Hate Crimes in North Carolina
Hate crimes are among the major type of crime committed out of bias and act of discrimination. In the United States, hate crimes prevail because of the differences in ideologies and cultural beliefs. However, the reasons and method of committing hate crimes vary from one state to another. In this paper, North Carolina would be the center of the topic surrounding hate crimes because of the many factors that would point out the state to be one of the places plagued by such crime. The definition and quick overview about hate crimes would be presented together with statistical data that would show the rate of hate related crimes in the state of North Carolina. Known and low-profile cases of hate crimes will also be discussed in the paper to show the different nature of hate crimes committed by the people in North Carolina. Another important segment of this research is the discussion on the prevailing law against hate crimes and a quick overview of their corresponding punishment. A segment will also be dedicated to discuss one of the most gruesome hate crimes in North Carolina perpetuated by known extremist groups such as American Nazi Party and Klu Klux Klan. In relation to that discussion, the paper will present factual background of two groups in order to accentuate the relationship of the group with their reason for committing hate crimes. The objective of this research is to provide a clear description of what hate crime is, relation to the North Carolina heritage of hate and prejudice group and the implication of such crime to the US crime rate.
Hate Crimes in North Carolina
Introduction
Hate crimes are defined in state laws as criminal offenses involving threats physical harm and harassment that are motivated by prejudice against, race, color, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious belief and physical disability. The prevailing law on hate crime varies in every state including the imposed penalties and degree of severity. Harsher penalties are being implemented in states such as North Carolina considering the number of hates committed in the states based on national statistics. There are underlying elements of criminal offenses found in hate crimes such as inflicting injuries to another person, damage to property, death threats, vandalism and other form of violence that encompasses harm and death. There are several reported cases where hate crimes became the root cause of injuries and assault on individuals particularly in the state of North Carolina.
Statistics
Hate crime law
The state of North Carolina has existing laws that prosecutes anyone that committed a hate crime according to the nature of the offender’s actions. Under chapter 99D-1 of the North Carolina general statute, interference with civil rights that includes harassment, inflicted injuries, or harm to people and property constitutes arrest and the court may award the plaintiff with punitive and compensatory damages including cost of attorney’s fees and cost of property damages. Chapter 14-62.2 of the of the North Carolina general statute on the other hand deals with offenses covering destruction of religious establishments including burning churches and will be punished as a Class E felon (partnersagainsthate.org, 1999, Web). Chapter 14-401.14 covers damage or assault of another person’s property because of color, race, ethnic origin and nationality, which constitutes a penalty similar to Chapter 99D-1. However, the degree of offense is highlighted with enhanced penalty on committed because of color, race, ethnic origin and nationality within the provisions of Chapter 14-3. Whereas, the punishment of infamous offenses, misdemeanor, deceit with intent to fraud, offences committed in malice and secrecy and ethnic animosity will be punished according to class (ncga.state.nc.us, n.d. web). Further, the provision of the law stipulates that the maximum penalty to Class 1 offenses related to hate crime is six months imprisonment. Class 2 offenses will have a minimum of 30 days, but not exceeding six months. Class 3 on the other hand will have a maximum of not more than 30 days of imprisonment or fine, whichever comes appropriate.
There are several reported cases about hate crimes in North Carolina that generated debates regarding its substantiality for being a hate crime. For example, the case of a 52-year old white male named John Fusqua in Caswell County NC. Fusqua allegedly shoot two black children on broad daylight according to the witnesses. The department of justice investigating the case initially concluded that the incident was racially motivated. Witness accounts revealed that one of the children was hit in the face while the other one got a hit in the arm. Furthermore, before the shooting incident happened, the neighbors overhead Fuqua yelling racial slurs on the two children. Police authorities arrested Fuqua minutes after the incident. However, the initial investigation was proved to be misleading and it only held Fuqua liable for an assault case with a US$5,000 bond. Fuqua was released after immediately acquiring the bail amount and the outcome of the case made the community upset and still seeking for justice on the behalf of the victims (Barber, n.d., Web).
In another occasion, adults are not the only ones involve in hate crimes because there are also complicated cases wherein children are also involved. For example, the case of Melissa Hussain, an eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School in Southern Wake County NC who was suspended from teaching because of posting offensive comments on Facebook. The parents of Hussain’s students complained after reading the teacher’s comment post on the popular social networking website about her disappointment with the students for being ignorant about religion. This dialogue between the teacher and the students began after a series of actions from the students, which Hussain described as insulting to her religious belief. Hussain is a Muslim and claims that she was being taunted and aggravated by her students by leaving a Bible in her desk with a Christmas card in it from an anonymous source that reads only “Christ” as the sender. On another occasion, the students went to class wearing shirts with Jesus Christ’s image on it (Hui, 2010, web). Because of the alleged efforts of the students to aggravate Hussain, she resorted to posting a comment on her Facebook page about the children’s ignorance about religion, which in return caused uproar on the student’s parents.
In a more historical perspective, North Carolina have witnessed more gruesome hate crime incidents in the past years particularly the Ku Klux Klan-America Nazi Party shooting incident in Greensboro North Carolina on November 3, 1979. It was more than thirty years ago when five communist protest marchers were killed by armed members of the two aforementioned groups (Imm, 2009, Web). The incident occurred as members of the two groups pulled riffles from a caravan and started a shooting spree on the marching protesters that later claimed the lives of five people. Surprisingly, the court jury acquitted all the accused of all criminal charges despite mounts of evidence presented to prosecute the accused even having the incident captured on film.
Because of the unexpected court decision, none of the accused was jailed for the incident. Different stories about the massacre is circulating even today, that the KKK and Nazi groups have all the reasons to be aggravated and react in such a way because of the threatening remarks on the protester’s posters. Witnesses say that the communist protesters are holding up posters calling for “death to the Klan”, unfortunately a group of KKK members happens to be driving past the protesters and saw the posters. Minutes later, gunshots can heard in the streets of Greensboro and the incident left people dead. After the court decision, people are separated in opinion regarding the incident. Some are saying that the protesters only deserve their fate because they were given the right to protest, but not to the extent of publicly showing calls for anyone’s death. On the other hand, other people shows sympathy to the death of the victims and commented that the accused have over-reacted without taking diplomatic reservations to resolve the misunderstandings regarding the context of the words written on the protester’s posters.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
For more than a hundred years, the Ku Klux Klan has committed themselves to violence in achieving their goal to establish white supremacy and racial segregation. The organization is an anti-Semitic and racist group that encapsulates the ideology of white supremacy similar to neo-Nazi. Although, what sets them apart from the neo-Nazi is their Christian orientation and nativism rooted from a notion that African-Americans should never been given freedom in the United State. The group was founded in 1866 by the Civil War veterans namely Richard R. Reed, Captain John C. Lester, John D. Kennedy, Major James R. Crowe, Calvin Jones and Frank O. McCord. There is no definite headquarters identified for the group because KKK has been fragmented into more than 40 different factions of varying size. KKK is also made up of hundreds of different chapters in various states. However, their estimated total members are only averaged from 35,000 to 50,000 with a largest concentration of members in the Midwest and South (adl.org, n.d., Web).
The group was allegedly engaged in criminal activities such as lynching of African-Americans, acts of domestic terrorism and hate crimes. Their strategy includes conducting protests, rallies and programs such as “adopt a highway” to gain attention. Despite having no financial support from established organization, the members of KKK conduct their activities by pooling in funds out of their membership dues and selling Klan paraphernalia. The group also experienced growth and collapse during its life cycle. However, the new generation of its re-incarnation becomes more extreme than the previous, but heritage of hate and violence still remained as its prevailing characteristics. Originally, KKK’s objective only involves hate against African-Americans, white American supporters of blacks and the Federal government that supported the rights of the African-Americans. Through the years, the group’s list of enemies has added Jews, immigrants and homosexuals.
After long years of existence and the fast changing United States demographics including the rapidly increasing diversity of multi-cultural mix in the country, its members have significantly shrunk in number. In North Carolina, KKK is consisting of not more than 100 members as estimated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as of 2010 (Lamb, 2010, Web). However, despite the shrinking number of members in the some state, KKK is still upholding its strong existence in the country and according Charles Barefoot, one of the members of the Klan, KKK should not be underestimated because of the small number in one area. He added that they are everywhere in America divided into different congregations and factions (Lamb, 2010, Web).
American Nazi Party
Another extremist group in the United States with the same ideology as the KKK is known b y the name of American Nazi Party or ANP. The group was founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in 1959 and ANP was originally named World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists or WUFENS. Similar to KKK, the group is extremely racist with a goal of recreating Nazism in the United States. After the Second World War, ANP was the first group in the US to use the swastika symbol along with the other images that symbolizes the old Nazi regime (Fighthatred.com, 2010, Web). The party’s leader encourages open debates to defend the Nazi regime and the Holocaust created by the German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Rockwell was also called the American Fuehrer because of his idealism that reflects that of the German Reichskanzler. ANP established their headquarters at Arlington Virginia and a Storm trooper barracks created from a farm house located at the top of the highest hill in the county.
In contrary to KKK, ANP had funds flowing from their supporters from the different parts of the country especially after Rockwell initiated a public stunt for attention. Some of the attention grabbing stunts initiated by Rockwell is the rally held in New York City, wherein Rockwell demanded for a permit to speak in front of public that eventually ended up in commotion that almost reached the point of riot. On that event, Rockwell called the majority of American Jews as traitors for sympathizing with communism. Another notable stunt by Rockwell to gain public attention is the fight that broke out while handing out pamphlets with hateful remarks near the White House. On January 1st of 1967, ANP changed its name to National Socialist White People’s Party or NSWPP. However, on August 25, 1967, Rockwell was shot dead by one of ANP’s former member John Patler. Shortly after Rockwell’s death, ANP struggled to keep the party afloat, but Rockwell’s successors have failed to gain as much attention as Rockwell did during his time (Simonelli, 1995).
The total members of the ANP during Rockwell’s time reached 20,000 and this number slowly diminished after he died in 1967. However, ANP’s presence can still be seen in most areas of Virginia, but North Carolina in particular only shows not more than a hundred surviving members today (Americannaziparty.com, 2012, Web). ANP is still an active party in North Carolina, but the strength they used to have in number and supporters have has long been gone together with Rockwell. Today, ANP conducts smaller protest rallies in North Carolina and parts of Virginia side-by-side with KKK. However, their activities are always being challenged and most of the time outnumbered by counter protesters from other civic groups and organizations.
Hate Crimes Today
KKK and ANP are just two of the extremist groups in the United States that are often pointed out as culprits in several hate crimes in America particularly in North Carolina. Because the nature of hate crime is bias to traditional crimes, they still prevail in the society and occur every day across the country. Hatred and prejudice are the main roots of hate crimes, they constitutes a diversity of offenses ranging from vandalism, burning of synagogues, cross burning, lynching and harassment. The FBI consistently track down all reported hate crimes and from the most recent findings for 2010, FBI received 6,628 hate crime related incidents involving 7,699 offenses all over United States (Fbi.gov, 2010, Web). The report also reveals a total of 8,199 victims and 6,001 offenders (Fbi.gov, 2010, Web).
Today, North Carolina ranked among the ten states with the least percentage of hate crimes showing only 1.36% per 100,000 residents according to the consolidated report by FBI and the Department of Justice. As compared to the overall number of hate crimes in the United States, the state of North Carolina has shown significant changes through the years in terms of rate of hate crime reported incidents. The new development on hate crimes and the reduction of incidents compared to the previous years is because of the effect of multi-cultural diversification in the country. The old traditions of cultural and social isolation have been eroded by the more open society. Despite the fact that North Carolina is a KKK and ANP state, they proved that the modern society will heal the past mistakes committed out of hate and prejudice. There are several types of hate crimes; they are categorized as major and minor. Race and sexual orientation falls under the category of major hate crimes as most of the incidents today are based on both criteria. On the other hand, minor hate crimes are based on religion, disability and other prejudice.
Conclusion
Hate crimes are everywhere, they happen every day and in many forms. It is essential for the legislators to consider the factors that may constitute a hate crime and create stronger legislations to protect the people from such crime. The existence of extremist groups is a statement of ideological differences rooted from past traditions. The freedom of speech is one thing that the extremists uphold as their right to be heard of their predicaments. However, it doesn’t have to end in violence. If only the people are well informed of the universal human rights, hate crimes would persist to exist because the mere understanding of once nature is enough to create a harmonious relationship despite the differences.
References
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Americannaziparty.com (2012, November 5). ANP Report for November 05, 2012. americannaziparty.com. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from http://www.americannaziparty.com/news/index.php
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Ncga.state.nc.us (n.d.). GS_14-3. North Carolina General Assembly. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_14/GS_14-3.html
Partnersagainsthate.org (n.d.). List of Hate Crime Laws. Partners Against Hate. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from http://www.partnersagainsthate.org/laws/list-of-hate-crime-laws.html?state=nc
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