Hate Crimes: "Walking While White"

The Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | Wednesday, 05, 2003 | Peter Bronson

[yankeedame]

Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Hate crimes

by Peter Bronson

Ed, who doesn't want his last name published, says he was a victim of "walking while white'' last week. About 10 black teens attacked him near Fountain Square about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.

"They said, basically, `You don't belong here,''' he said. "I've seen them do it before where they just intimidate people."

Ed was walking home from dinner at Redfish when he saw the gang of teens blocking the sidewalk. "It was like running the gantlet. I made it through. Four or five tried to punch me. I was able to avoid some of them."

But one landed a solid blow. The next morning, he had a black eye and his right cheek had a swollen, purple bruise the size of a fat plum.

Enough laws

The punch knocked him to the sidewalk, and he heard the attackers laughing at him. Then a van pulled up and the thugs scattered.

He's sure he was assaulted because he was a white guy alone. He's 56, a retired insurance underwriter, on the small side - an easy target.

I asked him if it was a hate crime.

"I think it was, but there's no way I can prove it,'' he said. "I don't think we need any more laws. We just need to enforce the ones we have."

I agree, but I don't know if City Hall is listening. They're hearing instead from gay-rights activists who want to expand city hate-crimes laws to include sexual orientation.

Statistically, this is like arguing over a leaky faucet in the middle of a flood. FBI reports show that hate crimes make up less than 0.0008 percent of all crimes: just 9,730 reported nationwide in 2001. About 45 percent are racially motivated. Sexual orientation (14.3 percent) comes in fourth, behind ethnicity and religion.

Victims of hate crimes are traumatized, injured and scared - just like victims of all crimes. That's the point: We already have laws against violent crimes and property crimes. Courts already consider motives to apply tougher sentences. Cincinnati police and the state of Ohio already include sexual orientation in their definitions of hate crimes. So why is City Council starting another culture war to make some victims feel more special?

Not enough cops

Politically correct "affirmative action" for some groups of crime victims has little effect on bias crimes, which are already very rare. But it gives activists an excuse to spread fear and accuse anyone who opposes it of a "hate crime.''

If City Council is determined to waste time adding new groups of victims, why not just detour the debates and add all Homo sapiens. Even columnists. Because every crime is a hate crime.

And let's add more cops to enforce the laws we have. What happened to Ed is not rare enough.

"Everyone should be allowed to move about freely without being cursed at or threatened," Ed said.

He also wants everyone to know that Cincinnati Police Officer Andrea Smythe responded in a matter of minutes, and she was very kind. She's black. He's white. "I just judge people individually by how they act," he said.

So should the law.

[junta]

I don't think your scenario works out. First these riots are never really spontaneous but worked up by street preachers who initiate the propaganda then perhaps a few who initiate the violence. Any civil authorities who have not figured out who to bribe or to actually take off the streets in tense situations is not worthy to hold office. Forget priniples of law and order we live in the Leftist jungle and as our slide into darkness continues unabated it pays to realize the lies of the egalitarian Jacobins and understand where danger lies.

[philosofy123]

His walking on their side of town hurts their self esteem! He should be sentenced to cultural sensitivity course! Whats up dog!

[junta]

"Race war" is an old canard that ain't gonna happen. We are in for a slow slide to something like Zimbabwe/South Africa in scale and pace.

[Warrior Nurse]

You know what the sad part is there are per captia more black men in jail then in college. I you hit me it is assualt and battery not racism. How can any sane person try to determine what a person was thinking when they commit a crime against someone of a different race. One can surmise that the main thought is will I get caught. Bring back the chain gangs and public flogging. Not weight rooms, internet and law libraries. We need some hardnosed good ole fashioned Grandma dispensed beatings. 1st in line the lawyers of the ACLU.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Teach your kids to fight back.

These types of thugs respect people who will stand up for themselves, and they fear a good sock in the nose just as much as anyone.

[BenLurkin]

Ping

[gregwest]

Unfortunately, it's never a fair fight. It's always 1 vs. 10. I'd rather have my kid alive to move to Montana someday than end up dead in a Norfolk cemetary. I was an AAU Judo competitor and I have enough sense to know when to fight and when not to. That Jackie Chan stuff is just in the movies.

GW

[DensaMensa]

Put in a call to Charles Bronson...

Where's PaulKersey when we need him?

[wcbtinman]

"Not enough cops."

Bullsh!t Not enough guns.

[Red Boots]

I went to a bunch of public schools just like this in CA growing up. Whites were a minority in my neighborhood; when busing began they bused white kids in .I could tell you stories of the abuse us white kids endured at the hands of black kids simply because we were white that would make your toenails curl. No teacher or authority figure ever helped, they just blamed us or ignored the whole thing.My point: It's probably much worse for your kids to have to endure this daily than you realize; I carry deep and painful scars to this day (I graduated HS 1977).I would not let my children endure this for one minute. I know it's NOMB, but can't you homeschool them or something ?

[sheik yerbouty]

This sort of thing has been going on for a very long time.. Almost 20 years ago Bernhard Goetz gave the miscreants lead food for thought..

[TexasRepublic]

I'd move to Alaska or Montana or Utah if I could, but I have aging relatives with health problems that live here, so I'm "trapped" for the time being.

You and your loved ones have health problems of a social kind! If it is really as bad as you describe, I would tell the relatives, "I'm leaving this hellhole, with or without you". I know this is easier said than done.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Its 1 vs. 10 because they are chicken-sh*ts.

You've got to learn to pick out the ring-leader.

My brother was in this situation. His school was changed from a magnet school to a "neighborhood" school between 7th and 8th grade by sleight of hand and without informing my dad. He wound up being a 14 year old skinny white kid in a school that went from 40% to 90% black overnight. He told me about how he was picked on for a few days until one day one guy pushed him enough that he swung around and just whaled the crap out of him. After that, all the black toughs who had been bothering him were singing the line that "he was cool" and "I got no problem with you". None of them wanted to get the thrashing the first kid had got.

The key I always felt was my brother and I just fought. No such thing as fighting "fair" with people who pick fights with you. Just kick 'em in the nuts and scratch their eyes out.