Report Stupid People
Alrighty, the notes for the BACA meeting are up. User name: Thismeeting psw: neverhappened .In there is a sizable bit about hate crimes. The thing I want to share on this side of the blog is that Law & Order: Hate Crimes Unit, not just for gays. You can report incredibly stupid white people who use the N word, in the presence of Black people. Though being stupid is not a crime and saying stupid stuff is protected by the first amendment, you can report racial slurs (along with anti-homosexual-semitic-latino-etc) as an incident to Hate Crimes.
Because of the diversity of the neighborhood and the tensions along various lines, even straight white middle class guys can be the victim of a hate crime. If the criminals attacking you mistakenly attack because they think you are gay/ latino/ whatever, you may be the victim of a hate crime even if you aren't gay/latino/whatever.
I'm doing this not because I want to promote victimhood, but I see it as a tool to bring more police attention to our area. We are a diverse area and there are forces that try to use that diversity against us, I see working with Hate Crimes as one way to deal with that which would undermine our unity.
The Hate Crimes Hotline is 202 727 0500.
In comments, be nice or be deleted.
posted by Mari @ 1.10.07
2 Comments:
You likely have no idea how many different "white people" from all walks of life are verbally assaulted by black people for doing nothing more than walking down the street in Shaw. It happens on a regular basis. Do you advocate calling the hate crimes unit in those cases? Do you think the city bureaucracy will take those reports seriously?
--Stoma
... if it brings in more resources to deal with the crime, yup.
My expectations aren't really high, but if it is a tool, why not kick the tires and see how well it works, or doesn't in our area?
Think of it like domestic abuse programs. Domestic abuse still occurs, but the community response to it is much better than it was 10-20 years ago.
I'm aware that verbal abuse happens to white, latino, and asian persons in the hood done by folks who believe that because of past slavery and continuing racism they have a right to abuse others. But someone will bring in the example, as a citizen did last night, of a white person in the TC loudly (or loudly enough) using the N word. Just read the meeting notes because I don't feel like re-typing them.... it includes the reasoning for this post.
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