Racist Road Rage And Why We Should Just Prosecute People For Crime, Not "Hate Crimes"
I find this woman's behavior absolutely vile (see video below) -- and any even borderline decent person surely would.
However, I'm troubled by the bit -- reported in the video -- about Ahn's looking to file a "hate crime" charge against the woman.
Again, totally appalled by her behavior and her disgusting, bigoted speech.
But the criminalizing of being a racist asshole is dangerous to our civil liberties. And I say that as a person who, as a kid, dealt with awful anti-semitism with some frequency -- a gang of four girls who physically and verbally abused me in junior high and various eggings of our house and the shaving creaming of our garage door with "Dirty Jews" and such.
This woman told a Korean-American veteran to 'go back to China' while making a racist gesture from her car.
— Shomeo (@SassBaller) May 24, 2018
This is what disrespecting the military looks like. Taking the knee is not. pic.twitter.com/KyquxGYF3f
From Wikipedia:
A hate crime law is a law intended to deter bias-motivated violence.[6] Hate crime laws are distinct from laws against hate speech: hate crime laws enhance the penalties associated with conduct which is already criminal under other laws, while hate speech laws criminalize a category of speech. Hate speech laws exist in many countries. In the United States, hate crime laws have been upheld by both the Supreme Court [7] and lower courts, especially in the case of 'fighting' words and other violent speech, but they are thought by some people to be in conflict with the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, but hate crimes are only regulated through threats of injury or death.[8]
That makes it sound like hate crimes are narrowly applied, but consider that an accusation can be made that someone was threatening someone with injury or death.
That's already criminal.
What seems to be happening here on the part of the guy who was the recipient of this bigot's ugliness -- and what seems to be common -- is, as Reason's Robby Soave puts it, a "blurring [of] the distinction between hate crime--leveling additional penalties against people whose criminal actions impugned a special class--and hate speech, which is protected expression under the First Amendment."
And I'm with Soave on what he said before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights:
While the government can and should continue to track and prosecute criminal activity, we must remember that our cherished First Amendment freedoms are often the first casualty of government-led efforts to crack down on undesirable behavior. There are vastly fewer protections for free expression in other countries, and we see the costs of that every time. Scotland, for instance, recently arrested and fined YouTube comedian Mark Meechan for committing a hate crime. What was this crime? The man made a joke video of his girlfriend's dog performing a Nazi salute. He concludes the video by noting, "I'm not a racist, by the way." He just really wanted to tick off his girlfriend.And in Liverpool, a young woman named Chelsea Russell was reported to a hate crime unit for posting the lyrics to a rap song by the musical artist Snap Dogg on her Instagram page. She was doing this in tribute to a young man who had been struck and killed by a car and had enjoyed the song. The authorities never charged anyone in connection with the young man's death, but they did arrest Russell. She was convicted at trial. The judge said, "There is no place in civil society for language like that." She will have to wear an ankle monitor for eight weeks.
These hate crime arrests in the U.K. underscore the need for officials in our own country to remain cognizant of the line between hate speech and hate crime, and to avoid fatalism and pessimism when considering whether the reach of hate is growing.
Unless he has footage of the woman's dangerous and erratic driving, he doesn't have grounds to file a hate crime charge against the woman.
A hate crime is defined as a crime with bias as an aggravating factor. The woman's behavior in this video is vile, no question. It's not criminal, however. Without evidence of a crime of some kind, there's no evidence of a hate crime. Merely calling people hateful names is not a crime; therefore, it cannot be a hate crime.
From the Supreme Court decision Matal v. Tam, as delivered by Justice Alito:
Patrick at May 27, 2018 11:46 PM
About hate crime category not being needed because violence is
already a crime...
We already consider mental state in our crime code. For instance,
Murder 1 requires proof of premeditation.
Yes, violence against someone is a crime. However, violence against someone
simply because of their being in some class of people really is a higher
level crime. First of all, it's violence against a random individual who
has personally done nothing (beyond simply existing) to motivate the perp.
Secondly, it means the perp has an awfully low trigger for what incites them
to violence. This is the kind of criminal who really should be put away
longer.
Ron at May 28, 2018 6:51 AM
The very best response is a smile and a wave. Arguing with irrate idiots is a futile venture. P.S. Love your blog.
David Mansfield at May 28, 2018 9:25 AM
As I surmised, the Fremont Police Department has responded and advised Ahn that no crime has been committed.
However, some good news. However, the self-deputized cyberpolice have tracked her down. woman has been identified. Her name is Suraya Entezam. And they have also provided us with the street she lives on and even a phone number. I tried to call her and leave a message, but her number has been disconnected.
She also supposedly works at Sales at Mostofi & Company, LLP. Though I suspect that she won't much longer, if her employer knows what's good for her.
Ironically, she's an immigrant herself. Although she never served in the U.S. military.
Patrick at May 28, 2018 9:34 AM
First of all, it's violence against a random individual who has personally done nothing (beyond simply existing) to motivate the perp
So, Ron, if a black person, or Asian, or other minority class person goes off on me and proceeds to commit aggravated battery on me simply because I'm a member of the Wite-Out Tribe, should they be held to the same standard?
Or is that racist against them??
I R A Darth Aggie at May 28, 2018 10:46 AM
I believe it was Germany (maybe UK) that a man on his balcony was witness to a terrorist attack on the street below. He started yelling at the terrorist (who was hacking people to death) and called him names to try to distract him. He was arrested for hate speech.
The initial hate crimes were the KKK burning crosses, burning churches (even with people inside), and lynching blacks (though whites were also lynched). In that limited case, it maybe made sense, but slippery slopes gotta slippery, and they did, to where not people call it a hate crime when some dork on a college campus (who usually turns out to be black) writes naughty words on the bathroom wall. Are people at an ivy league school really in danger of their lives? Obviously not.
The problem with Ron's analysis is the slippery slope problem as seen in Europe: now people want to call bad language a hate crime. Spotify has just started not promoting "hateful" music (or by musicians who have done "hateful" things).
cc at May 28, 2018 12:20 PM
Yes.
Patrick at May 28, 2018 1:03 PM
Yes, we consider the effort and planning you put into the murder. What we don't consider (or didn't consider) is whether you had a visceral dislike of the person you murdered, what you thought of that person and why. Murder itself is (or was) enough for societal opprobrium.
Conan the Grammarian at May 29, 2018 5:01 AM
>So, Ron, if a black person, or Asian, or other minority
>class person goes off on me and proceeds to commit
>aggravated battery on me simply because I'm a member of the
>Wite-Out Tribe, should they be held to the same standard?
Of course. I don't understand why you needed to ask.
Ron at May 30, 2018 7:16 AM
"I tried to call her and leave a message, but her number has been disconnected."
What?
How the hell is this your business?
There is something wrong with you.
Radwaste at May 6, 2020 8:39 PM
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