Nearly 71.9% of the anti-religious hate crimes in the United States were perpetrated because of the offender’s anti-Jewish bias, 8.4% because of anti-Islamic bias — according to the Department of Justice Uniform Crime Reporting Program statistics for 2009.
I found the links to this information here on Ketzele’s blog.
Crimes suck. Hate crime sucks. The point being made on one of Ketzele’s sources is that the press doesn’t report much on anti-Semitic crimes, but a lot on anti-Islamic ones.
One thing that stood out in the statistics for me was that nearly half of all hate crimes are because of racial bias, and nearly 72% of those because of an anti-Black bias.
And, compare in your head the reporting of hate crimes against homosexuals with the reporting of hate crimes against any other group and then look at the statistics. I guess when a black guy gets beaten up just because he’s black, it’s old news?
I suppose these statistics are helpful, but I don’t like hate crime laws. It’s like saying that if you were the victim of a violent crime that did not involve these biases then you’re just not as important as a Jew, a homosexual, or a black guy.
It’s wrong to beat someone up, whether you’re doing it because they looked at your girlfriend or they’re gay (you think) or they smell bad. It’s also wrong that someone can spend a lot more time in jail for possessing a drug, for their own use, affecting their own life, than beating someone up, for their own purpose, affecting someone else’s life.
Here’s a joke for you: A Jew, a homosexual, and a black guy go into a bar and the black guy gets beaten up. The punchline: Statistics.
I’d like to put in these statistics for Oklahoma. In 2009, in Tulsa, there was just one hate crime reported, (ethnicity biased). In Oklahoma City, there were 20 (various biases, mostly race and sexual orientation). That could be a policing anomaly in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, both, or Tulsa could just be a sweet place to live (it’s pretty nice).
Oklahoma City’s population is only about 45% larger than Tulsa’s, by the way… so don’t think I’m comparing Peoria, Illinois with New York City…
Ok, New York City — 271 crimes (139 of those, the largest part, based on religion). But their population was listed as 8400997… that’s 3.23 crimes per 100,000 people.
Oklahoma City, 20 crimes, pop 556939, 3.59 crimes per 100,000 people.
Tulsa, 1 crime, pop 384851, 0.26 crimes per 100,000 people.
Ok, gee, Los Angeles, 190 crimes, pop 3848776, 4.94 crimes per 100,000 people.
Punchline: Statistics.
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