The FBI is out with the 2008 Hate Crimes report, and Alabama and our neighbors to the East and West have among the fewest in America, in the single digits! Isn't that amazing? Just to our north, there were 255 hate crimes in Tennessee. 255!
I know all the arguments against hate crimes....isn't the person just as injured or dead regardless of the motivation? True enough...but let's be fair. We set aside the death penalty for certain crimes for the very same reason...we hope the penalty will deter crimes. Do you also want to eliminate the death penalty since, after all, the person is just as dead?
Tennessee was the birthplace of the Klan, so does that make it, in 2008, a place with so much more hate than here in Alabama, birthplace of Bull Conner et 'al?
I suspect there's not a lot of interest by law enforcement in reporting hate crimes in Alabama...and victims may not be all that willing to open that particular can of worms either. Ironic, since the state is home to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"I suspect there's not a lot of interest by law enforcement in reporting hate crimes in Alabama...and victims may not be all that willing to open that particular can of worms either"
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Tim. No one wants a hate crime on the state record, so much goes un-reported.
Other "stuff" is just below criminal activity, or "protected" by the First Amendment, or whatever. But it's there. Just look at the forum run by a local newspaper.