What Is the Meaning of this Symbol?

1
What Is the Meaning of this Symbol?
2
Swastika

• Ancient symbol used for over 3,000 years meaning
  good to be (good luck)
• Many different positive connotations used by
  many cultures
• Hitler, a frustrated artist, was responsible for
  propaganda development for National Socialist
  Party in 1920 he selected the swastika as an
  emblem of racial purity eternally anti-Semitic

3
HATE / BIAS MOTIVATED CRIMES
4
DEFINITION

• Criminal offenses motivated by hatred against a
  victim based on his or her race, religion, sexual
  orientation, handicap, ethnicity, or national
  origin.
• BJA Monograph A Policymakers Guide to Hate
  Crimes (November 1999)

5
Revised Code of Washington RCW 9A.36.080

• Malicious Harassment
• Maliciously intentionally causes
• Physical injury
• Physical damage to property
• Threatens/puts a person in reasonable fear of
  injury to person or property
• Class C Felony

6
Victim Status Required by RCW

• Race
• Color
• Religion
• Ancestry
• National Origin
• Gender
• Sexual Orientation
• Handicap

7
History

• Early Romans persecuted the Christians
• 1940s Nazis extermination of 6.5 million Jews
  referred to as the final solution
• 1994 Genocide in Rwanda (Tutsis v. Hutus
  tribal warfare resulting in 850,000 deaths)
• 1995-97 Ethnic cleansing in Bosnia (murder,
  rape, expulsion of Bosnian citizens)

8
Significance of Hate Crimes

• One crime targets every member of that group
• Psychological impact is felt by all members of
  that group
• Community stability is lessened
• Retaliation and counter-retaliation can occur

9
Victims In United States

• African Americans (most frequent target)
• Jewish population
• Gays
• Muslims (9/11)
• Asian Americans India (intellect, economic,
  outsourcing)
• Federal government workers

10
Individual Perpetrators

• Scapegoat mentality ((intellect, economic,
  outsourcing)
• View their targets as threats to safety and
  property values
• Thrill seekers randomly select their victims,
  minority status is interchangeable, act on
  impulse
• Mission Offenders though a minority, believe
  they are on a mission to rid the world of a
  perceived evil

11
Psychology of the Perpetrator

• The criminal invokes race, ethnicity, or sexual
  orientation as a pretext for doing whatever he
  wants. He is no stranger to assault, robbery, or
  rape to begin with. Victimizing a person from a
  particular group that he professes to dislike
  heightens the excitement and increases the
  satisfaction. There is nothing unique about the
  psychology of hate-crime perpetrators. They are
  criminals just like any other.
• Stanton E. Samenow, Ph. D., Inside The Criminal
  Mind (2003)

12
Hate Crime Statistics

• Meaningful statistics are difficult to establish
• Hate crimes are typically underreported

13
Problems With Statistics

• Many LE agencies lack staff, inclination, or
  technical expertise to report statistics
• Certain communities underreport to preserve
  cultural, political, and economic stability
• Victims reluctant to report to avoid humiliation
  (loss of dignity), fear of being outed, fear of
  deportation, and no trust in public
  officials-authority

14
Characteristics of Hate Crime

• Most crimes are committed by strangers
• Most likely to involve physical assault
• More likely to result in physical injury caused
  by imprecise weapons of opportunity (bricks,
  bats, tree limbs)

15
Climate of Hate

• Shock radio
• Racial stereotypes on TV and in movies
• Racial code language
• Personal Experiences

16
Trigger Incidents

• Rodney King incident acquittal of four police
  officers caused 1992 Los Angeles riots
• Post 9/11 Mosque Burnings

17
Patriot / White Supremacist Movement

• Neo-Nazis
• Klansman
• Montana Freeman (Constitutionalist)
• Anti-abortion radicals

18
A Shift In Strategy

• Disclaimers for their members to not commit
  crimes
• Cyber-culture
• Underground books
• Magazines
• Music

19
Rock Against Communism (RAC)

• Misrepresents its target and has a largely white
  supremacist, anti-Semitic message
• White Power music

20
Music September 2004

• Educator Alert! Hate Music Label Targets
  SchoolsThis is to alert you to an issue with
  deeply troubling implications for our nations
  schools. Panzerfaust, a white power music company
  based in Minnesota, plans to target youth through
  the distribution of 100,000 racist and
  anti-Semitic CDs to schools and other locations
  throughout the United States.