Tag Archive for "hate crimes"

Posts Tagged hate crimes

From Kuchibhotla to Kal Penn: How Hate Crimes Build Off Liberal Media

Yesterday, the New Yorker published a stirring article on Being Indian in Trump’s America, a rumination by Amitava Kumar on racial violence, hate crimes and the tensions that come with being South Asian in America. Around the same time, Indian American actor Kal Penn tweeted images of racist scripts offered to him at the beginning of his acting career. The two pieces, juxtaposed together, offer a handy depiction of hate: a dehumanization project that begins with media stereotyping and logically concludes in racist violence.

By Vanessa • 11 years ago

Breaking: Sikh temple shooter was connected to racist groups

Amardeep Kaleka, whose father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, was killed yesterday. (Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP)

I’m sure you all know by now about this devastating news. After nearly a day of inquiries into the identification and motive of the shooter, Reuters reports that the shooter, Wade Michael Page, has been discovered to have been connected to racist groups:

The gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple in southern Wisconsin was a former U.S. serviceman, a law enforcement official said on Monday, and a monitor of extremists said the shooter had links to racist groups.

[…] Wade had been a member of the racist skinhead band End Apathy, ...

Amardeep Kaleka, whose father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, was killed yesterday. (Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP)

I’m sure you all know by now about this ...

By Samhita • 11 years ago

Dharun Ravi sentenced to 30 days in prison

In a rather lenient sentencing, a New Jersey judge sentenced Dharun Ravi to 30 days in jail also suggesting that he not be deported. This is a probationary sentence for Ravi, who earlier this year was convicted of bias intimidation and a handful of other hate crimes for bullying his Rutgers roommate Tyler Clementi. Why did they throw the book at him? Because shortly after Ravi had broadcast Clementi’s affairs online–Clementi committed suicide.

This case has been provocative and the outcome unsettling. Long sentences are rarely effective, deportation inhumane and we can pretty much guarantee that Dharun Ravi will never bully someone again. But we will also never know exactly why Tyler Clementi committed suicide, or what he went through. His family will ...

By zerlina • 12 years ago

George Zimmerman’s “self defense” story of Trayvon Martin shooting falls apart

ABC News obtained the police surveillence video recorded right after George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman through his attorney and his “black friend” Joe Oliver claims that he and Trayvon got into a fight on the night that Trayvon was killed.

The police leaked Zimmerman’s account of the shooting to the Orlando Sentinel which claimed that Trayvon approached George Zimmerman when he was walking back to his car and that Trayvon punched Zimmerman in the face, breaking his nose. Zimmerman also claims that Trayvon while on top of him during a scuffle bashed his head into the ground several times causing lacerations on the back of his head.

Well, that version of events appears to be complete bullshit.

In ...

By Eesha Pandit • 12 years ago

Tyler Clementi’s roommate Dharun Ravi convicted of hate crime

*Trigger warning*

Last week, Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was found guilty of a hate crime and invasion of privacy in the case stemming from the suicide of his former roommate Tyler Clementi.

The background: In September 2010, Ravi and fellow classmate Molly Wei used a webcam to record Clementi kissing another man. Ravi tweeted about it and shared the video with others. He’d also made plans to host a “viewing party” of Clementi on a date with a man. And while the reasons for his suicide are surely complex and involve an entire culture of homophobia, this case has gotten the attention it has because of the timing of Tyler Clementi’s death, which occurred only a few days after these ...

*Trigger warning*

Last week, Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was found guilty of a hate crime and invasion of privacy in the case stemming from the suicide of his former roommate Tyler Clementi.

The background: In September 2010, ...

By Eesha Pandit • 12 years ago

Massachusetts passes law protecting trans residents

Today in Boston, a ceremony marked a newly passed MA state law which prohibits discrimination against transgender residents in employment, housing, insurance and credit.

Governor Deval Patrick told a crowded Statehouse ceremony on Thursday that he was happy to approve the bill as a “matter of conscience” in order to protect the rights and dignity of an estimated 33,000 transgender citizens in Massachusetts.

The law also extends the state’s hate crime laws to cover transgender people. Attorney General Martha Coakley said her office was ready to enforce the new law, adding that she hopes it won’t often be necessary. There is a long-standing debate about the impact of hate crimes legislation. see here for an analysis opposing such legislation.

That said, in a ...

Today in Boston, a ceremony marked a newly passed MA state law which prohibits discrimination against transgender residents in employment, housing, insurance and credit.

Governor Deval Patrick told a crowded Statehouse ceremony on Thursday that he was happy ...

By Jos Truitt • 13 years ago

On violence, hate and gender non-conformity

*Trigger warning*

The first time I was the target of anti-transgender violence I didn’t know I was transgender.

I heard the three guys coming up behind me, talking, even laughing a little. I know they chose me specifically to jump, and I know it was about how I was perceived. My clothes, the way I walked, even the shape of my body at the time, in the throes of an eating disorder, expressed a failure to fit into my prescribed gender box. If asked I imagine the three guys would have said I was a fag, but what they were seeing had nothing in actuality to do with who I was or wasn’t fucking and everything to do with my gender performance.

Anti-queer ...

*Trigger warning*

The first time I was the target of anti-transgender violence I didn’t know I was transgender.

I heard the three guys coming up behind me, talking, even laughing a little. I know they chose me specifically to ...

By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

Breaking: Gabrielle Giffords Will Survive Gunshot Wound; Remains in Critical Condition

Great news this morning: Gabrielle Giffords’ will survive the gunshot wound to the head she sustained during the Tucson shooting this weekend.

As reported by Talking Points Memo, one of the surgeons treating Rep. Gabrielle Giffords says her chances for survival are “100 percent,” and that he’s optimistic “she’s not going to be in a vegetative type of state.”

Video and transcript below.

Great news this morning: Gabrielle Giffords’ will survive the gunshot wound to the head she sustained during the Tucson shooting this weekend.

As reported by Talking Points Memo, one of the surgeons treating Rep. Gabrielle ...