Hate Crime

Restorative justice and hate crime victims and perpetrators.

Merciful Jews forgive Nazi grave vandal

from the article by Tony Wall for stuff.co.nz: The Jewish community has taken pity on one of the youths who desecrated graves at a cemetery in Auckland with Nazi symbols - causing worldwide outrage - and is even offering to pay his university tuition fees so he can turn his life around. Robert Moulden, 19, pleaded guilty to a charge of intentional damage in the Auckland District Court last year and will be sentenced next month. His co-accused, Christian Landmark, 20, has pleaded not guilty and appears in court again on Tuesday. More than a dozen headstones in the Jewish quarter of the Symonds St Cemetery were vandalised with images of swastikas and expletive-ridden anti-Israeli messages on October 19. It is proving incredibly difficult to remove paint from the porous headstones, which date back to the 19th century, and the repair job could cost as much as $50,000.

Conceptualising and contextualising restorative justice for hate crimes

from the article by Theo Gavrielides on Crimsoc: Restorative justice (hereafter RJ) was (re) introduced to debates about justice in the 1970s at the start of a large volume of academic and policy-orientated discussions on its potential. Braithwaite, Christie, Sullivan and Zehr spoke about the transformative potential of the RJ paradigm and its ‘changing lenses’ on how we view crime. Barnett spoke first about a ‘paradigm shift’, claiming that we are living a “crisis of an old paradigm,” and that “this crisis can be restored by the adoption of a new paradigm of criminal justice”.

Detroit Tigers' Delmon Young pleads guilty To Midtown aggravated harassment

by Jen Chung in Gothamist: Back in April, Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young was arrested for allegedly striking a man outside a Midtown hotel—and he also allegedly uttered anti-Semitic remarks, prompting him to be charged with a hate crime. Today, Young has pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment in the second degree and will have to "complete 10 days of community service and participate in a mandatory restorative justice program at the Museum of Tolerance New York," according to the Manhattan DA's office.

Growing past hate: 'Restorative justice' helps heal pain from teens' vandalism

from the article by Fred Van Liew in the DesMoines Register: In March of 1994 members of the Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines awoke to find neo-Nazi graffiti scrawled on the side of their synagogue. There were no immediate suspects, but there was anguish, anger and outrage.

Red flags and Restorative Justice

The idea that an individual is 'made' to write an apology letter is the first red flag for me that is an indicator that whoever [...]

Restorative justice must humble if it is to be judged a success

an editorial in the Derby Telegraph: There is little doubt that restorative justice makes sense. Certainly when it was first brought in, the suggestion that a victim of crime being handed immediate compensation by a perpetrator made sense.

Priest's slaying in Birmingham to be remembered in church service

from the article by Greg Garrison in the Birmingham News: The 1921 slaying of a Catholic priest in Birming­ham by a Methodist min­­ister will be the subject of repentance during a 6:30 p.m. Ash Wednesday service at Highlands United Methodist Church, 1045 20th Street South, led by United Methodist Bishop William Willimon. "It's going to be a power­ful and a historic event," said Jim Pinto, director of the Father James E. Coyle Memorial Project. "We're not going to live in the past, but we want to more fully understand the past."

Martin Luther King and life after hate

from the entry by Evelyn Zellerer on Peace of the Circle: ....“The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.” [Martin Luther King]

Celebrity chef backs new Scottish Police hate crime scheme

from the news release by Lothian and Borders Police: Celebrity chef Tony Singh is backing Lothian and Borders Police pioneering new scheme for tackling Juvenile Hate Crime. The Edinburgh based TV regular launched the scheme with Deputy Chief Constable Steve Allen, and LGBT Youth Scotland’s Schools Development Manager, Cara Spence, at LGBT Youth Scotland, Leith, on Monday 12th December.

Partnering with police to do restorative justice

from the article in PeaceBuilder: ....“Chief Wetherbee called me throughout the week at SPI,” Larson Sawin recalls with a smile. “I suspected he’d be wary of the ritual components of SPI, but the coursework caught his imagination. He said the days went so quickly, five o’clock would roll around and he felt like the day had just started.” At first, some of his SPI classmates were skeptical that police – often considered a fundamentally coercive force – could play a positive role in RJ processes. If only they had known the full scope of what was happening in Massachusetts.

Seeking ‘peace on this earth’: Detailing the need for Alabama to offer a formal state apology

from Ben Greenberg's article in The Anniston Star: Two local governments in southeast Alabama are expected to issue an apology for a 1944 rape of a black woman by several white men, none of whom were ever prosecuted. ....Asked if the apology would also be on behalf of the state, Grimsley said, “We haven’t addressed that level yet.” ....“Clearly there should be an apology from the state here as well as the county,” said Professor Margaret Burnham, director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Program at Northeastern University School of Law. “Each failed to pursue the investigation aggressively and promptly, and more generally afforded utter impunity to white men who raped black women. Such a statement would not only honor Recy Taylor and her family for their courage and tenacity in seeking justice, but it would speak to scores of victims who similarly suffered in silence.”

Hate crime victims to face offenders

from the article by Jonathan Kalmus in the Jewish Chronicle Online: Greater Manchester Police are to ask antisemitic offenders to face their victims. A restorative justice scheme piloted across GMP since November gives hate crime victims the option of meeting the perpetrators to explain the impact of racism and receive an apology. Victims can also ask a representative to meet the offender, request community service as a punishment for them, or opt for criminal proceedings.

Tougher legislation needed on hate crimes

from Kristopher Wells and Murray Billett's article in the Edmonton Journal: ....Here in Canada, the gravity of hate crimes was officially recognized in 1970, when the government amended the Criminal Code to include hate propaganda as a punishable offence. In 1996, the government also introduced enhanced sentencing provisions for offences motivated by hate, and in 2001 included mischief to religious property as a specific hate-motivated offence. Despite this evolution, we argue that these legislative responses to hate have not gone far enough. The problem most concerning to many diverse communities and law enforcement officials involves the fact that there are still no direct provisions in the Criminal Code to identify hate crime as a violent offence (such as assault) or as a crime against a person or individual property (such as vandalism).

Restorative, sure. . .but for everyone, not just haters

At the risk of offending many--I have to disagree with the conclusion that a crime is somehow made worse by its motivation. I do not [...]

Judicial system fails in hate crime

from the article by Ian Gillespie in the London Free Press: ....How do you respond when you're targeted simply because you're you? That's a hate crime -- when someone is victimized because of their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or physical and mental abilities. And while any crime is awful and traumatic for its victims, hate crimes are particularly repugnant because they're attacks against the essence of a person. That's why last week's court decision involving an attack upon a gay man is so lamentable.

Courage to repair

from the editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A racist prank perpetrated outside the University of Missouri's Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center 11 days ago has evoked a reassuring response. The two undergraduates — Zachary E. Tucker and Sean D. Fitzgerald — tried to make a mockery of the bitter history of black servitude. They scattered cotton balls outside the culture center under cover of night. But their crude handiwork was greeted with sharp and universal condemnation. Both students were identified and suspended from school. Last week, they were arrested. The Boone County prosecutor is weighing whether to pursue criminal charges.

Exploring restorative justice response to hate crimes against Sikhs

'Diaper head,' 'terrorist,' 'taliban,' 'towel-head' are some of the few names which have been in increased use since 9/11 against those believed to be Muslims or members of the Taliban in the United States as well as in Canada. Although not all, some of the victims in such cases are normally not members of any terrorist group but a part of the Sikh faith which emerges from India with no intention of 'bombing' anything or place- brining no harm to anyone despite the hate crimes being inflicted on the group itself. Through widespread portrayal of the turbaned man as the terrorist or Muslims as the Taliban, various groups who conform to a similar identity (i.e. especially Sikhs) have been attempting to face such hate crimes and misunderstandings in the name of terrorism since 9/11. This paper will attempt to approach the hate crimes which have been inflicted particularly on the Sikh community since the attack on the World Trade Centre, 2001, through a restorative means to seek for answers in order to deal with the victims of attack in addition to the larger community.

Ten years is enough: Remembering the victims of hate crime violence

If we have learned anything over the past decade, it is that hate does not happen in a vacuum. In a polarized climate of “culture wars,” the differences and chasms between us overshadow what should bring us together to recognize our common humanity. In such a climate, even the measures intended to prevent hate crimes and address intolerance are politicized. The hate crimes bill that is moving its way through Congress seeks to improve the federal government's ability to enforce hate crimes laws with local law enforcement and has been named after Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was brutally murdered in 1998. The bill includes protections for victims of bias based on sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, and disability.

hate crimes & restorative justice

This is a very interesting subject. I think the author is right that restorative justice can and should be applied in cases of hate crime. [...]

Why I don't support hate crime legislation

Jos, writing at feministing.com: Community based forms of restorative justice that empower those who are targeted by violence and work to eradicate the bigotry that leads to such crimes in the first place are a much more valuable change to work toward than empowering our current criminal justice system even more. Violence targeted at members of oppressed communities must be recognized and addressed, but harsher prison sentences are not the way.