Hate Crimes Essay, Research Paper

After the Civil War, the South suffered from both economic hardship and drastic social

change. For centuries, the south had relied on slave.Fear, anger and frustration. These are

three themes that run throughout all hate groups. Most hate groups form during times of

economic hardship or social change. Certain groups of people begin to blame another

group for the reason of a major social or economical change.

s to harvest crops at plantations. When the slaves were freed, the plantations weren?t

being worked on anymore, causing the owners to loose a lot of money. When this

happened, six former Confederate soldiers started a hate group called the Ku Klux Klan.

During the post-Civil War era, the Klan was very popular among southern whites. Their

ignorance was feeding the fire that blacks were the root of their problem, when in reality

the white?s ignorance is the root of their own problems.

The Klan has since died down and risen numerous times with the start of many

social changes such as the women?s rights movement (1920?s) and the civil rights

movement (1960?s).

Another large and devastating hate group is the neo-Nazis. These working-class

people blame all immigrants for taking jobs away from the whites. Their ignorance pushes

them so far as to violently attack and kill blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, and

homosexuals.

Hate crimes can happen anytime, anywhere. In a small Texas town of Jasper,

Texas, 3 white men are under heavy guard after being accused of a murder of an innocent

man. Shawn Berry,23, Lawrence Brewer,31, and John King, 23, allegedly members of the

extremist Aryan Brotherhood, dragged a black man to his death behind a pick-up truck,

ripping his body to pieces. James Byrd, Jr., a 49 year-old, former vacuum cleaner salesman

disabled by an arm injury, was walking home from a party celebrating the wedding of his

niece, when he was picked up by the three white men, who offered him a ride. According

to Berry, who informed on his two companions, they drove to an isolated wood. James

Byrd was beaten and kicked by the three white men. Seemingly unconscious, he was

chained by the ankles to a hook on the back of the truck, which then pulled him about two

miles along a narrow, winding asphalt road. His belongings, a wallet and keys, were

scattered in his wake, along with dentures and parts of his body. The torso was found in a

creek. Close by, empty beer cans were scattered on the grass. James Byrd?s head, neck

and right arm were discovered a mile away.

Hate crimes are not always committed against minorities. In Las Vegas, two

Anti-Racist Action members were murdered. According to reports in the Las Vegas

Review-Journal and from Anti-Racist Action in Columbus, the bodies of Daniel Shersty,

20, and Lin Newborn, 25, were found in the desert 150 yards from each other. The bodies

were located in an area of the desert known for a place where Nazis target shoot. The two

men were murdered in execution style slayings.

Sometimes these horrible crimes occur within one?s own family. On the night of

March 5, David and Bryan Freeman decided it was time to act. Time to act on the new

beliefs they had learned. Time to prove to their new friends that they were real soldiers of

the racial war they were told was coming. On that Sunday night, hate came to the

Freeman house. The boys, ages 15 and 17, ambushed their mother in the downstairs

hallway, stabbing and clubbing her until she died. Then they went upstairs and did the

same to their dad while he lay in his bed. Their little brother Erik, 11, was asleep when the

older brothers entered his room and beat him to death as well.

What would make people commit such horrendous crimes such as these? Why

don?t you ask Mark Thomas, a fascist organizer who operates a ?ministry for racists? in

eastern Pennsylvania. It was at this ?Aryan Nations of Pennsylvania? where the Freeman

brothers were taught by Mark Thomas that it was O.K. to hate. The brothers, along with

hundreds of others attended a Hitler Youth Festival last April where Mark Thomas taught

them weapons skills on a rifle range and other things of the sort. As a self declared

reverend, Mark Thomas teaches a twisted religious known as Christian Identity, which

says that anyone that disagrees with white supremacy is a traitor and must be destroyed.

Mark Thomas is a hatemonger who has encouraged the kind of violence that

David and Bryan Freeman displayed. The following is a quote from a recent Thomas

document entitled Statement of Purpose: ?The abortionists are professional murderers of

children and will continue to ply their satanic trade until God?s judgment is executed and

their lives are taken. The homosexual movement is immensely powerful and will continue

to grow and corrupt our children unless its leaders are put to death. Politicians who seek

to disarm White Americans will succeed unless courageous people who understand the

meaning of the right to keep and bear arms rise up and begin to shoot them. If nobody is

willing to take up arms against tyranny, then there is no purpose to even having a

movement.?

Imagine the Freeman brothers sitting in a circle with other kids, very serious, being taught this stuff. To understand the Freeman murders is to glimpse into the future.

There will be more like this.

On the good side of things, there ARE ways to fight racism and hate crimes. The

easiest thing to do is to speak out. Let yourself be heard. Don?t be afraid to express how

you feel. Not speaking out against racism and hate crimes is almost as bad as committing

the crime yourself.

On July 17, in Brentwood, PA, the KKK tried to hold a rally. A total of 13 Klan

members, in full costume, stood on the street corners distributing racist, anti-Semitic

literature in an effort to reruit new members. A few people, mostly teen took the

handouts, but a much more common response during the Klan?s 1-hour stay was what a

woman who drove by and responded to their chants of ?white power? with ?White trash is

more like it.? Another female motorist yelled, ?Get out of here. We don?t want you?. ?Get

a life? another man screamed. A woman walking her daughter home from the community

swimming pool told them to take their robes off. ?Your a bunch of freaks? she said as she

walked past them.

ARA is about taking direct action against the problems that lie in front of us today

and organizing to make a real change for tomorrow. Not changes that have the same

problems resurfacing with different people getting the short end of the stick, but solutions

in which people make the decisions that effect their lives and help build ?an

anti-authoritarian egalitarian society?. Anti-Racist Action is a multi-racial, anti-sexist,

pro-gay organization dedicated to fighting oppression in all it?s forms through direct

action. ARA activists have been involved in many struggles across the United States and

Canada, ranging from shutting down Ku Klux Klan rallies across the country; to

developing civilian patrols, called Copwatch (to fight police brutality); from working to

free political prisoners; to defending clinics from anti-choice attacks.

So hate crimes are not a funny thing and should not be taken lightly. I think that

everyone should try and do their part in their communtiy or where ever and try and stop

all of this. Things like this do not only happen with adults it happend with children and

then that is when people should really see what they are doing and stop it for the future of

the world. Plus it is not the right thing to so in the first place.