Photo: WAFB-TV
Stubbs said a man wearing a pink shirt was in line trying to pay for gas when Donald Dickerson, 41, started making fun of him, leading to an argument.“The defendant (Dickerson) approached the white male victim,” the police report stated.It went on to read, “the defendant told him he was in the wrong neighborhood and he was not going to make it out.” The victim said that’s when he “was punched and knocked to the ground.”At this time, his wife got out of the car and ran to help her husband. The victim said, “he continued to struggle with the defendant and was eventually knocked unconscious, which later he awoke in the hospital.”His wife told police, “after running to help her husband, she remembers falling to the ground and (being) knocked unconscious.“According to a close family friend, that’s when the couple’s teenage daughter got out of the car to check on her parents and, “observed a female punch her mother in the face, when her mother then fell to the concrete, hitting her head on the surface.”The daughter was also punched in the face.“There were only three suspects but there were multiple people in the parking lot,” said Stubbs. [Emphasis added]
Despite the fact that the father suffered serious injuries, that included a broken eye socket, a broken nose, and multiple lacerations to the face, only one suspect was brought into the police station and arrested. Donald Dickerson was arrested and charged with 2nd degree battery. The other two defendants, despite having a prior criminal record received a summons for simple battery, a misdemeanor.
This is one of the main reasons I don’t agree with hate crimes. Lets be honest. If that had been a black family in a white neighborhood, it would’ve been a hate crime. So why the slap on the wrist in this case? A mother was knocked unconscious, a 14-year-old punched in the face, and a Dad literally had his face broken, all for being white in a black neighborhood. All he was doing was standing in line paying for gas. Why is there no charge for communicating a death threat? The Dad was told, he “wasn’t going to make it out” of the neighborhood. What does that mean to you?
If this country is going to continue to have “hate crime” laws, then they are going to have to start applying them fairly. Just because a defendant is the wrong color doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to commit a hate crime. Battering an entire family to the point where they needed hospital care, just because they are white, SHOULD QUALIFY AS A HATE CRIME. This isn’t rocket science. I will emphasize once again had this happened to a black family, all of the defendants would’ve received felony charges, and it would’ve been a hate crime. I know I already said that but it bears repeating.
The enforcement of hate crime laws can be so arbitrary. This is one of the biggest problems with hate crime laws. A 12-year-old can be charged with a hate crime because he pulled off a Muslim girl’s head covering, despite the fact the boy’s father is a Muslim. Yet THIS crime where an entire family is beaten for being white is not a hate crime. In fact for two of the defendants, it is not even a felony. It is just a simple assault. Why? The double standard is indeed troubling and undermines the credibility of all hate crime laws. Either prosecute ALL hate crimes or None. Why should it matter what color the defendant is? If you really want “equality” this is how it MUST be. All people must be held to the same standard or true equality can never exist.
No comments:
Post a Comment