We have been discussing the national debate over hate crime laws and the standard for investigating particular cases but not others as in the recent case out of Cincinnati. A new controversy has erupted in Chicago where a woman, Susan Pedersen, says that she was attacked in her car with her children in a black neighborhood by a mob yelling that she did not belong in the neighborhood. She is white. However, two alleged attackers were charged only with misdemeanor criminal damage to property. While the case has received relatively little attention and more details would be helpful, critics have charged that a black driver surrounded by a white mob in such a circumstance would have resulted in both a state and federal hate crime investigation. There is also a question of how the police and prosecutors have charged this case generally as a property damage case even without the alleged racist motivation of the mob.
The attack occurred near the University of Chicago where I went to school. The mother had just dropped a friend off at the University of Chicago when she stopped at a red light and found her car surrounded by several dozen young people. She says that they were yelling racial slurs about her being white and smashing her windows with the children screaming inside. The group even reportedly used a bicycle to smash the window when their fists did not suffice.
As I have mentioned in prior blogs, I often heard accounts of white students and family members entering into some nearby neighborhoods and being surrounded and even roughed up due to their race. One of my sisters and a friend once went into such a neighborhood by accident and two African-American officer pulled them over to tell them that they could not stay in the neighborhood because they would likely be targeted due to their race. Likewise, when I was in college, I drove off campus and was similarly confronted at a red light by about five men who told me to get out of the neighborhood and tried to open my door while calling me racial names. For the record, this was one of only a couple times that I have faced such racial anger and I would not attribute that conduct to the vast majority of neighborhoods with predominantly African-American populations.
There are obviously countervailing stories of African-Americans facing the same response in some white neighborhoods. Some of those cases have received national attention and resulted in hate crime prosecutions or special enforcement efforts.
The question is when such crimes should be defined as hate crimes if they are motivated by race. It is not clear why some cases are immediately characterized as possible race cases and subject to federal intervention while others are not. Conversely, some have criticized the hate crime laws more generally because of what is perceived as undefined standards in enforcement as well as the ability to charge crimes directly linked to the conduct like assault. The laws also raise free speech issues in some cases.
My greatest concern is that an attack on a mother and children in a car is viewed by the police and prosecutors as simply a misdemeanor property offense and not assault or other crimes. Even if this is not to be investigated as a hate crime, it was clearly an assault on this family if the account is true. Thus far, the police and prosecutors appear to be undercharging this offense as a purely property offense in my view. Even removing the race element, there is still a car with broken windows and a terrified family who merely appear to have driven down the wrong street. Of course, if there are additional facts that have not been reported like some traffic dispute or altercation, we should be told about it. If this mother’s account is true, the handling of the case seems deeply troubling.
Source: ABC
Social justice is subsumed within any sensible theory of equal justice. They are not separable concepts.
Mike A –
I cannot agree with this stand. If this were true it would have been subsumed at least 1000 years ago. Since it wasn’t I cannot agree with you theory of equal justice, sensible or insensible.
Olly,
Nope, we’ve had numerous comments blaming “liberalism” for this attack. No equivocating.
Inga – the blaming liberals is not so far off the mark, we know it can’t be conservatives, because they are all white. The certainly aren’t moderates, who would attack a car with kids in it if they were moderates. That just leaves liberals.
Annie,
We have had numerous calls for uniting on a cause to end the racial unrest and what has been your “liberal” reaction to that? Let’s find common ground? Nope, you went directly on the defense. So you tell me, which ideology is actually promoting equal justice and which seeks social justice?
Gigi D.
“This whole mess, which is escalating in our country is the fault of the politically correct liberals.”
In fact the America experiment lasted until the “Reign of Terror” of the despotic, tyrannical dictator, Abraham Lincoln. Chief Justice Taney told Lincoln that the executive branch had no authority to suspend Habeas Corpus and that criminal act alone required impeachment and conviction under the Constitution as one of its “High crimes and Misdemeanors.”
As Scotland demonstrated last year and West Virginia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the entire USSR did previously, it is unequivocally the innate right of a state to secede. The foreign country of the Confederacy was illegally invaded during Lincoln’s unconstitutional “War of Northern Aggression” and every single “Reconstruction Amendment” is patently unconstitutional in that they were ratified without a quorum, through coercion and under duress.
Paradoxically, if Lincoln and the United States did have a quorum for ratifying the “Reconstruction Amendments,” the Confederate States were not necessary for a quorum, were a distinctly separate nation and did, in fact, legally secede. As fate would have it, the Congress, Senate and Supreme Court are entirely culpable for not prosecuting Lincoln to the fullest extent of the law.
Understanding that subsequent amendments are unconstitutional and were not properly ratified,
The Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights were put to death by Abraham Lincoln.
America died in 1861.
Olly, I’m not “laughing at the defense” of this woman and her children. Truly disingenuous, even for you, despicable. Talk about misrepresenting someone’s comments, wow. I’m laughing at the notion that this woman was attacked because of “liberalism”… and you know it…or should.
“I recall a time that people didn’t even call Obama their President, as if he wasn’t elected by 53% of Americans voting, twice.”
Inga/Annie,
When a President does absolutely nothing to unite a country and instead stokes a racial divide then he no longer is deserving to be OUR President. Those 53% that voted for him (twice) can claim him as their President and the rest of us will step up and take on our absolute responsibility as citizens to challenge him and anyone else on the actions we believe are a threat to our culture and rule of law.
This “hate” crime deserves equal justice and there is only one political “philosophy” that is doing everything they can to shift blame.
“Now we are to believe conservatives want the divisiveness to end? LOL. Too funny.”
How you find defending this woman and her children something to laugh about is despicable. The calls for unifying around the principle of justice for ALL of our citizens should be common ground, but that is mocked because a large percentage of this country opposes this President when we believe he is damaging (fundamentally transforming) this once great country. THAT’S WHAT CITIZENS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!
You have gone out of your way to demean people that believe honoring an oath is important. Before you go on another rant about Oathkeepers, don’t you believe ANYONE that violates their oath should be held to account? Or do you reserve that civic duty based solely on political ideology?
Ask yourself why Donald Trump’s rhetoric is so popular among conservatives. What does he espouse that is so attractive to them? He spews racial disharmony, conservatives love him. They own him.
Inga – it is not spreading racial disharmony to tell the truth. Conservatives appreciate what Trump has said, they do not own him.
And DBQ, one can find a person of any ethnic origin that may agree with one’s stance. This black man you quote has a right to express his opinion, doesn’t make it the opinion of most of those who share his ethnicity.
“If you create a climate of hate, resentment and division, don’t be surprised when hate, resentment and division bubble to the surface and people begin getting hurt.”
Just WHO created such a climate, liberals? THAT is what is ludicrous. Take responsibility, I thought that is what conservatives believe in. Conservatives need to hold up the mirror before blaming liberals.
I guess Inga is too busy to actually read the link the the article by Lloyd Marcus, a black man, who also blames liberalism for the atmosphere in the black communities and culture.
Liberals have been feeding black America excrement sandwiches for decades. Sadly, a majority of my fellow black Americans blinded by decades of liberal indoctrination and MSM spin keep consuming this excrement as if it is filet mignon.
and
Meanwhile, liberals reject and even vilify excellent black role models like world-renowned retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson and businessman extraordinaire Herman Cain. Why would liberals do that if they truly care about empowering blacks? Why do they offer us low-rent faux black role models and reject the real deal?
Perhaps Mr. Marcus isn’t an authentic black man in Inga’s declining vision? Not subservient enough? Not buying the liberal excrement sandwiches? Whatever.
If you create a climate of hate, resentment and division, don’t be surprised when hate, resentment and division bubble to the surface and people begin getting hurt.
What is the difference between the “W”-WORD and the n-word?
You use the “W”-WORD against Americans, in lieu of American.
Stop “whipping” Americans with the “W”-WORD. They’re Americans, not W’s.
Please stop offending the senses of Americans through the use of the “W”-WORD.
I’m offended.
I say I am offended, therefore I am.
“I don’t feel no ways tired,
I’ve come too far from where I started from.
Nobody told me that the road would be easy,
I don’t believe He brought me this far to leave me.”
Stop it.
Stop the double standard.
“what is the level of culpability of the African tribal chiefs that sold tribe members and what is the debt of Arab slave traders who marketed the tribal members sold by African tribal chiefs?”
None.
1. It never happened. Lies, all lies.
2. If it did happen, it’s still the white guy’s fault.
3. Because racism.
Hey Libs of RIL! Please refrain from challenging conservatives when they blame you for crimes on white people. It makes them feel like victims.
Chief Consort to the Progressive Grand Inquisitor,
With regard to reparations, what is the level of culpability of the African tribal chiefs that sold tribe members and what is the debt of Arab slave traders who marketed the tribal members sold by African tribal chiefs?
How about the African tribal chiefs, who sold the tribe members to Arab slave traders, who marketed them to American planters that represented merely 1.4% of the population, pay reparations? The chiefs could give them Liberia or a cash equivalent.
Old “Crazy Abe,” insurrectionist extraordinaire, had some great ideas during the Lincoln “Reign of Terror” and one included Liberia:
“If all earthly power were given me,” said Lincoln in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, “I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution [of slavery]. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land.” “…he asked whether freed blacks should be made “politically and socially our equals?” “My own feelings will not admit of this,” he said, “and [even] if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not … We can not, then, make them equals.”
I guess it’s uncomfortable having people challenge a nutty assertion that this attack on this white woman’s and her kids is the fault of liberalism. Maybe challenging nutty assertions should be a hate crime too.
““The only thing that beats this sort of behavior as concerns depravity are those using it to attack a political party””
I agree, using the internet to criticize the origins of violent behavior is far worse than a black mob actually stomping on a car and breaking its windows (because the driver is white) while screaming at and intimidating the small white children strapped inside who soil themselves out of fear.
Conservative discussions; now that should be a hate crime.
Impose affirmative action on Jeopardy.
The last bastion of America.
To attack a political philosophy for this attack on the white woman and her kids is even dumber.
The only thing that beats this sort of behavior as concerns depravity are those using it to attack a political party
Who is attacking a political party? Liberalism/Progressive ism is a mind set that is not exclusive to any one political party. If you would like to claim that mindset for your political party or for yourself, be my guest.
“Hate Crime” laws are those knee-jerk reaction, everybody-feels-good-about-passing-them bits of legislation that presuppose some lives are worth more than others. But since they only apply, in practice, to victims who are in certain government-approved groupings of “like” people, they cause a lot of trouble when enforced, selectively.
Theoretically, a Knight of Columbus could be prosecuted under hate crime legislation for beating or murdering a Freemason, but realists know that would never happen because this wouldn’t properly serve the agenda which created it. Sadly, neither will it in this case.