In the aftermath of the José Sucuzhañay murder, several characters and groups, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Hispanic civil rights group National Council of La Raza (NCLR), are advocating for passage of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, according to the Gotham Gazette‘s Wonkster blog. The law would increase penalties for hate crimes and boost federal funding to investigate them.
No bad intentions are suspected, but NCLR and others seem to have inadvertently hijacked what is clearly a crime motivated by hatred of homosexuals and made it into a primarily race hate crime. As I first mentioned when the Sucuzhañay beating story broke, it makes no sense to be driving through Bushwick and suddenly take issue with the Latin American nationality of two random people in an overwhelmingly Latin American neighborhood. The pertinent information here was clearly the fact that the brothers were walking arm-in-arm, and the bat-wielding cultural ignorants interpreted that as homosexuality. Once the attack began, it was likely the urge to have something else to shout at the bloodied victim than “faggot” which brought out the “anti-Latino slurs” — whatever those might have been.
All this aside, it seems unlikely that tossing a few bucks at yet another law will trickle down into the consciousness of people who kill strangers with aluminum bats. Murder is already quite illegal, as is assault and battery. “Oh no, we better not crush the skulls of those Hispanic homosexuals, they recently strengthened the laws against crimes motivated by discriminatory thought!” “Why you’re right, I almost did something rash! Let’s go drink a nice aged forty at my ho’s place instead.”
No, these laws only serve to boost the egos of those who can boast they introduced them. Ms. Quinn will love being able to say in her surely future mayoral campaign, “I helped get a federal hate crimes law passed!” It won’t matter whether or not it bears fruit in the form of less violence, it just has to be on the books.
There is also a concern that focusing disproportionately more attention on solving and punishing hate crimes could poach resources from regular, boring old muggings gone horribly wrong or similar violent crimes. Not to mention the uneasiness stoked by punishing thought.
Absolutely condemn hate crimes and make an attempt to forcibly prevent and punish all crimes. But end this discrimination between violent acts based solely on the beliefs of the criminal. Intentions don’t matter; actions do.
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chillinoncentral December 30th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I think that local criminal laws already address “hate crimes” and there is nothing that shows a need for any additional legislation to enforce the laws against violent crime. The problem really is that criminals are sometimes not caught and the Attorney General will not provide certain investigative assistance unless the murder of an individual was motivated by a specific “hate.” The proposed legislation requires a prejudice before the crime is considered a felony and before they invest additional resources towards catching the criminals. That’s the part that I think is bull. The criminals involved in the Sucuzhanay murder (regardless of whether the assault was sexual or a racial) have not been caught… but every effort should be afforded towards arresting them and, when they are caught, they should face felonious murder charges that are related to a violent death and thus face life sentences. Murder is murder… and whether a victim is hispanic, gay, catholic, or female should not matter in the efforts made to catch them or for how punishing the law should be towards them… as naïve as this may seem to many, the deceased victim deserves equal justice because we are all equal; justice should always be (blindly) equal to all of us, and should not be dependant on the victim’s race, sexual orientation, gender, religion, etc.
mopar December 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Dunno about the legal issues, but the murderers were yelling anti-gay and anti-immigrant slurs. They were probably picking on who they perceived to be weak and who they perceived they hated.
They have picked out the brothers for being small and latino and having their arms around each other. Even for being drunk.
Dresden December 30th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I believe the legislation on “Hate Crimes” is a “slippery slope” and is becoming more and more like a very scary Orwellian term called “Thought Crime”.
Sure, if someone is screaming epithets and beating someone with a bat, that’s one thing… but what happens when it’s vague and the DA pushes for the designation of “hate crime”??????
Then someone on trial could get fucked for a NON-HATE crime. I am of the opinion that it is better 9 criminals go free that 1 innocent join them. If 10 are imprison, and one is innocent – shame on society.
Dresden December 30th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
This law got a lot of attention when “Fat Nick” got sent up the river for a ridiculous 15 years, for screaming the N-word and swinging a bat at a guy’s head.
Well, that’s fine, but I know a guy in Maine who got 12 years for shooting his wife in the head with an SKS. Crime of passion?
I always thought Soul Asylum summed it up quite well:
Trying to do the right thing play it straight
the right thing changes from state to state