Hate Crimes
Hate crime is defined as "the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. These crimes have been plaguing our country for centuries, tearing at the very foundation of our country and destroying our neighborhoods and communities. A total of 11,690 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia reported 8,063 bias-motivated criminal incidents 8,055 single bias and 8 multiple bias. Since an individual's biases are incidental circumstances to a particular crime, collecting statistics and information on hate crimes is difficult. Over the past 10 years, Congress has passed some pieces of legislation to help shape the future of hate crime initiatives and preventative measures. However, it is unfortunate that Congress has not done enough to keep them from occurring in the every day life of our society. Congress continues to spend its budget money on other issues, many are well spent, but it still overlooks crime legislation way too often.Fear, anger and frustration. These are three themes that run throughout all hate groups. Most hate groups form during times of economic hardship
or social change. Certain groups of people begin to blame another group for the reason of a major social or economical change. After the Civil War, the South suffered from both economic hardship and drastic social change. For centuries, the south had relied on slaves to harvest crops at plantations. When the slaves were freed, the plantations weren't being worked on anymore, causing the owners to loose a lot of money. When this happened, six former Confederate soldiers started a hate group called the Ku Klux Klan. During the post-Civil War era, the Klan was very popular among southern whites. Their ignorance was feeding the fire that blacks were the root of their problem, when in reality the white's ignorance is the root of their own problems. The Klan has since died down and risen numerous times with the start of many social changes such as the women's rights movement (1920's) and the civil rights movement (1960's). Another large and devastating hate group is the neo-Nazis. These working-class people blame all immigrants for taking jobs away from the whites. Their ignorance pushes them so far as to violently attack and kill blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, and homosexuals. Hate crimes can happen anytime, anywhere. In a small Texas town of Jasper, Texas, 3 white men are under heavy guard after being accused of a murder of an innocent man. Shawn Berry,23, Lawrence Brewer,31, and John King, 23, allegedly members of the extremist Aryan Brotherhood, dragged a black man to his death behind a pick-up truck, ripping his body to pieces. James Byrd, Jr., a 49 year-old, former vacuum cleaner salesman disabled by an arm injury, was walking home from a party celebrating the wedding of his niece, when he was picked up by the three white men, who offered him a ride. According to Berry, who informed on his two companions, they drove to an isolated wood, and King was alleged to have said that he was "fixing to scare the s**t out of that n****r." James Byrd was beaten and kicked by the three white men. Seemingly unconscious, he was chained by the ankles to a hook on the back of the truck, which then pulled him about two miles along a narrow, winding asphalt road. His belongings, a wallet and keys, were scattered in his wake, along with dentures and
Some common words found in the essay are:
Anti-Racist Action, District Columbia, Klux Klan, PA KKK, Bryan Freeman, Imagine Freeman, , James Byrd, War South, Mark Thomas, hate crimes, mark thomas, anti-racist action, racism hate crimes, racism hate, david bryan freeman, rights movement, whites ignorance, economic hardship, fight racism, klux klan, fight racism hate, ku klux klan, james byrd,
Approximate Word count = 1514
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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