<modsnip - quoted post and reference to it removed> There are around 400 investigation- confirmed, or confessed, hate hoax crimes. That's sobering.
Hate crime hoaxes are not unusual, unfortunately. What is unusual is pretending that they are isolated incidents, that there are no patterns or trends, or pretending that the perpetrators are generally "nice" people who are "somehow" so mentally ill or impaired by substance misuse that they cannot understand what they're doing. Pretending the perpetrators just had a little unfortunate "lapse" in judgement, or made a "mistake". Oopsie!
These are not mistakes. They are serious crimes, with serious implications.
There are several places that are cataloging confirmed fake hate crimes, and tracking what happens to the perpetrators. The incidents are on the rise in the past few years. Many of these fake hate crimes have been perpetrated against churches by one of their own members, and many have occurred on university campuses. Even the Air Force Academy had a hate crime hoaxer that was a cadet. Remember Tawana Brawley? And many other high profile hate hoaxes. JS is just the latest one to think he can carry this out, benefit, and get away with it.
As a general statement, the criminal penalties (if they are prosecuted and sentenced at all) for the perps are mild-- which, IMO, is part of the criminal and societal management problem we have. There is little to no deterrent for this heinous behavior.
Planning and carrying out a hate hoax crime should be a higher level felony, IMO-- probably a mandatory federal crime, as all states have different laws, and that's part of the problem. Hate hoaxes have real victims, and produce real damage. It's not just a "little lapse in judgement", or a "mistake".
Think deeply about why "To Kill a Mockingbird" has been such an impactful story. Then think some more about these modern hate crime hoaxes. We haven't even barely begun to have the national conversation we should have about this.
Ben BradleyVerified account @BenBradleyTV
