When Is A Hate Crime A Hate Crime?

Just because you get mugged doesn’t make it a hate crime just because you are trans?

It is very narrowly defined for a reason, it has to directed at a protected class, here in Connecticut in Public Act No. 11-55  they are: race, color, religious creed, age, marital status, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity or expression, mental retardation, mental disability or physical disability.

The Connecticut hate crime law Public Act No. 04-135 says,

(a) A person is guilty of intimidation based on bigotry or bias in the first degree when such person maliciously, and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of the actual or perceived race, religion, ethnicity, [or,b>] disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of such other person, causes serious physical injury to such other person or to a third person.

(a) A person is guilty of intimidation based on bigotry or bias in the second degree when such person maliciously, and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of the actual or perceived race, religion, ethnicity, [or,b>] disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of such other person, does any of the following: (1) Causes physical contact with such other person, (2) damages, destroys or defaces any real or personal property of such other person, or (3) threatens, by word or act, to do an act described in subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection, if there is reasonable cause to believe that an act described in subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection will occur.

(a) A person is guilty of intimidation based on bigotry or bias in the third degree when such person, with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person or group of persons because of the actual or perceived race, religion, ethnicity, [or,b>] disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of such other person or persons: (1) Damages, destroys or defaces any real or personal property, or (2) threatens, by word or act, to do an act described in subdivision (1) of this subsection or advocates or urges another person to do an act described in subdivision (1) of this subsection, if there is reasonable cause to believe that an act described in said subdivision will occur.

The FBI says a hate crime is,

A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.

Notice it says about freedom of speech and other civil liberties. Remember last winter at UConn a drunk was walking across a parking lot and was using racially derogatory language. He was arrested for a racial hate crime, but later all charges were dropped!

Why were the charges drooped?

He didn’t use any threatening language. Therefore, it was “Free Speech” under the First Amendment. And that is the key, threatening language or actual violence against one of us, there is a difference hate speech and hate crime. You can call a Black person with the “N” word and other racist words and it is not a hate crime but if they add something like “You better watch your back, I got you in my sights!” then that crossed over the line, it is a threat of violence. If someone uses derogatory language and give you a shove or puts their hands on you, that crossed the line.

There are a lot of people that don’t believe in the hate crime laws, they say violence is violence why should it be different for hate crimes?

It all goes to motive, we already separate crimes by motive just look at murder. There are manslaughter, second degree murder, and first degree all separated by intent. The same goes for hate crimes, it comes down to intent. A hate crime not only affects the victim but also the whole community, it intimidates all the disabled community when someone is beat up because they are disabled. When we hear about a trans person being attacked it sends a message to all of us.

So bottom line is motive, their motive has to be more than using derogatory words, it has to be a threat or an actual assault.