Sunday, September 25, 2005
Interesting not only for what it says about anti-Semitism, but also for what it says about the difficulty of prosecuting Hate Crimes. Generally speaking, I'm against a separate class of laws and punishments for "Hate Crimes," but in favor of tracking the statistics as to the natural or special character of crimes -- for instance, noting when an incidence of vandalism or violence is motivated by racial factors, even if they are not necessarily punished differently...something that could be left up to judge or jury.
The Jewish Advocate: Incidence of hate crimes against Jews up 35 percent
Local police departments filed 58 incident reports in which Jews were subjected to possible hate crimes in 2004 – a victimization rate 35 percent higher than the rate in 2003, making Jews, after blacks, the most frequently victimized minority group in Massachusetts, data collected by the state Executive Office of Public Safety show. At the same time, the State Police office received the smallest number of hate-crime incident reports from police departments from around the state in the last five years. Additionally, Boston’s nationally acclaimed Community Disorders Unit in 2004 investigated fewer hate crime cases than it has since 1995, the first year for which records were available.
For detectives, prosecutors and officials at the Anti-Defamation League contacted by the Advocate, the fact that anti-Semitic incidents have rarely resulted in hate crime charges, let alone verdicts, against perpetrators reflects the complex nature of proving hate crimes in court...
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Massachusetts Hate Crimes against Jews up 35 percent.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/4763
, p.44
Leave a comment to: Massachusetts Hate Crimes against Jews up 35 percent
Subscribe to This Thread Without Leaving a Comment
Comment Info and Policy:
1) You must have Javascript enabled in your browser in order to comment (blame the spammers). If you don't know what that is, you're probably fine.
2) HTML is on, so basic html should work. Raw links will be made auto-clickable, too, so even if you don't know html you can just paste in the link and it should work fine. Keep the "http://" in it.
3) Comments are generally unmoderated, which means I don't necessarily agree with the tone and tenor of everything posted. In fact, sometimes people post things they don't really mean just to make other people look bad. The internet is an anonymous place for the most part. That said...
4) I welcome you to post here. I'd love to have your input, agree, disagree or just offer a different data point, really. If I didn't want any participation, I'd turn off comments. Be aware, however, that this blog and the comments section exist for my entertainment. Therefore, I reserve ALL RIGHTS here, including the right to remove any or all comments on nothing more than a whim. Please don't even bother complaining. I'm the one providing the space and the free news and thought buffet. I don't owe anyone anything.
Anyone who posts here will be treated as my guest. That means I'm happy to be polite as a default, but if anyone is rude to the host they'll be unceremoniously shown the door.
It may pay to recall a famous line from the Tom Selleck magnum opus, Mr. Baseball: "Jack-san, you want Yoji's advice about the babes, you come to Yoji with respect."
5) Enjoy your stay!