Hate Crimes Essay

Submitted By bking0510
Words: 1927
Pages: 8

Hate Crimes

Hate crimes seem to be getting slightly better than what they use to be in the early 19th and 20th centuries. In the earlier days they were almost the "norm". It wasn’t rare to hear of incidents happening with African-Americans, Jews, or any other race besides white. People were almost use to it and it was pushed under the table in most cases. However, it wasn’t considered "hate crimes" until the early 1980’s when hate groups like "skinheads" emerged with bias-based crimes. Before then it was just getting rid of the unwanted.
In August 1955, a fourteen-year-old African American boy by the name of Emmett Till was visiting relatives near the small town of Money, Mississippi. The experience that he was about to endure could never compare to the segregation that he was use to in his hometown of Chicago. After showing some local boys a photo of his girlfriend back home, which was white, one of the boys dared him to go in the store and talk to her. Emmett accepted the dare and walked into the store and bought some candy. On his way out, he whistled at the lady standing behind the counter which, little did he know, was the storeowner’s wife, Carolyn Bryant. A few days later, two men, Roy Bryant, the store owner, and his brother-in-law, J.W. Milam, came to the cabin of Emmett's uncle and drove off with Emmett. Three days later, Emmett Till's body was found in the Tallahatchie River. One of his eyes were gouged out and his head, which was crushed in, had a bullet in it. The body of Emmett was nearly unrecognizable; his uncle could only positively identify the body as Emmett's because of an initialed ring he was wearing.
Many different hates crimes have occurred around the world for different reasons including race, religion, sexual orientation, and even disabilities. Religion is one of the major causes of hate crimes. According to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, hate crimes dates back to ancient civilizations. (N.A., History of Hate Crimes, 2008) The Roman Empire has one of the earliest examples. Emperor Nero ordered anyone that was a Christian to be punished for the damage that was done to a huge portion of Rome by a giant fire. Having had no issues with the religion beforehand, he had to lay the blame on someone so it would take eyes away from him. This simple ordered caused years of hate crimes to anyone that followed the beliefs of a Christian. (N.A., History of Hate Crimes, 2008)
Some hate crimes have been so significant that they have affected the whole world. The Holocaust is one of those that is recognized. In similarity to the Roman Empire hate crime, the Holocaust was caused by a hatred for a religion unlike their own. It was also a hate crime of sexual orientation by attempting to eliminate, not only all Jews, but homosexual’s as well. The dream of Adolf Hitler was to create a "pure" nation entirely of Aryan people. He called this dream the "Final Solution." (N.A., History of Hate Crimes, 2008) Hitler forced Jews into concentration camps were they were executed in mass numbers. It is estimated that over 10 million Jews were murdered during this extreme rage of hate. As for the homosexuals, the Gestapo, the secret police of Germany, created lists of homosexuals who were forced to sexually comply with the "German norm."
In more recent years, the act of genocide, or an attempt to get rid of a complete ethnic, racial or religious group, took place in Rwanda when it gained its independence in 1962. (N.A., History of Hate Crimes, 2008) The Tutsi minority was granted control by the Belgians thus gaining independence and causing them and the Hutus to constantly fight due to the ethnic differences. A surface to air missile shot down President Habyarimana’s plane as he approached the Kigali airport on April 6, 1994. He was a Tutsi. Not even 24 hours afterwards, genocide had struck. The Hutus began murdering Tutsi’s with machetes. By April 21st, a quarter of a million Tutsi’s had been