Hate crimes are not only about violence but sometimes move into other realms of life such as social status, money, and mental health. Some of these might be hate crimes while others might be more along the lines of "hate behaviors" (Sometimes the lines are blurry). One may be deemed illegal and the other distasteful they are both an intent to harm the target(s) and create wedges in society. While they seem different they are more or less variations of the same thinking that comes from the same dark personality traits/factors that want to exploit and dominate.
Each person (specifically officers, judges, and others) may see things differently based upon their awareness of the "facts" of the case, the direction of their investigatory questioning, access to information, and familiarity with the members involved (personal histories). Sometimes snap judgements and heuristic thinking makes its way into the system starting with interaction with the officer all the way through the assembly line until someone slams the prison door shut.
We don't have a strong grasp on what hate means in American society and how to investigate and control for it. We find many different confounding factors involved in discriminatory outlook but familiarity with different peoples, cultures and places helps to bring forward more critical thinking because one is able to see different possibilities (i.e. based in neural connections of the personality, upbringing, and cultural awareness) that are not there for many. See Cultural Intelligence
In other words, people often see what they want to see and that seeing is an indication of the mental models people are using embedded deeply into how they view themselves, others and their ability to master challenges in their life. It is an interplay of themselves and the reflection of the world around them that comes to define their being.
Not all is lost because exposure to new ideas, peoples, and experiences opens up the mind to new ways of seeing the same information. It is an opportunity to reorient our global competitiveness through creating the framework for maximum economic and social engagement. See Intelligent Thinking
Familiarity Among Peoples Changes Things
Familiarity often changes the dynamics a little (Why we want people to interact with each other).Familiarity is social by nature (Only having friends of one background limits understanding) but could also derive some of the decision making from pre-existing bias and subjective experience. Discriminatory behavior can be intentional or unintentional depending on the person and the situation (Its not all the same and can at times be misinterpreted by lay persons).
It could go either way but results in many cases of minorities holding the consequences of someone else's choices and behaviors. Socio-cultural awareness filters throughout cultural norms and throughout the system. For example, let us say you are a XYZ minority (Minority is somewhat dependent on who in that group is the majority and who holds power. In other words, in different contexts different people can be minorities. Roles can be reversed for certain majorities-minorities in different context of group power. Its the issue that someone is being target for these protective class issues that is important.)
Lets keep going.......
XYZ Person from the XYZ people (just an example) is well known, people interact with him/her and liked in the "majority" community. When a problem occurs the officer reviews the context of what they know about that person (assuming they are seeking a level of objectivity) and weigh it based on what they perceive to be the "facts". Because the officer has familiarity with the XYZ person they believe his/her story and support it. While the perpetrator may be part of the majority crowd in this situation they are held to account because the officer recognized and made an informed decision that included other contextual information of the victim and situation.
Let us say that XYZ person is driving somewhere else where no one knows him/her and has a problem with a person from a majority group. The officer shows up and assesses the situation based on their preexisting understandings. XYZ is unknown and the perpetrator is more known. There is a choice the officer makes, albeit much of it subconsciously, to pick the person they have familiarity with. Nobody is going to see XYZ again anyway (A choice is made based on the best outcome for the officer and the "community").
A problem sometimes occurs when one group is pushed into "system" at a higher rate based on a lack of familiarity and a misinterpretations of the "facts". Quick decisions at the moment (why training and diverse recruitment is often needed) leads to justice for some and injustice for others (I'm not sure I can tell you there is a simple solution because much depends on the motivation to integrate society and the context in which different communities live. Universalizing justice seems to be the only real way to make it fair for everyone.)
Hiding Crimes in Homogeneous Social Familiarity
It is also possible that when we know people and see them as part of our "clan" we may give them additional weight in our decision making (When only a "clan" matters behaviors begin to reflect those that might be experienced in less developed societies and those with higher levels of conflict and corruption.) Somewhere within our biology we differentiate quickly and often inaccurate who we see as in our "clan" and who is out of our clan.
When an officer of the law becomes involved to support personal, ethnic and religious loyalties the situation becomes increasingly heightened. Furthermore, when that officer begins to engage in other potential intimidation tactics (i.e. following home, asking about gun, counseling others on how to get someone arrested, involving children, etc...) in coordination with other hate group/behavior members a difficult situation turns into a dangerous one (See Reptilian vs Cool Thinking.)
The law and use of force (i.e. gun and knowledge) becomes tools of intimidation to suppress the natural rights of one group for the advantage of another (I say another instead of "other" because it depends on the motivations of the person and their intent; sometimes they don't know. At times behaviors are based only in their personal dysfunction "another" and at another time they may be coordinating to suppress a category of people "other". )
Minority rights (Its not really just about minorities its about everyone's rights) are often subconsciously discounted but in this case it was a wholesale attempt to circumvent both good moral conscious and the law to enforce dominance of a group. These behaviors are no different than what we see in countries that engage in serious rights violations that lead to ethnic conflict and even generation spanning wars. The only difference being that the target was at least partially aware of their intent to dominate through corruption and force and took steps to avoid even more serious chaos while at the same time trying to shield his children from further involvement/bullying (I believe they intentionally involved this kid as a form of "punishment").
It gets a little mixed up because there are a lot of things going on but familiarity in a homogeneous group that don't like "outsiders" and a methodology some of them used to either silence, intimidate or get arrested (false report) those that demand their boundaries be respected. Do they see it that way? No...I doubt it. However, when you step back and take a "birds eye" view of everything going on, the history of behaviors, the crimes that were committed you will find that their dislike of "Muslims" and "Niggas", the terms they use, seem to be a central theme beyond the financial and social gain expected by such activities.
Where Do We Go Now?
Any person in this situation would have a difficult time creating protective boundaries where violence and highly provocative behaviors are repeated. There is just more awareness of the full scope of bad/illegal behaviors and the holes in the law they utilized to target people in their community (The same that likely occurs in other places). I'm concerned because many of these behaviors appear patterned as a default dominance mechanism that likely has other targets in the community (Patterned often means familiarity that comes through practice.).
We also must also concern ourselves with the officer who felt he had the right to engage in what would appear to be criminal and corrupt tactics. That doesn't take into full account the concern other community members have about this officer (For all these years no one bothered to review his file, complaints or people in the community). People like him acted in ways that appear to be illegal and may have led to the possible suicide of a teen girl raped in the back of a squad car (true or not...it is the responsibility of outside agencies to investigate). That officer also has other complaints and I watched him restrict help to another teen girl that was seriously hurt in a car accident.
(These are serious allegations community members are making. What's the moral thing here...just ignore it and pretend it didn't happen or unhear what was stated ? Is there a level of immunity for any behavior including those that violate local, state, federal, and international law? I would be surprised if we were so blind to think that an officer with a serious chip on his shoulder and a history of aggressive behavior can't manipulate the law for his and groups benefit. I guess we will leave that potential moral hazard and failure to our societal power brokers.)
This Wasn't a Run of the Mill Disagreement.
This wasn't a normal disagreement between people. This was an intentional escalation by one side without stating the reasons for those escalations (at least until they end when it was explained that is was because the targets are "Muslim"). Beyond the intentionally false information (Yes people said things where it took me a few hours later to understand how on earth they got that understanding. A sheer sign of manipulation of information in radicalizing their base.) Rumors and misleading information was not an accident. It appeared to be more of a coordinated and well worn path to gain advantage over others (This can't be the first time they did this! They were just so good at it and their followers couldn't even care less to fact check before acting. Are these the "Americans" we want teaching our youth how to act and joining our public institutions such as policing, coaching, teaching and more? 🤷)
This isn't just bad behavior. It was a serious situation and people got hurt and more people could have gotten hurt if they were left unchecked. It was about covering a potential crime and deep seated hate that under the right circumstances could have lead to death and sparked outrage in other family networks and communities (Think about how it only takes a few selfish people and a lot of followers that can't think for themselves to set off bigger conflicts. In almost every major blowout in history is over seemingly small issues where one trampled the rights of others.)
Turning a blind eye to this behavior has serious consequences for the moral fabric of our laws and leaders. It would be a symbol of why we must face extremism and learn to adapt as a nation to avoid the sway of groups with a false sense of self (arrogance and narcissism) matched with deep seated ill will toward others who are different. The broom handle is broken so there is no more sweeping of such issues under someone else's carpet. It is about acknowledging (even internal recognizing) bad and finding solutions for the future.
Let us imagine for a moment that these issues are at play in one form or another across different towns all across the country. The Capital Riots have taught us that we can no longer afford 1.) disparity treatment that damages our human capital and 2.) extremism groups that feel "entitled" to push their beliefs on others with force/violence. (It is scary to imagine what would have happened if the rioters injured, maimed or hurt members of congress on national television and in turn received support from a militant group of blind followers. The conscious should be pricked here if some of our politicians and leaders don't feel our central American principles matter more than sound byte glorification. Wow! Those things we learned about values in church, mosques and synagogues is true!) We need leaders who look for win-win situations and not zero sum outcomes.
Next time you vote for someone and for a particular party think about who you want representing you, your party, our country. We need government and civilian leaders that solve problems and don't create them. Just listen to the radio and news and you can get a sense who is on the fringe and who is centralized (Its not specific advance for or against any party as the underlining mechanics are the same in blind followership.). For me, I have learned to hold my red line in the face of rage and do a better job of thinking about where this country needs to sail. Most of us will focus on what is in front of them at that time.
As of present, it appears that the laws only sort of so so are in place to deal with these issues. For the most part, accountability isn't what would normally be expected in a case like this (maybe someone knows something more than I do). This was a situation that really should have never happened if the aggressors stopped and really thought about what was going on and not only at how they looked to their social group and to themselves. I can't say if our country will make it over the hump but if this is a symbol of how the majority population (meaning the 51% who don't fit the image of "American") are treated that is frightening.
There is a lesson in all of this. A lack of accountability across the nation for such behaviors would not reflect well on our future options (That is a choice for our leadership and for the people who support them). We are vulnerable to our own inabilities to move to the next platform of universal justice and economic development. When individuals that are dangerous to their community are not held to a higher standard (either mental health services and in some cases criminal prosecution) then it becomes an issue that is fundamental to the American brand. "To be or not to be?" Hamlet
P.S. it looks like if you also want to be involved in politics you must engage in reflecting back the same mantras that got us into situations like this in the first place ( Dems and Reps.). That means we have a dysfunctional political environment where group think is what gets people ahead. This means more things like capital riots may happen because the voices of reason are silenced but also there isn't enough new ideas circulating and making their way through the ranks.
Hopefully, our country is not racing to the bottom simply because we have difficulty holding ourselves to a higher standard. Time will tell how this all works out. A couple of years is enough problem solving lead time for people to decide what value system they have. There was momentum to make societal change but that momentum will eventually dissipate as people become less shocked and in turn create their own subjective conclusions that solidify their moral, political, and personal outlooks (Likely along the lines of their leadership).
As a nation, a community, and a people have we learned anything? That is up to you to decide...I've learned a mountain of things that eventually I will share. Some of it good, some of it bad, but for the most part.....it is just sort of "is"! For now...I'm going fishing....wish me luck!
