Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Hate crime in paradise?
Tom Smith
White couple, members of armed forces, drives into a parking lot in Hawaii, and accidentally hits a car driven by a Hawaiian, who shouts a racial epithet and proceeds to beat the couple brutally. Is this a hate crime? (hattip to SCS.)
https://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2007/02/hate_crime_in_p.html
Comments
This is a hate crime. Thought experiment: replace the husband and wife with african americans and the father and son with caucasians and place this in Alabama. Would that be a hate crime? Certainly. If the white father and son killed the black husband and wife by beating them to death while using racial epitephs would that be a hate crime? Hawaiian prosecutors obviously turn a blind eye to this. The military needs to use its own resources (MPs, NCIS, JAG, etc.) to investigate these types of crimes against servicemen and put pressure on local prosecutors to try them.
Posted by: USD Law Student | Mar 1, 2007 6:15:06 PM
Doubtful. That one hates haoles, and beats up a haole, is not sufficient to show that one beat up the haole because he is a haole.
I recommend to all white folks a stint living in Hawaii. While you won't get the experience of being a disadvantaged minority, you will get the experience of being a minority, recognized as such, with a stock of cutting epithets ('fucking haole' is the prime example, used in this case) employed by folks who hate your guts and will run you and your bike off the road for the sheer joy of it.
Posted by: Skeptical | Feb 28, 2007 4:59:04 PM