Hate Crime and Genocide

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pehm116

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HATE CRIME: Class 6 part 1. Attached you will find the Week 6 (1) Summary document. The Class Summary document contains all the instructions and readings you will need and details the posting that you are required to make in the Discussion Forum. In the Discussion Forum you should write at least one paragraph. Class Summary also contains information on what is required for the third assignment Hate Crimes: Patterns and Case Study. Please note Class 6 is in two sections - (1) hate crime and (2) genocide After reading about this topic in the Course Materials section, please answer the following question by replying to this posting. Then come back to post a reply to at least two of your classmates’ responses. 1. What is meant by an organized hate crime group? How much of a problem do they pose for US society? Genocide: Class 6 part 2. Attached you will find the Class 6 (2) Summary document. The Class Summary document contains all the instructions, readings and internet links that you will need and details the posting that you are required to make in the Discussion Forum. In case you cannot access the links from the class summary document they are also posted below. In the Discussion Forum you should write at least one paragraph in response to the questions After reading about this topic in the Course Materials section, please answer the following questions by replying to this posting by the due date. Then come back to post a reply to at least two of your classmates’ responses. 1. What is genocide? 2. Briefly describe what led up to the genocide in Rwanda. Do you think it could have been prevented? 3. How can we stop genocide occurring in the future (think about what Stanton has to say)? ---------------------------------------------------------------Below ill attach the links for part 2. Genocide link 1: http://endgenocide.org/learn/what-is-genocide/ Genocide link 2 : http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/ genocide link 3: http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocide.shtml GENOCIDE LINK 4: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/interviews/gourevitch.html GENOCIDE LINK 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70d2Z9yago

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Hate Crime To Do: *Read the summary below *Read Barak p.36, p.127 Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Go to the Discussion Forum: Answer the Question on Hate Crime Do Assignment: Hate Crime: Patterns and Case Study – 12 points due 1/17 Note: if you have problems downloading the readings, please get in touch immediately Hate Crime Key Concepts: Hate Crimes Statistics Act, definitions, patterns, explanations, organized hate crime groups Every year thousands of women and men are victimized because of their race, religion, ethnicity/ national origin, disability or sexual orientation. The following slides from Riedel M and Welsh W (2008) Criminal Violence, Patterns, Causes and Prevention, Oxford help to explain the importance of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act and what is meant by hate crime. 1 2 We need to consider how clear the definition of hate crime is: 1. How do we establish ‘bias’, that the incident is the result of prejudice? This is very subjective. It is often difficult to decide whether an act was a hate crime or simply a senseless act of violence. 2. Why are some groups included and not others. Feminists have argued that much violence against women should be considered hate crime, that the motivation for such incidences is prejudice against women. Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, is reported to have said of his crimes against women that, ‘God encouraged me to kill the scum who cannot justify themselves to society’ – isn’t this a clear expression of hate? 3. We also need to think about whether the vast majority of violence is motivated by ‘hate’. 3 Patterns Below are the latest statistics on the number of cases of hate crimes that were reported. We must remember that there will be a considerable hidden figure. Victims of hate crime do not report for many reasons: fear of reprisals; that the incident will not be treated seriously; fears over official intervention, especially if the victim has worries with respect to their immigration status and so on. FBI Releases 2011 Hate Crime Statistics According to statistics released today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 6,222 criminal incidents involving 7,254 offenses were reported in 2011 as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability. The statistics, published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program in Hate Crime Statistics, 2011, provide data about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of the bias-motivated incidents reported by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. Due to the unique nature of hate crime, however, the UCR program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports. Hate Crime Statistics, 2011 includes the following information: ! ! There were 6,216 single-bias incidents, of which 46.9 percent were motivated by a racial bias, 20.8 percent were motivated by a sexual orientation bias, 19.8 percent were motivated by a religious bias, and 11.6 percent were motivated by an ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against a disability accounted for 0.9 percent of single-bias incidents. Of the 4,623 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2011, intimidation accounted for 45.6 percent, simple assaults for 34.5 percent, and 4 ! ! ! aggravated assaults for 19.4 percent. Four murders and seven forcible rapes were reported as hate crimes. There were 2,611 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (81.4 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 18.6 percent of crimes against property. Fifty-nine percent of the 5,731 known offenders were white; 20.9 percent were black. The race was unknown for 10.8 percent, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders. Most hate crime incidents (32.0 percent) occurred in or near homes. Eighteen percent took place on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 9.3 percent happened at schools or colleges; 5.9 percent in parking lots or garages; and 4.4 percent in churches, synagogues, or temples. The location was considered other (undesignated) or unknown for 11.3 percent of hate crime incidents. The remaining 19.1 percent of hate crime incidents took place at other specified or multiple locations. The Southern Poverty Law Center collects data on the types of hate crime incidents. Access this link for more information (you may need to cut and paste it into your browser). http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-incidents 5 Explanations The most common explanations for hate crime are summarized below by Riedel and Welsh (2008). If you want to read the full chapter (in Criminal Violence: Patterns, Causes and Prevention), on which these slides are based – the book is on reserve in the library. 6 7 We also need to consider the role of ‘othering’ and dehumanization. If you ‘other’ someone, you see them as not like you, they are different. A process of dehumanization then occurs towards the person (s) (we can see this in the language that might be used, e.g. the person(s) may be referred to by using a racist epithet or even being constantly described as ‘they’ or ‘them’ rather than by name). When someone does this they lose the ability to empathize with that person, once empathy goes this sets the stage for acts of cruelty. I have discussed this in more detail in my article with Jock Young on terrorism and war which I will post for you later in the course. The process of dehumanization is also discussed in the reading for the Genocide class. 8 Organized Hate Crime Groups This section gives more information on the work of the Southern Poverty Law Center and organized hate crime groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center “The Southern Poverty Law Center monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States and exposes their activities to law enforcement agencies, the media and the public. We publish our investigative findings online, on our Hatewatch blog, and in the Intelligence Report, our award-winning quarterly journal. We’ve crippled some of the country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members. Currently, there are 1,007 known hate groups operating across the country, including neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, neoConfederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and others. Since 2000, the number of hate groups has increased by 67 percent. This surge has been fueled by anger and fear over the nation’s ailing economy, an influx of non-white immigrants, and the diminishing white majority, as symbolized by the election of the nation’s first African-American president. 9 These factors also are feeding a powerful resurgence of the antigovernment “Patriot” movement, which in the 1990s led to a string of domestic terrorist plots, including the Oklahoma City bombing. The number of Patriot groups, including armed militias, has grown 813 percent since of the Obama was elected – from 149 in 2008 to 1,360 in 2012. This growth in extremism has been aided by mainstream media figures and politicians who have used their platforms to legitimize false propaganda about immigrants and other minorities and spread the kind of paranoid conspiracy theories on which militia groups thrive. Fighting Hate in Court In the early 1980s, SPLC co-founder and chief trial counsel Morris Dees pioneered the strategy of using the courts to battle organized, violent hate groups. Since then, we have won numerous large damage awards on behalf of victims of hate group violence. These cases are funded entirely by our supporters; we accept no legal fees from the clients we represent. Notes on Klu Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the most infamous and oldest - of American hate groups. Although black Americans have typically been the Klan's primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics. Over the years since it was formed in December 1865, the Klan has typically seen itself as a Christian organization, although in modern times Klan groups are motivated by a variety of theological and political ideologies. Started during Reconstruction at the end of the Civil War, the Klan quickly mobilized as a vigilante group to intimidate Southern blacks - and any whites who would help them - and to prevent them from enjoying basic civil rights. Outlandish titles (like imperial wizard and exalted cyclops), hooded costumes, violent "night rides," and the notion that the group comprised an "invisible empire" conferred a mystique that only added to the Klan's popularity. Lynchings, tar-and-featherings, rapes and other violent attacks on those challenging white supremacy became a hallmark of the Klan. After a short but violent period, the "first era" Klan disbanded after Jim Crow laws secured the domination of Southern whites. But the Klan enjoyed a huge revival in the 1920s when it opposed (mainly Catholic and Jewish) immigration. By 1925, when its followers staged a huge Washington, D.C., march, the Klan had as many as 4 million members and, in some states, considerable political power. But a series of sex 10 scandals, internal battles over power and newspaper exposés quickly reduced its influence. The Klan arose a third time during the 1960s to oppose the civil rights movement and to preserve segregation in the face of unfavorable court rulings. The Klan's bombings, murders and other attacks took a great many lives, including, among others, four young girls killed while preparing for Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Since the 1970s the Klan has been greatly weakened by internal conflicts, court cases, a seemingly endless series of splits and government infiltration. While some factions have preserved an openly racist and militant approach, others have tried to enter the mainstream, cloaking their racism as mere "civil rights for whites." Today, the Center estimates that there are between 5,000 and 8,000 Klan members, split among dozens of different - and often warring - organizations that use the Klan name. See Southern Poverty Law Center at http://www.splcenter.org/ As noted above this link gives further details on their work, maps active hate crime groups in the US and provides further information on hate crime and the difficulties facing migrant workers. 11 Discussion Forum: Hate Crime Go to the discussion forum and answer the following question by 1/14 1. What is meant by an organized hate crime group, provide some examples. How much of a problem do they pose for US society? Assignment 3: Hate Crime – 12 points by 1/17 Go to ‘Assignments’ and answer these questions: 1.Define ‘hate crime’. Outline the reporting patterns of hate crime (see above), what incidents are most likely to be reported. Why will there be a hidden figure? 2. Do some background research on one of the following James Byrd Jr, Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena. Describe what happened and discuss why the case is considered significant in terms of debates on hate crime. Additional Information: The James Byrd Jr case was the subject of an excellent documentary Two Towns of Jasper (information at http://www.twotownsofjasper.com/index.html). The documentary is in the John Jay library. Here is a clip of the film makers. http://www.twotownsofjasper.com/qt/twotowns_high.html Again you may need to cut and paste the links into your browser 12 13 Genocide To Do: *Read the summary below *Watch the documentary on Rwanda *Read Barak p. 118-119; 167-168; Genocide: Readings 1 and 2 Go to the Discussion Forum: Answer the Questions on Genocide Note: if you have problems downloading the readings, please get in touch immediately Genocide This is an extremely disturbing subject…when we think about the numbers (seemingly ‘ordinary’ men and women) who are involved in perpetrating acts of genocide, the unbelievable brutality that occurs..we find ourselves asking what is this about? Why are human beings capable of such cruelty to each other? This is hate crime at its most extreme. What is Genocide? The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (article 2) defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group … ", including: ! Killing members of the group; ! Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; 1 ! Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; ! Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; ! Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The Convention confirms that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or war, is a crime under international law which parties to the Convention undertake “to prevent and to punish” (article 1). The primary responsibility to prevent and stop genocide lies with the State in which this crime takes place. (Source: United Nations) Access this link from United to End Genocide and watch the clip featuring Raphael Lemkin who first introduced the term ‘genocide’ (as with all links you may need to cut and paste it into your browser). http://endgenocide.org/learn/what-is-genocide/ Access this link from United to End Genocide for information on past genocides http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/ 2 A Focus on Rwanda Access this link for background information (you may need to cut and paste it into your browser) http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocid e.shtml Genocide: Reading 1 Access the link below to read an interview with Philip Gourevitch Gourevitch is the author of We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, an in-depth account of the Rwanda genocide. In the aftermath of the genocide he spent over nine months in Rwanda trying to understand how this extraordinary crime had come to pass, how it was organized, how the Western powers had stood by and watched it happen, and how Rwandans are living with its legacy. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/interviews/gourevitc h.html Watch this documentary ‘The Ghosts of Rwanda’ streamed from John Jay Library. Please note it does have some harrowing scenes in it. If the link doesn’t work, go to the John Jay library site and stream it directly. http://digital.films.com.ez.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/PortalViewVideo.aspx?xtid=4427 1 3 Genocide: Reading 2 Gregory H. Stanton, on the ‘Eight Stages of Genocide’ and What Should be Done to Prevent it. Pay particular attention to what he says on dehumanization – this is particularly important to our discussion on the causes of violence. This clip is from youtube and features Stanton discussing the 8 stages: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70d2Z9yago THE GENOCIDAL PROCESS Prevention of genocide requires a structural understanding of the genocidal process. Genocide has eight stages or operational processes. The first stages precede later stages, but continue to operate throughout the genocidal process. Each stage reinforces the others. A strategy to prevent genocide should attack each stage, each process. The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial. Classification All languages and cultures require classification - division of the natural and social world into categories. We distinguish and classify objects and people. All cultures have categories to distinguish between “us” and “them,” between members of our group and others. We treat different categories of people differently. Racial and ethnic classifications may be defined by absurdly detailed laws -- the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the "one drop" laws of segregation in America, or apartheid racial classification laws in South Africa. Racist societies often prohibit mixed categories and outlaw miscegenation. Bipolar societies are the most likely to have genocide. In Rwanda and Burundi, children 4 are the ethnicity of their father, either Tutsi or Hutu. No one is mixed. Mixed marriages do not result in mixed children. Symbolization We use symbols to name and signify our classifications. We name some people Hutu and others Tutsi, or Jewish or Gypsy, or Christian or Muslim. Sometimes physical characteristics - skin color or nose shape - become symbols for classifications. Other symbols, like customary dress or facial scars, are socially imposed by groups on their own members. After the process has reached later stages (dehumanization, organization, and polarization) genocidal governments in the preparation stage often require members of a targeted group to wear an identifying symbol or distinctive clothing -- e.g. the yellow star. The Khmer Rouge forced people from the Eastern Zone to wear a blue-checked scarf, marking them for forced relocation and elimination. Dehumanization Classification and symbolization are fundamental operations in all cultures. They become steps of genocide only when combined with dehumanization. Denial of the humanity of others is the step that permits killing with impunity. The universal human abhorrence of murder of members of one's own group is overcome by treating the victims as less than human. In incitements to genocide the target groups are called disgusting animal names Nazi propaganda called Jews "rats" or "vermin"; Rwandan Hutu hate radio referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." The targeted group is often likened to a “disease”, “microbes”, “infections” or a “cancer” in the body politic. Bodies of genocide victims are often mutilated to express this denial of humanity. Such atrocities then become the justification for revenge killings, because they are evidence that the killers must be monsters, not human beings themselves. Organization Genocide is always collective because it derives its impetus from group identification. It is always organized, often by states but also by militias and hate groups. Planning need not be elaborate: Hindu mobs may hunt down Sikhs or Muslims, led by local leaders. 5 Methods of killing need not be complex: Tutsis in Rwanda died from machetes; Muslim Chams in Cambodia from hoe-blades to the back of the neck ("Bullets must not be wasted," was the rule at Cambodian extermination prisons, expressing the dehumanization of the victims.) The social organization of genocide varies by culture. It reached its most mechanized, bureaucratic form in the Nazi death camps. But it is always organized, whether by the Nazi SS or the Rwandan Interahamwe. Death squads may be trained for mass murder, as in Rwanda, and then force everyone to participate, spreading hysteria and overcoming individual resistance. Terrorist groups will pose one of the greatest threats of genocidal mass murder in the future as they gain access to chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons. Polarization Genocide proceeds in a downward cycle of killings until, like a whirlpool, it reaches the vortex of mass murder. Killings by one group may provoke revenge killings by the other. Such massacres are aimed at polarization, the systematic elimination of moderates who would slow the cycle. The first to be killed in a genocide are moderates from the killing group who oppose the extremists: the Hutu Supreme Court Chief Justice and Prime Minister in Rwanda, the Tutsi Archbishop in Burundi. Extremists target moderate leaders and their families. The center cannot hold. The most extreme take over, polarizing the conflict until negotiated settlement is impossible. Preparation Preparation for genocide includes identification. Lists of victims are drawn up. Houses are marked. Maps are made. Individuals are forced to carry ID cards identifying their ethnic or religious group. Identification greatly speeds the slaughter. In Germany, the identification of Jews, defined by law, was performed by a methodical bureaucracy. In Rwanda, identity cards showed each person's ethnicity. In the genocide, Tutsis could then be easily pulled from cars at roadblocks and murdered. Throwing away the cards did not help, because anyone who could not prove he was Hutu, was presumed to be Tutsi. Hutu militiamen conducted crude mouth exams to test claims of Hutu identity. Preparation also includes expropriation of the property of the victims. It may include 6 concentration: herding of the victims into ghettos, stadiums, or churches. In its most extreme form, it even includes construction of extermination camps, as in Nazi-ruled Europe, or conversion of existing buildings – temples and schools – into extermination centers in Cambodia. Transportation of the victims to these killing centers is then organized and bureaucratized. Extermination The seventh step, the final solution, is extermination. It is considered extermination, rather than murder, because the victims are not considered human. They are vermin, rats or cockroaches. Killing is described by euphemisms of purification: “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia, “ratonade” (rat extermination) in Algeria. Targeted members of alien groups are killed, often including children. Because they are not considered persons, their bodies are mutilated, buried in mass graves or burnt like garbage. Denial Every genocide is followed by denial. The mass graves are dug up and hidden. The historical records are burned, or closed to historians. Even during the genocide, those committing the crimes dismiss reports as propaganda. Afterwards such deniers are called “revisionists.” Others deny through more subtle means: by characterizing the reports as “unconfirmed” or “alleged” because they do not come from officially approved sources; by minimizing the number killed; by quarreling about whether the killing fits the legal definition of genocide (“definitionalism”); by claiming that the deaths of the perpetrating group exceeded that of the victim group, or that the deaths were the result of civil war, not genocide. In fact, civil war and genocide are not mutually exclusive. Most genocides occur during wars. A full strategy for preventing genocide should include an attack on each of genocide's operational processes. 7 * This article was originally written in 1996 and was presented as the first Working Paper (GS 01) of the Yale Program in Genocide Studies in 1998. 1. Gregory H. Stanton is the James Farmer Professor of Human Rights, The University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia; President, Genocide Watch; Chairman, The International Campaign to End Genocide; Director, The Cambodian Genocide Project; Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars. Genocide Today: Syria? There are fears that the situation in Syria is bordering on genocide. Read this report from Genocide Watch. http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/education/rwandagenocid e.shtml 8 Discussion Forum Go to the discussion forum and answer the following questions by 1/14 1. What is genocide? 2. Briefly describe what led up to the genocide in Rwanda. Do you think it could have been prevented? 3. How can we stop genocide occurring in the future (think about what Stanton has to say)? 9
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Running Head: HATE CRIME AND GENOCIDE

Hate Crime and Genocide
Institutional Affiliation
Date

1

HATE CRIME AND GENOCIDE

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Hate Crime
An organised hate crime group would be a group of people who will be violent,
hostile and will have a profound hatred towards a certain people based on the race of the
person, their ethnicity, the country they are from, a person's religion or sexual orientation.
The group will be organised to the extent of performing the hate crime uniformly after careful
planning. The members of the social group will engage in various criminal activities which
will be listed as a hate crime according to Hate Crime Statistics Act since the actions will be
based on prejudice. There has been an increase in encounters which have been listed as hate
crimes due to the increase in the hate groups in the nation. Most of the hate groups which
have increased would be the anti-Muslim groups. Muslims have been targeted, and the hate
crime encounters have grown instead of a decline in the passage of the years. Due to the
increase of hate crime in the country, a hate crime is seen as a problem to the society since
encourages segregation, terrorism which will affect the victims of these crimes (Levin, 2002).
Assignment 3...


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