So I want to throw this one out there.
Have you heard about the public bus shooting in Philadelphia from back in June? The footage (caught by security cams aboard the bus) was just released and has been allover the news. You can google it up if you want, but my question isn't about the footage, so I'm not going to post a link.
Apparently, a man on the bus called out a woman who was spanking her small child. She got angry and, before coming to her stop, called associates and told them of the incident and requested that they come meet her at the bus.
I'm assuming, based on the rest of the story, that she wanted them to seek revenge on the guy who challenged her because as she was exiting the bus, she pointed out the guy who said she was being abusive and said; Kill that n*****! to her friends who had weapons drawn in plain sight of the bus.
When I read the first report of this story, the reporter theorized (or quoted someone else who mentioned it) that the attack may have been racially motivated b/c of what the woman allegedly said.
It made me wonder what 'racially motivated' means, how racial tension does, or does not, play into a hate crime, etc.
Unfortunately, I've looked to find the original story I read (which referenced a racial angle to the shooting) and I can't find it! But I still think it's an interesting topic. And god knows we love debating race politics up in here.
What do you think? Does saying 'kill that n*****!' make this a hate crime in your eyes? Normally, I think of hate crimes as a crime about little more than hate (bombing a mosque)--not something related to another crime (robbery, attack, etc). Did the guy who called out this woman on her parenting skills, and said something about DCFS (child services), attack her in some way that would make her attempt at retribution and her calling him a racial epithet NOT a hate crime? What about the fact that she orchestrated this, but a group of men showed up with really big guns--what did the bus rider do to THEM?
Have you heard about the public bus shooting in Philadelphia from back in June? The footage (caught by security cams aboard the bus) was just released and has been allover the news. You can google it up if you want, but my question isn't about the footage, so I'm not going to post a link.
Apparently, a man on the bus called out a woman who was spanking her small child. She got angry and, before coming to her stop, called associates and told them of the incident and requested that they come meet her at the bus.
I'm assuming, based on the rest of the story, that she wanted them to seek revenge on the guy who challenged her because as she was exiting the bus, she pointed out the guy who said she was being abusive and said; Kill that n*****! to her friends who had weapons drawn in plain sight of the bus.
When I read the first report of this story, the reporter theorized (or quoted someone else who mentioned it) that the attack may have been racially motivated b/c of what the woman allegedly said.
It made me wonder what 'racially motivated' means, how racial tension does, or does not, play into a hate crime, etc.
Unfortunately, I've looked to find the original story I read (which referenced a racial angle to the shooting) and I can't find it! But I still think it's an interesting topic. And god knows we love debating race politics up in here.
What do you think? Does saying 'kill that n*****!' make this a hate crime in your eyes? Normally, I think of hate crimes as a crime about little more than hate (bombing a mosque)--not something related to another crime (robbery, attack, etc). Did the guy who called out this woman on her parenting skills, and said something about DCFS (child services), attack her in some way that would make her attempt at retribution and her calling him a racial epithet NOT a hate crime? What about the fact that she orchestrated this, but a group of men showed up with really big guns--what did the bus rider do to THEM?
