report published in December of 2014 the FBI said over half of hate crimes were purely motivated by racial bias in 2012, which was a considerable amount higher than the 30% of 2011. The FBI’s report also stated that hate crimes due to religious bias almost tripled from 10% in 2004 to 28% in 2012. The percentage of hate crimes involving gender bias went up from 12% to 26% during that same period (FBI; Latest Hate Crimes Report). Most media covered hate crimes have to do with racial bias, such as the case of Brandon Dominick who had several incidents of hate crimes involving racial bias. One of these incidents included Dominick taking part in a group of men that used a slingshot to fire metal ball bearings at a group of African Americans, allegedly they also threw beer bottles at the men. Another incident in which Dominick was involved was at a party he attended. The party goers discussed traveling to Mississippi's capital to find African Americans to persecute. While some attendees left the party, Dominick was not one of them. He was also involved in the murder of another black man who was beaten and run over, the …show more content…
However, it did not cover crimes due to racial, gender, sexual orientation or disability. This was a big issue because it meant millions of hate crimes could not be tried in federal court. In 2009 the federal hate crime law was expanded to fit more types of hate crime murders. The two prominent crimes that motivated the legislature to change the law involved the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Matthew Shepard was killed in 1998 by Aaron Mckinney and Russell Henderson who targeted him because of his sexual orientation. The two took him to a remote location where they tied him to a split-rail fence then Matthew was beaten and left to die. His case could not be brought to justice due to it being motivated by sexual orientational bias. James Byrd Jr. a 49 year old African American man was offered a ride home from a party by Shawn Berry. Berry accompanied by his two white supremacist friends (Lawrence Brewer, and John King) drove Byrd to a remote country location where they beat up Byrd, then chained him to their pickup and drug him three miles down the road, he was most likely awake and conscious the whole time. Later, police found Byrds remains in 81 different pieces along the road. These horrifying acts, not falling under the current hate crime law, demanded a revision by legislators. The new law (called the Matthew Shepard Act)
Hate groups are defined differently by various information sources but the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) defines a hate …show more content…
As defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) a hate crime is “ traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias.” Similarly to hate crimes, a biased incident is a verbal/non-verbal threat, or behavior that intimidates, is discriminatory or hostile. In a statistics report published in December of 2014 the FBI said over half of hate crimes were purely motivated by racial bias in 2012, which was a considerable amount higher than the 30% of 2011. The FBI’s report also stated that hate crimes due to religious bias almost tripled from 10% in 2004 to 28% in 2012. The percentage of hate crimes involving gender bias went up from 12% to 26% during that same period (FBI; Latest Hate Crimes Report). Most media covered hate crimes have to do with racial bias, such as the case of Brandon Dominick who had several incidents of hate crimes involving racial bias. One of these incidents included Dominick taking part in a group of men that used a slingshot to fire metal ball bearings at a group of African Americans, allegedly they also threw beer bottles at the men. Another incident in which Dominick was involved was at a party he attended. The party goers discussed traveling to Mississippi's capital to find African Americans to persecute. While some attendees left the party, Dominick was not one of them. He was also involved in the murder of another black man who was beaten and run over, the …show more content…
However, it did not cover crimes due to racial, gender, sexual orientation or disability. This was a big issue because it meant millions of hate crimes could not be tried in federal court. In 2009 the federal hate crime law was expanded to fit more types of hate crime murders. The two prominent crimes that motivated the legislature to change the law involved the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Matthew Shepard was killed in 1998 by Aaron Mckinney and Russell Henderson who targeted him because of his sexual orientation. The two took him to a remote location where they tied him to a split-rail fence then Matthew was beaten and left to die. His case could not be brought to justice due to it being motivated by sexual orientational bias. James Byrd Jr. a 49 year old African American man was offered a ride home from a party by Shawn Berry. Berry accompanied by his two white supremacist friends (Lawrence Brewer, and John King) drove Byrd to a remote country location where they beat up Byrd, then chained him to their pickup and drug him three miles down the road, he was most likely awake and conscious the whole time. Later, police found Byrds remains in 81 different pieces along the road. These horrifying acts, not falling under the current hate crime law, demanded a revision by legislators. The new law (called the Matthew Shepard Act)