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
Racism is bad thought.
Americans have the Freedom of Speech and the Freedom of Thought.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of THOUGHT, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…”
That sounds about right. That sounds just about like what the Founders were thinking.
“The blessings of liberty…” are freedom and free enterprise. Americans have the right to engage in speech, operate charitable organizations and otherwise campaign against racism to their heart’s content in the private sector.
Racism is bad. Freedom of Thought is American.
Laws against racism create racism.
Affirmative action is racism.
Laws against poverty create impoverishment.
Welfare causes disincentivization which perpetuates welfare.
Social engineering is communism.
Freedom and self-reliance are Americanism.
I. Annie
1, July 14, 2015 at 6:16 pm
LOL, Rasmussen and The Washington Examiner.
What is your justification for ignoring the University of Delaware poll?
Has anybody noticed how America is rapidly changing.?
What are we going to do, to take this ONCE great Country, back.?
Nick – thanks!
Paul:
“Karen – please leave the Mickey Mouse Party out of this. We are small, but we will go. Eventually we will win.” And you guys won’t play the race card ad naseum. 🙂
Most people have said they would not vote for Trump, but that he has a point about crime among illegal aliens. Professor Turley posted on this very topic recently. We’ve discussed in great detail the consequences of illegal immigration.
Sometimes all people can contribute to the discussion is personal attacks without addressing the facts either way. That, in and of itself, is a commentary on their level of participation.
The politicians, activists, media, and anyone else who spews racial hatred and divisiveness do these young men a great disservice. Just as an adult member of the KKK was groomed from infancy in racial hatred, so are some young black men and women influenced by the racism all around them against whites, Latinos, and/or Asians. This is encouraged by universities who appear, by their hiring practices, to believe that racism against whites is brave and bold intellectualism. Those parts of the city where Professor Turley said whites could not venture into – the people who live there pass on their hatred. And it’s fanned by the usual suspects. And then when they hear the lie that Michael Brown had his hands up, begging for his life, when he was shot by a white cop the slow match reaches the powder and they go off. It’s selfish and short sighted to teach kids racism of any kind, or that the melanin in their skin can affect their fate more than their own efforts.
When I was a young woman in college, it was a common saying that a woman had to work twice as hard as a man to get half as much credit. Most women I knew, including myself, viewed that as the impetus to try harder.
“Fair Housing” is unfair unconstitutional racism. The Communist Manifesto imposes social engineering and governmental control of property. Liberal collectivists have introduced governmental controls and racism to private property. Americans have a right to private property. Government has a prerequisite of objective, unbiased neutrality. That means:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of NEIGHBORHOODS, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…”
That sounds about right; just about what the Founders wrote and intended.
The Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights are not the Communist Manifesto.
Many liberals (decent or otherwise) are in for BIG surprise if they think their sensitivity or politically correct views of the world will protect them from feral blacks. I get it, liberals really want blacks to like them and go out of their way to show their moral superiority over the unwashed, unenlightened masses. While I wish no misfortune on anyone, I have trouble feeling sympathy for urban, upper middle class liberals who look down and despise people like myself.
“Racism is wrong, no matter what skin color the perpetrator has.”
This is profound.
Affirmative action is wrong.
I agree wholeheartedly. The racism inherent in affirmative action is wrong.
As an example, the racism in affirmative action breeds a countering form of racism.
This is the definitive statement on racism.
All racism is wrong thinking.
Affirmative action is wrong.
One problem: “The biological bipeds of identical plumages are gregarious.”
Does America prosecute the perpetrators when “birds of a feather, flock together.”
Should America assign people to neighborhoods based on various “approved” criteria including race?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of NEIGHBORHOODS, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…”
That sounds like American freedom.
Karen, You’ve been shining brightly here today. Kudos.
grow
LOL. there is a record of the racist rhetoric from the conservative contingent here and all one needs to do is a simple search. Now back to Poldark on PBS.
A choice, not an echo: Trump vs. Hillary.
Karen,
Very good post! Unfortunately there exists no amount of objective evidence that will penetrate whatever remains of her ability for rational thought. She is in so deep she will never be able to extract herself.
It’s good to get her on record like this.
http://republicansareracists.com
“Republicans are racists and they’re not shy about it.”
See, there you have it, straight from the Patriot’s mouth.
“Racism is not bad, Your BELIEF that racism is bad, is what is bad.”
“Disharmony has a cause.”
*****************
Between Patriot and The Donald, is perfectly clear who uses divisivness to promote their agenda. The Black community isn’t stupid, they know that if a certain segment of the society had their way, they would be living in the bad old days of Jim Crow again.
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/08/17/jim-crows-demise-has-been-greatly-exaggerated/
“Jim Crow’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.”
PCS,
“Inga – it is not spreading racial disharmony to tell the truth. Conservatives appreciate what Trump has said, they do not own him.”
Your opponent might win on the truth.
Your opponent might win on your inflated and false sense of guilt.
A win is a win. Your subjective, unethical opponent will take it either way.
You should fight the correct opponent.
Racism is not bad, Your BELIEF that racism is bad, is what is bad. There are sufficient statutes against actions that are bad. Conceiving of success, besting an opponent, competing, winning a sporting match or believing yourself superior, is not bad. Pride and egoism are opinion and moral considerations, not illegal acts against other parties.
Your opponent purports that you’ve killed the Pope because you hold an opinion. You discriminated when you chose your wife. You discriminated when you chose your house, your restaurant, vacation spot, etc. Discrimination is racism and vice versa. To hold a preference, to succeed, to dispose of your own private property as you chose to believe what you want and to go where you want are not crimes or sins.
Self-reliance and a work ethic “makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise;” not to mention richer as a “have” or a “have not.”
Disharmony has a cause.
The “racial” characterization is playing the “guilt” card.
“The Voodoo spell only works if you believe.” Skeleton Key
@KarenS
Very good points! May I introduce one more— Willie Horton. How come the Liberals raised heck about him being a racist symbol, and said it would poison race relations—then turn around and do the same thing themselves with Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Freddie Gray and act like that doesn’t stir up racial animus.
They really can’t have it both ways.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Liberals and racism:
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/08/27/15-moronic-things-liberals-call-racism-since-obama-was-elected-n1674131/page/full
“When a black liberal is criticized, he cries racism. When liberalism fails, liberals cry racism. When the Democrat Party gets in trouble, liberals cry racism. It has become the ever present background noise of politics, like birds chirping in the forest.
Racism does still exist and always will, but once the Democrat Party joined the GOP in being opposed to racist policies, appealing to racism became a dead dog political loser in this country. The very fact that we’ve become so hypersensitive about it as a country is evidence of how far it has been pushed to the fringes.”
Examples of the fraudulent use of the race card:
1) Criticizing the IRS: “Republicans are using [the IRS scandal] as their latest weapon in the war against the black man. ‘IRS’ is the new ‘N****r.'” — Martin Bashir
2) Having a Republican National Convention during a hurricane: “They are happy to have a party with black people drowning.” — Yahoo News Washington bureau chief David Chalian on the Republican National Convention, which was going on at the same time as Hurricane Isaac.
3) Wanting to own a gun to prevent break-ins: “I am loathe to bring up what is in our head because we don’t like to talk about it so much. But on this particular day, on Martin Luther King Day, I think this needs to be said. That imaginary person that’s going to break into your home and kill you, who does that person look like? You know, it’s not freckle-faced Jimmy down the street, is it really? I mean, that’s not what really, that’s not what really people, we never really want to talk about the racial or the class part of this, in terms of how it’s the poor or it’s people of color that we imagine that we’re afraid of. Why are we afraid? What is that, and it’s been a fear that has existed for a very, very long time.” — Michael Moore
4) Mentioning the “Constitution” or “respect for the Founding Fathers:” “The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message,” Williams wrote. “References to a lack of respect for the ‘Founding Fathers’ and the ‘Constitution’ also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core ‘old-fashioned American values.’” — Juan Williams
5) Calling Obama “angry:” “That really bothered me. You notice (Romney) said anger twice. He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama, the ‘otherization,’ he’s not like us. I know it’s a heavy thing, I don’t say it lightly, but this is ‘n*ggerization.’” — Touré
6) Saying that Barack Obama lies: “Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!” — Maureen Dowd
7) Noting that Obama is privileged: “Spotlighting his elite education is tantamount to racial bigotry because it insinuates that ‘he took the place of someone else through affirmative action, that someone else being someone white.'” — Jonathan Capehart
8) Saying that unions boss Obama around: “The Republican Party is saying that the President of the United States has bosses, that the union bosses this President around, the unions boss him around. Does that sound to you like they are trying to consciously or subconsciously deliver the racist message that, of course, of course a black man can’t be the real boss?” — Lawrence O’Donnell
9) Supporting voter ID: “If you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and – and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally – and very transparently – block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it’s nothing short of that blatant.” — Debbie Wasserman Schultz
10) Saying “I want my country back:” “Do you remember tea baggers? It was just so much easier when we could just call them racists. I just don’t know why we can’t call them racists, or functionally retarded adults. The functionally retarded adults, the racists – with their cries of, ‘I want my country back. You know what they’re really saying is, ‘I want my white guy back.’ They apparently had no problem at all for the last eight years of habeas corpus being suspended, the Constitution being [expletive] on, illegal surveillance, lied to on a war or two, two stolen elections – yes, the John Kerry one was stolen too. That’s not tin-foil hat time. ” — Janeane Garofalo
11) Being fans of Herman Cain: “One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy. I think he(he’s) giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he’s a black man who knows his place. I know that’s harsh, but that’s how it sure seems to me.” — Karen Finney
12) Fighting for the 2nd Amendment: “I believe the NRA is the new KKK. And that the arming of so many black youths, uh, and loading up our community with drugs, and then just having an open shooting gallery, is the work of people who obviously don’t have our best interests [at heart].” — Jason Whitlock
13) Republicans trying to keep Obama from being reelected: “Look at, look, the Tea Partiers, who are controlling the Republican Party….Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What’s, what does that, what underlines that? ‘Screw the country. We’re going to (do) whatever we (can) do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.’… It is a racist thing.” — Morgan Freeman
14) Disliking the fact that Obama is President: “They can’t stand the idea that he’s president, and a piece of it is racism. Not that somebody in one racial group doesn’t like somebody in another racial group, so what? It’s the sense that the white race must rule, that’s what racism is, and they can’t stand the idea that a man who’s not white is president. That is real, that sense of racial superiority and rule is in the hearts of some people in this country.” — Chris Matthews
15) Disliking Barack Obama: “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.” — Jimmy Carter
No matter how hard people try to ignore, push back, plug their ears, or otherwise deny this, the Liberal Party has used the race card to death, and mob violence can be debated as a result.
What did you think was going to happen if you kept saying whites are racist? Did you think it would have no affect on people who actually believed you?
It is a completely valid argument to debate the consequences of political strategy that depends on race baiting. That has been a common topic in all of the threads concerning trial-by-media or by politician. Each and every time a white police officer fights with a black suspect, it is automatically deemed racist. And then some of us caution that jumping to conclusions and throwing the race card before any facts can have dire consequences.
When people declared they “just knew” what happened with Ferguson, the pool party, Baltimore, etc, I declared that it was irresponsible to say such things without an investigation, because it foments mob violence.
I submit that Exhibits A-Z, all the riots that have been on the news, as well as racist acts like the topic of this post, are a consequence to this behavior of the media, politicians, activists, and random people on the Internet playing the gossip game race card without all the facts first. And which party has been hammering into minorities that whites are racist, privileged, got rich off them, or that they caused all the problems in their life? It’s not the Republicans, the Independents, the Libertarians, the Green Party, or the Mickey Mouse Party. Only the Liberal Party engages in this rhetoric. And Liberal Professors write racist hit pieces against whites and get hired to teach at universities, where they continue to publish blatantly racist papers. But it’s OK because it’s just racism against whites. It’s just so wrong, and likely the opposite of what Abraham Lincoln envisioned.
There are unfortunately people on the blog who will try so very hard to prevent or derail any discussion of what those consequences are. Politicians and activists who have an agenda more than facts stoke the fires of racial tension, instead of bringing us together. The whole “you didn’t build that” meme, which is absurd, because I’m pretty sure small business taxpayers contribute more to building infrastructure than people on welfare. And yet, business owners don’t hold town hall meetings declaring that Welfare recipients “didn’t build that” or that it’s unfair that they enjoy free education, etc, without paying in to the system. All that does is foster resentment for the people who keep our infrastructure afloat.
Why are some young black men begun acting out in open racist violence against whites? As Professor Turely has pointed out, areas of the city where tensions have been fanned for too long are off limits to whites. Where are they learning that? At one point they were all darling preschoolers, full of promise and innocent. They were taught to feel that racism against whites was OK, that all “old white guys” were rich, privileged, and racist.
Instead of pretending that this isn’t happening, or that the actions of politicians have no consequences, why don’t we explore the cause and effect relationship? Stop chasing symptoms and actually dissect the root cause so we can see some real improvement? I despise the race baiting that media default to just to get ratings. It has nothing to do with justice, the facts of the story, but it helps feed the racism in black communities.
Racism is wrong, no matter what skin color the perpetrator has.
Karen – please leave the Mickey Mouse Party out of this. We are small, but we will go. Eventually we will win.
@DBQ
ROTFLMAO!
Here’s I.Annie, and her crew:
School to Mrs. Jones: Mrs. Jones, we caught Little Johnny in the girl’s restroom holding his cell phone under the wall of the stalls and taking pictures.
Mrs. Jones to Little Johnny: (in front of Little Johnny) Now, now Little Johnny, some people just don’t understand how exuberant you are!
5 years later:
School to Mrs. Jones: Mrs. Jones, we caught Little Johnny in the girl’s restroom, holding down one of the little girls and fondling her!
Mrs.Jones to School (in front of Little Johnny) Quit picking on my child! Don’t you know that little boys have natural urges!
5 years later:
Judge to Little Johnny (in front of Mommy) Son, I am sentencing you to 15 years for raping your school teacher!
Mommy Oh Dear, whatever could have gone wrong? It certainly wasn’t my fault. I was such a good , loving Mother! Don’t worry Little Johnny! Mommy will get hims a new lawyer to file an appeal!
Sooo, is Mommy to blame? Yes, to some degree for enabling his behavior, and not tearing his ass up with a paddle the first time, or second time.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter