Whatever Happened Here Was NOT a Hate Crime

by Mark Horne 

Whatever you see, you know it can’t be a hate crime. A gang of people of one shade attacking and beating the stuffing out of a couple who are of a different shade simply doesn’t warrant such a label.

Here’s the video and you can see the absence of a hate crime for yourself.

I don’t know if this was really a hate crime. But I am tired of seeing crimes involving White attacks on Blacks automatically treated as a horrible race issue that proves we are still a racist ™ society. But when the attacks go the other way, it is never treated as a race issue. The media never makes it into a national story. 

The local Springfield News-Leader wrote,

The video appears to show several men run up behind a male and female in an alley and begin assaulting them for about 30 seconds. The attackers appear focused on the male victim, hitting him from behind and kicking at his head and punching him as he fights back. The woman is also hit and thrown to the ground as she turns and tries to help the man.

Springfield police have released a longer video of an assault of a couple in an alley downtown that was first reported Wednesday.

While the original video, less than 10 seconds, showed part of an assault, police released a 45-second video Thursday that appears to show the entire incident. 

Police and Crime Stoppers released the video to get help in identifying suspects in a downtown assault. About five seconds after the attack, two police officers are seen running down the alley after the alleged suspects.

According to a news release, the assault occurred at 12:18 a.m., Aug. 22 at 318 S. South Ave.

Police spokeswoman Lisa Cox said the male victim was upset with a group of males for allegedly “disrespecting his girlfriend” at a bar and confronted the group about it outside the bar. Where that happened is unclear; the assault happened as the victims walked alone and were hit from behind.

“The victims sustained serious injuries after they were assaulted by multiple black males, including the one dressed in black clothing and red shoes,” the news release said. 

So maybe the altercation (if that is what happened) takes away the possibility that a hate crime was involved.  Or maybe the altercation was started because of hate.
If we are going to use hate crimes as a category, let’s try to be even-handed in how we do so. If the races had been reversed in the above video you know it would be a national news story!
If the police can claim to be the victims of hate crime but this couple can’t do so, something is really wrong.