Dear Editor:
Regarding your report covering Broward County’s hate crimes numbers for the last reported year (“Broward County Sheriff on Hate Crimes: ‘We Don’t Want to Be Number One’”), during the Matthew Shepard trial, Chastity Pasley and Kristen Price (the respective girlfriends of killers Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the time of the event) testified that Henderson and McKinney both plotted beforehand to rob a gay man. That’s what sealed the fates of those murderers even before any hate crime legislation had been enacted. Hate crimes legislation is intended to bring awareness to people and declare that the United States does not tolerate socially-targeted hateful acts. It proves the point that some crimes are perpetrated out of hatred for any given
social class and that we, as a society of civilized people find these crimes to be particularly offensive.
Unfortunately, some people don’t completely get it. They believe that the point of hate crimes legislation and reporting is to issue that “extra punishment” for the perpetrators. Obviously, prosecuting attorneys have come to see the classification as a tricky bonus round in the game we call justice. The Broward Sheriff’s Office seems to ascribe to that latter definition. I’m sure this belief is popular in Tallahassee as well. It would be quite convenient for Florida’s Republican legislature and the taser-happy cops of North Florida to think of hate crimes reporting as something that’s sort of pointless and excessive. I don’t mean to imply that BSO doesn’t take hate crimes seriously and is concerned. But at the same time, there is evidence that BSO still might need some improvement in this department when compared to their peers. In a report issued by the Florida Attorney General’s office in 2008, only 4 hate crimes were officially reported by the Broward Sheriff’s Office. However, 25 hate crimes were reported by city police within Broward County. These numbers may be getting better—maybe—but there is still room for improvement.
- Jim, Oakland Park