Absolutely none. Just because a young black man gets beaten to a pulp (and has his jaw broken) while his two white assailants repeatedly call him a nigger is no evidence of a bias crime. At least not in the eyes of Staten Island prosecuting attorneys, that is:
…Skylar McCormack, 20, who police said was beaten on Staten Island on Tuesday night by two men. Witnesses said one of the two white men directed racial epithets at McCormack, who is African-American, just before the alleged assault.
The men, Daniel Avissato, 24, and Mark Maleto, 21, both of Staten Island, face charges of second-degree gang assault. Staten Island prosecutors decided Friday not to charge the men with a hate crime against McCormack.
Sharpton assailed that decision and said it would inspire others to commit hate crimes.
“They used the n-word over and over again,” he said of McCormack’s attackers. “If using [that word] and only beating the black out of three people isn’t a hate crime, then what is a hate crime? Do you have to write [that word] and get a notary public to sign it?” […]
The beating of McCormack follows a string of racially charged incidents in New York City and on Long Island. Those include the discovery of nooses on the door of a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College in Manhattan and outside a post office in lower Manhattan, and several nooses found in various locations in Nassau County. Police have said they believe the noose incidents are “copycat” crimes inspired by the Jena Six case in Louisiana, where a noose was hung from a tree on a high school campus.
This is what we call the exercise of “prosecutorial discretion.” Some cases are easy to charge, like attempted murder when black teenagers kick a white boy with their sneakers. Others, are much harder to tease out. And God forbid we wrongly charge these two white men with a hate crime merely because they like to use a word popularized by popular rap stars. While breaking someone’s jaw.
It might confuse the jury if we force them to determine what these two white defendants intended when the called Mr. McCormack a racial slur before beating him senseless. It might very well prove too much for their delicate sensibilities to have to decide if just possibly the use of the “N” word might be evidence of the defendants’ mental state. God knows the trauma those poor jury men and women might have to endure if forced to consider the evidence! Best not to trouble their little minds over such subtle legal distinctions as these.
And that is how hate crimes get swept under the rug, ladies and germs. North or South, East or West, it’s always the same. Because they never get charged, and juries are never forced to consider if one was committed. Wouldn’t look good if the crime stats for your local neighborhood showed a lot of “hate crimes” occurring, now would it?
