FD5 Government Needs To Step In

Cherish Kalilikane

13DEC11

FD5/Final Exam

Government Needs To Step In

In ancient times the way of judgment was based on the ruling of a king. Most of the time minor incidents would result in death for the criminal. Recent generations have established a judiciary system with a constitutionally focused government. The ideals of then and now are very different in the sense of severity. People have grown accustom to seeing criminals receive the life penalty rather than death. [THESIS] To solve the problem of hate crime the government needs to make their punishments more severe. [THESIS]

People like to minimize the knowledge hate offenders have for another race. This makes it seem as though they were semi-victimized because they were never taught better behavior. Mel Gibson uses the excuse of being drunk as his reasoning to making slurs about Jewish people. Gibson says, “I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery” (Gibson).  Regardless of Gibson’s constitutional right to freedom of speech certain words come with a price. I believe he should have gotten some kind of community service because of his comments. Some may believe punishment because of a remark is going overboard but I think that anyone who is in the public eye has great influence on others. Celebrities should take what they speak seriously and the government should punish them if they decide not to.

In the case of Mr. Poffenbarger who had an altercation with a black man after yelling racial slurs was convicted of first degree hate crime, which is 8 to 25 years in prison.  Poffenbarger stabbed a man in his lung, put him in the hospital for days at which point he could no longer use his right arm and had to give up a career. I believe that Poffenbarger deserved hate crime in the first degree but I don’t agree with the 8 to 25 years. A first-degree hate crime should not come at a minimum of eight years, that’s ridiculous. The government needs to understand how important it is to let society know that hate crimes are not okay. The easiest way to get society to work at bettering racism is through the convicted criminals. Starting with Poffenbarger he should have gotten minimum 20 years. Poffenbarger’s grandmother even tried to side with her grandson by saying, “He’s such a nice young man,” she said. “He used to show chickens at 4-H fairs. He was a wonderful student. He went up there to work, not to get into trouble” (Foderaro). Regardless of what her grandson went up to do he ended that with stabbing a man and consequently judged too lightly, how constitutional. There is a new era that needs to be created an era in which people understand others on the basis of personality rather than status or race. The government needs to help create this new era by heightening the first, second, and third degree punishments by at least five years.  Someone may debate that five years is ridiculous and people who shot someone or even killed someone could get less years than someone who acted on a hate crime. What is to say that acting upon a hate crime is any less than killing someone? The hurt and anguish a person feels because of a hate crime, if they do survive, may just cause them enough psychological trauma to ending their own life. The effects of bullying and racism are clearly enough to provoke some towards doing something negative to themselves or others.  I believe if you’re the first person to cause a negative cycle of events you should be greatly punished for your doings.

People speak too much of what is wrong without seeming to have any answer as to how to bring change. Knickerbocker spoke of the rise in hate crimes and questioned what was wrong with US today. He asked, “Is there something about the mood in the US today – perhaps spurred by Americans dying in combat abroad, plus the cultural and political war at home over issues like same-sex marriage, judgeships, and immigration – that is leading in some instances to threats and attacks?”(Knickerbocker) No, the reasoning behind hate crimes aren’t because of large-scale things it’s because of small-scale perceptions. I, like anyone was raised a certain way and with certain beliefs. Based on those beliefs I go out and live my life according to how I would like to be treated. Sometimes people are pushed to act a certain way because of others hate. Someone who never felt racism towards another person could start to hate because someone first hated him or her. The lack of teaching the right values in a home has forced the government to find solutions to problems that keep looping back around.

Apparently families don’t want to take control of hate so the government should. I believe that racial slurs and sexual comments are taken too lightly now days. People need to stop and be more aware that things they say to others can be severely offensive and negatively persuading. Being intoxicated only shows what would have been a sober man’s hidden truths. The truth of the matter is society will learn to stop committing hate crimes if they see how severe convicted criminals get treated in the judicial system. Zero tolerance policy needs to be in order. Hate crimes need to be punished.

Works Cited

Foderaro, Lisa W. “Cornell Student Is Accused of Hate Crimes in Stabbing.” New York Times online. 5 May 2006. 5 May 2006 [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/nyregion/05cornell.html].

“Gibson: ‘I Am Not an Anti-Semite.’” CNN.com. 2 Aug. 2006. 07 Dec. 2006 [http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/01/gibson.dui/index.html].

Knickerbocker, Brad. “National Acrimony and a Rise in Hate Crimes.” csmonitor.com. 3 June 2005. 30 June 2005 [http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0603/p03s01-ussc.html].

[from the June 03, 2005 edition of the online Christian Science Monitor]