sootyj
Thursday 17th May 2012 9:02am
51,287 posts
Technically we're all Africans.
Quote: DaButt @ May 16 2012, 3:50 PM BST
The FBI, however, is considering charging Zimmerman with a hate crime. Expect a (post-riot) federal charge if he is acquitted in Florida.
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/fbi-seeks-charge-george-zimmerman-hate-crime/nN5pR/
Hate crime seems an interesting term. I mean I think you'd be hard pushed to prove George Zimmerman hated black people. His friends were black, hell he was part black.
You could probably prove other negative emotions; suspicion, contempt or even embarrassment of black people. You could suggest that's why he put himself in a needlessly dangerous situation. That could have lead to his death and in the end lead to Crayon's death.
The problem then is you'd have to reverse it. Do black teenagers burgle gated white communities, not because they hate their owners? But because they despise them for a perceived over privilege or unwillingness to defend their property? Do kebab shop owners in the UK groom abandoned white girls not because they hate them, but because they view their families as having inferior respect or homogeny?
Of course all crime is a minority thing, a small minority thing. But it follows patterns. And using a word as shrill as hate seems utterly unhelpful. And one of those times the courts and governments seemed determined to make an idiot of the law.