← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Fernando Wood
Thread ID: 13431 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2004-04-29
2004-04-29 03:25 | User Profile
[I]A good article from the latest (May 10) issue of [B]The American Conservative/B. Another example of how "hate crime" laws don't protect whites. But then, the true purpose of these laws is to terrorize whites, not protect them from terrorism.[/I]
No Color, No Crime Cornell doesn't call it "hate" when black attackers beat a white student. By Ryan M. Horn WHEN IS A HATE CRIME not a hate crime? To officials at Cornell University, the answer is as obvious as the difference between black and white. After leaving a Nov. 9, 2003 concert by the Nappy Roots and Ludacris, a female student was attacked by six people. First she was physically threatened and harassed with racially charged rhetoric; then her head was hit so hard that her eardrum ruptured. Upon losing her balance from the blow and falling to the ground, she was repeatedly kicked in the face and much of her hair was pulled from the scalp. It took 13 stitches to close the gash on her mouth, and her eardrum is not expected to heal for 18 months. The Cornell University Police Department (CUPD) had four of the assailants in custody 11 days later, but despite the viciousness of the attack, LaToia Harris and Tieara Leckey-neither one a student-were charged only with harassment in the second degree, a violation. Harris pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Leckey pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and $150 fine. Under the terms of her sentence, if she stays out of trouble for one year, the charges will be dismissed and she will have no criminal record. Before the victim has healed, it will be as if the incident had never occurred. A third defendant was later arrested, pleaded guilty, and remains to be sentenced. The other assailants were two 14year-olds who were issued juvenile appearance tickets. According to Sara Townsley, a Cornell columnist and former U.S. Army JAG Corps prosecutor, the juvenile who inflicted the worst injuries was already on probation for a similar assault. No battery or aggravated assault charges were filed. There will be no other felony charges. And even though police confirmed that the attack involved racial statements, the possibility of a hate-crime prosecution was quickly shelved. But this miscarriage of justice has not caused Ithaca to erupt in race riots. There has been no looting. Not a single demonstration has been planned. No one has cried or heard, "No justice, no peace." The reason? Unlike Cornell's other alleged hate crimes, this victim was white and the perpetrators were black. According to authorities, there had been a previous "minor" altercation inside the concert hall. It started with, "Get your white hair out of my face." After the student put her hair up to get it out of the way, two of the assailants punched her. At that point the student and her friends moved to another part of the room. After the concert, the victim separated from her friends and soon found herself surrounded by the same group of five black females and one black male. Just before receiving the brutal beating, the victim was told. "We're gonna up your pretty white face." At first, university officials appeared to be following the standard script for dealing with alleged hate crimes. But each passing week has revealed the university's actions to be markedly different from those employed in the past. On Sept. 19, 2000, an Asian female student reported that she had been walking down the campus's main road when several white males driving by yelled derogatory ethnic remarks at her. She claimed that when she shouted an obscenity back at them, the vehicle stopped, and two men jumped out, grabbed her, and sexually fondled her. Immediately, the university posted media advisories on the Internet. sent a "crime alert" e-mail to everyone on campus, and had information distributed in residence halls. By September 29, Cornell's daily newspaper had run numerous front-page stories, the Student Assembly had passed a "Resolution Condemning Hate Crimes," and several organizations had sponsored events to raise awareness. Similarly, on Jan. 29, 2002, a Cornell News Service release, which preceded another crime alert, stated that a student of Mexican descent told authorities that she and a friend were walking through campus when a group of white men in a pickup truck "began to follow ... and yell racial slurs against Latinos/ Hispanics." She further claimed that two of the men were carrying planks or bats and proceeded to chase them, though she and her friend escaped. But the attack of November 2003 has gone virtually unnoticed. In stark contrast to past administrative action, there still have been no statements posted on any Cornell website. To date, no e-mail has been sent to notify students, and no information has been provided in the dormitories. According to Linda Grace-Kobas, interim vice president for communications and media relations, the attack simply did not cause outrage in the community. "It didn't resonate because it involved non-campus people," she said. Unlike the cases in which a person of color was the alleged victim, every Cornell official questioned about this incident categorically denies that it could have been a hate crime. Grace-Kobas attempted to justify the decision to local press by saying, "[T]he law is very specific when it comes to hate crimes. There were a lot of interviews conducted-and based on statements by the victim, eye witnesses and those accused of the crime, it was determined that the incident did not meet that criteria." According to Captain Curtis S. Ostrander, deputy director of the CUPD, it would have had to be "a crime perpetrated solely on the basis of race or discrimination." But this changes the definition of a hate crime, in direct conflict with New York State law, federal law, and even Cornell's own "Bias Activity Protocol." A bias/hate crime is defined by Cornell as "a criminal offense committed against a person or property which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, ethnic/ national origin group, or sexual orientation group." This definition is taken directly from the FBI's Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines. Moreover, that same program also recognizes that "Under federal, state and local laws, a bias/hate crime is defined as any criminal offense that one could reasonably and prudently conclude is motivated, in whole or in part, by the alleged offender's bias against an individual's actual or perceived age, ancestry or ethnicity, creed, disability, gender, gender identity or presentation, height, immigration or citizenship status, marital status, national origin, race, religion, religious practice, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation or weight." Five black women make hostile state*ments that refer to a young woman's "white hair," and it is later ripped from her scalp. The assailants tell the victim, "We're going to up your pretty white face," and then punch and kick her until she requires stitches and her eardrum is broken. Could someone not "reasonably and prudently" conclude that this crime at least partially involved racial animosity? The university immediately considered the other incidents hate crimes even though there were no witnesses, no physical injuries to any victim, and no suspects. And were that not enough, though there have been no public statements issued, sources close to the CIJPD indicate that police know that both incidents were hoaxes. The week of the concert attack, the Ithaca Journal submitted a Freedom of Information Law request to Cornell asking for documentation, including Cornell Police reports of the assault. Simeon Moss, Deputy Director of Cornell News Service, dismissed the request, stating that Cornell is not an agency of government subject to the law. The paper subsequently asked the New York State Committee on Open Government for an advisory opinion, and executive director Robert Freeman said reports from Cornell Police are within reach because members of the Cornell Police are deputized through the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office. More than three months after the assault, the university finally released some of the documents relating to the investigation. But there was nothing about why no hate-crime charges were sought. The defendants argued that the incident was not a hate crime, stating "no one in [our] group used words that were biased or racial." Cornell's lackluster pursuit of justice for a white student and its tortured read*ing of law and policy seem bizarre-or maybe not. After all, this is a place that uses skin color as a factor in admissions and has nestled among its park-like gorges and rolling foothills dormitories based on race. ââ¬Â¢ Ryan M Horn is a graduate student at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs. He is the editor-in-chief of the Cornell American.
2004-04-29 03:37 | User Profile
Any facet of the American establishment will abide by the wisdom-spewers' beliefs that only Whites are "racist" and that non-Whites cannot be "racist" because of their hundred years-long "oppression". Even the oft-considered "racist" police department is now abiding by Almighty Wisdom, especially in academia, which is no surprise.
As long as the ordinarys remain silent this will happen anytime, anywhere, and eternally unchallenged.