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Blacks arrested more for 'hate crimes'
FBI report confirms higher rate than whites for racial attacks

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By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

Although "hate-crime" legislation has been championed by minority groups in
hopes it would discourage racially motivated crime, a recently released FBI
crime report reveals that a higher percentage of blacks than whites are
charged with race-biased "hate crimes."

The FBI's "Hate Crime Statistics" for 1999 show that 2,030 whites were
arrested that year for "hate crimes" against blacks, compared to 524 blacks
who were arrested and charged with a "hate crime" against whites.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks make up 12.8 percent of the
population -- or about 35.4 million of the country's 280 million people --
so, given the arrest rate versus population percentage, the data indicates
that blacks are one-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested for a "hate
crime" than whites.

The Census Bureau's November 2000 statistics listed the nation's white
population at 226.8 million, or 82.2 percent of the total.

"In light of this study, it's fair to ask who poses a greater threat to the
black community -- racist, violent whites or oblivious black politicians?"
said Steve Dasbach, the national director for the Libertarian Party.

"Unfortunately, hate crime laws have boomeranged on blacks," Dasbach said in
a recent statement. "African-Americans thought that hate crime legislation
would protect them, but instead they're being used as another legal weapon to
prosecute them."

Dasbach also said the FBI study indicated that another 87 blacks were
arrested for hate crimes against other blacks.

"Hate crimes aren't just for KKK members anymore. They are now being applied
even to same-race crimes … apparently giving racist police, prosecutors or
judges another weapon to use against African-Americans," Dasbach said.

The bottom line, Dasbach said, is that crimes against a certain protected
class of citizens "should not be treated more seriously than crimes against
anyone else."

The Libertarian Party has advocated a complete elimination of all "hate
crime" laws. "Racist criminals, whether black or white, should be punished
for their crimes, but hate crime laws aren't needed to do that," said the
party chief.

Officially, Congress has described a "hate crime" as one "in which the
defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime,
the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or
perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or
sexual orientation of any person."

The party's position has been echoed by other critics of "hate crimes" laws
who say legislation is written in such a way that authorities often have too
much arbitrary power to decide whether a crime had a racial undertone.

Many believe that "hate crime" laws, now in 45 states, have hit poor and
minority communities the worst.

"It is demonstrable that these laws hit the poor and minorities hardest. It
wasn't meant that way, but that's the way it is," said Christopher Plourd --
a criminal defense lawyer who has represented a number of clients charged
with "hate crimes" -- in an Oct. 30 interview with columnist Arianna
Huffington.

"In the same way that [police] don't go on white college campuses trying to
enforce drug laws, but come to the 'hood, they'll use these new hate crime
laws against the NAACP's own constituents," Van Jones, director of the Ella
Baker Center for Human Rights, told Huffington.

Ironically, most blacks continue to vote heavily for Democrats who have
championed "hate crimes" legislation for years. According to the NAACP, about
88 percent of blacks who voted in last November's elections chose Democratic
presidential nominee Al Gore and other Democratic candidates for nationwide
and local races.

Prior to the Nov. 7 election, the NAACP launched a $9 million national
campaign effort in support of Gore, who had been a vociferous supporter of
past "hate crimes" legislation.

Some Republicans have also backed expansion of federal legislation, but last
fall GOP leaders killed "hate crimes" language in the Defense Department's
appropriations bill out of fear it would have jeopardized the whole measure.

Also, GOP leaders said that while current federal law was sufficient to
punish criminals convicted of racially motivated crime, overall, the issue of
"hate crimes" legislation seemed contrary to the Constitution's equality
provisions.

"It should not be made a matter of federal law to designate one group of
crimes and its victims less important than others," said John Czwartacki, a
spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., in an October
interview with the Associated Press.

The FBI said there were a total of 7,876 "bias motivation" incidents in 1999.
Anti-white incidents accounted for 781 of those, while anti-black incidents
numbered 2,958. Anti-Hispanic incidents accounted for 466 of 829
ethnicity/national origin-related incidents.

Of religiously based "bias events," anti-Jewish figures accounted for 1,109
of 1,411 documented incidents. Anti-Protestant incidents numbered 48, and
anti-Catholic incidents accounted for 36 of the cases.

Also, the FBI said there were a total of 1,317 "sexual orientation"
incidents. Of those, 915 were anti-male homosexual; 187 were anti-female
homosexual; 178 were anti-homosexual in general; and 14 were
anti-heterosexual. Twenty-three incidents were anti-bisexual in nature.

The bureau also said law enforcement officials recorded 9,301 "crimes against
persons" offenses in 1999. California -- the nation's most populous state at
over 34 million people -- recorded the most offenses with 2,295, followed by
New Jersey (663), New York (602), and Massachusetts and Michigan with 492
each.

Mississippi, North Dakota, and Wyoming led the nation with the least "crimes
against persons" incidents, with just 2 each, followed by Alaska and the
District of Columbia (6 each), Louisiana (7), Arkansas (9) and South Dakota
(14).

Crimes against persons include murder and non-negligent manslaughter (17),
forcible rape (6), aggravated assault (1,120), simple assault (1,766) and
intimidation crimes (3,268). There were 12 offenses listed as "other."

The FBI's study appeared in the bureau's annual "Uniform Crime Report" and
included data from over 12,000 law enforcement agencies around the country.




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