The population covered in the state of Washington on
hate crimes is 6,822,528. Out of this number, 213 were reported to the
department of Justice. The state of Washington hate crime provisions cover
bias-motivated violence and intimidation, civil action (race, religion,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and disability), institutional vandalism,
data collection and training for law enforcement personnel.
In the state
of Washington hate crime is exemplified in law with crime and penalty
enhancement, institutional vandalism, data collection, and law enforcement
training. In crime and penalty enhancement “a person is guilty of malicious
harassment if he or she maliciously and intentionally commits one of the
following acts because of his or her perception of the victim’s race, color,
religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental,
physical, or sensory handicap” (Congressional Research Service 2010). If a
threat or physical harm or such malicious crimes then the person is committing
a hate crime and the punishment to go with it. In addition, the state of
Washington includes institutional vandalism which in sum state you can not
threaten any person, church property, ext. with a bomb. Also, in the state of
Washington data must be collected in order to classify information toward
violations. Lastly, “the criminal justice training commission shall provide
training for law enforcement officers in identifying, responding to, and
reporting all violations” (Congressional Research Service 2010).
News report: Hate Crimes
It is sad to still see hate crimes being committed
just because of the color of their skin. The article below enlightens society
that hate crimes are still very real today. The article tells about a hate
crime committed against an African-American man while in a bar in the city of Vancouver.
The crime was committed by three men, Zachary Beck, Kory Boyd, and Lawrence
Silk who attacked the man in the bar on January 7, 2010. The man was able to defend
himself however, the offender’s promised to return to the bar for the man. Once
the men left the bar, the victim ran after them calling 911. The offenders were
arrested by the Washington police after the call to 911. On June 7, 2011 Beck
was found guilty of conspiring to violate the civil rights, forcefully
interfering with the men’s civil rights and trying to persuade a witness to lie
about the crime. Silk pleaded guilty and was charged for malicious harassment
in which he was sentenced for two-years. Boyd pleaded guilty and was charged a
federal hate crime and sentenced 34 months in prison.
Media aspect:
In the media hate crime are shown through many
different mediums. In the link below, a man tells of a personal hate crime that
was committed towards him while walking to his car due to the outfit that he
was wearing. He came up with a poem to describe the hate crime done towards
him. Here is the poem.
Here is another look at a hate crime caught on tape.
A openly gay man was put into a medical comma after being beat in the streets by
two men. I feel this video just shows that there is still much to be done when
it comes to hate crimes.
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