The definition of a hate crime — why can’t we be friends?

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Personally I think labeling something as a hate crime is redundant. Any crime against another person involves hate. Does anyone believe that an individual would commit assault, rape or murder against someone they respect or love? 

In many of these crimes hate is a big part of the motivation. 

According to the FBI, a hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” 

Notice there is one bias that is not included in the FBI’s list — political affiliation.

Last week, in an all too often occurrence America, a conservative activist was assaulted at the University of California Berkeley during a recruitment drive. Seen on video from a bystander, two men approached a table where the student was recruiting members to his group, and an argument ensued. The alleged victim held up his cell phone and began filming the two men who were allegedly harassing him. One of the two men knocked over the table, police said, and then punched the recruiter several times, causing injuries to his face.

On top of that, a university employee, Yuvi Panda, cheered the alleged assault on Twitter the next day.

He tweeted: “Oh my GOD the MAGA people on UC Berkeley campus yesterday got punched in the face by someone this makes me feel emotionally so much better.”

Many people have stated the obvious — if the attacker would have been wearing a MAGA hat, this would be classified as a hate crime on every news channel.

Here are just a few headlines from the last couple of years:

Tennessee man assaulted at garage sale for being Trump supporter.

Two men punch and kick Connecticut man standing with an American flag and Trump sign.

Tennessee police charge woman for allegedly trying to run Republican Rep. David Kustoff off the road.

High school student arrested in Florida after punching classmate carrying Trump sign.

Group of black men in Chicago attack white man while raging against Trump.

Protestors knock 71-year-old female staffer for California GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher unconscious during protest outside the representative’s office.

The question remains, when are violent crimes against someone because of their political affiliation going to be classified as a hate crime?

Liberal activists continually push the lie that anyone supporting President Trump, and specifically those with a MAGA hat are racists, homophobes and bigots. And they rush to judgment any chance they get in order to prove their point. Two of those instances have been proven wrong already this year.

On Jan. 18 several high school students wearing MAGA hats from a Catholic High School in Covington, Ky., were falsely accused of harassing and insulting a group of Native Americans at the Lincoln Memorial. 

After the media’s condemnation they were discovered to be the victims.

Just over 10 days later, on Jan. 29, actor Jussie Smollett, who is black and openly gay, told police he was attacked by two masked men as he was walking home from a Subway sandwich shop. He went on to report that the masked men who beat him, made derogatory comments and yelled “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” — before fleeing.

Anyone who would have done a despicable and cowardly act like that would deserve to be punished under the full extent of the law. What Smollett described to the police would have clearly been a hate crime.

This fit right in with the national media’s perception of Trump supporters, so they once again rushed to judgement and used this reported crime as an example of how Trump advocates are homophonic and racist. Turns out Smollett may have staged the attack in order to gain publicity and become worth more in his acting career.

 One of my favorite songs from my youth by the group WAR was their hit song, released in 1975, “Why can’t we be friends?” The song makes a statement about the absurdity of judging others based on our differences in race and nationality. Forty three years later the question needs to be asked again, but this time about judging others because of the hat they wear or the politicians they support.