Hate crime or not?

By any measure of merit, the killing of 13 (at this writing) people at Ft Hood, TX was a horrific act.  The coverage and opinions of the actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan have generated views from the ridiculous to thoughtful.  A full analysis of the situation has not been completed yet and it may turn out some of the victims were killed by other than Hasan as “friendly fire,” but that will sort itself out when the analysis has been completed; regardless even if Hasan did not directly kill all 13, it is fair to say he was responsible for their deaths by his despicable actions.  I wonder how the readers of the People’s Politics view this?  For full disclosure, I think the hate crime legislation passed as Public Law 103-322 in 1994 was political correctness gone amuck.

PL 103-322, Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, is one of those good sounding feel good products that come out of Washington with great regularity.  After all, is there anyone in favor of violent crime other than the criminals?  It appears to be a compendium of various thoughts by different representatives with the hate crimes just tossed in.  Title XXVIII contains the sentencing provisions, which includes the “Direction to United States Sentencing Commission regarding sentencing enhancements for hate crimes.”  

I absolutely have no clue how the writing of simple laws becomes so convoluted, but the hate crimes addendum comes way down in the bill in Subtitle I-Other Provisions.  In fact, Sec. 320926 is titled “Hate Crime Statistics Act” as though it is a separate law in itself just added on to the main bill.  Baffling.

The definition of hate crime in PL 103-322 is “a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.”  It goes on to say “sentencing enhancements of not less than 3 offense levels for offenses that the finder of fact at trial determines beyond a reasonable doubt are hate crimes.”  In other words, if you commit a hate crime you get more time.  As a digression, gender identity is not specifically covered in the existing law but is expected to be added soon. “Gender identity refers to transgendered persons and transsexuals; widespread concern for their equal rights is a recent development.”

I can safely say Hasan intentionally selected his victims as members of the US Army, family, or civilian workers.  As army members are not directly covered in the definition as far as I can tell, it does not seem to be an act covered under this stupid law.  I think a good case can be made that all of the victims’ national origin was American so, if you believe in hate crimes, Hasan would be subject to enhanced punishment.  While some of his victims may have been Muslim, it does not appear that Hasan intentionally targeted them as, by some reports, he shouted the phrase we have become all too familiar with prior to suicide missions “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire; if the report is true, it seems it was a hate crime based on the “religion” clause of 103-322.

If Hasan recovers from his deeds, what should he be tried for and by whom?  I think he should be tried for 13 (if the autopsy results show he in fact shot all 13) counts of premeditated murder.  As it happened on Fort Hood, it seems it should be a federal prosecution rather than state, although Texas conveniently has death penalty statues.  I believe the proper forum is a court martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) as he is an active duty officer and committed the crime on a federal reservation.  I have long said if I were to commit a crime I would much rather be tried in civilian court than under the UCMJ as the UCMJ tries to find the truth as opposed to the civilian system which favors the defendant above all.  If he survives, I suspect his attorney will try to move the case away from military jurisdiction, probably to Virginia to escape the Texas death penalty laws.

I do not believe he will be tried under the hate crimes clause of the dumb law because of political sensitivity due to his religion; I think it would be viewed as “unseemly” to try to pile onto what is fairly abundant evidence that he acted alone and with malice and aforethought.  I do believe Hasan was fully sane (as far as anyone who could commit a crime like this can be considered sane) and acted in a premeditated manner, picking the time a place for the shooting with great care so as to inflict the most casualties possible.  He is a disgrace to his family, his country, and the US Army.  A penalty of death, after a fair trial, is appropriate.  I hope he recovers and stands to face his victims’ families eyeball to eyeball.

What do you think?

Comments

[WillythePimp]

Hang him high if found guilty. Which brings to mind the prisoners in Gitmo. After all of these terrorists are tried we can proceed with this prosecution.

[Montana]

My heart and prayers go out to all the victims, their families and friends.

From all the news reports it appears this Major is a career military man and that in his current position for less than a year and was not going well. He did not want to be deployed and in fact wanted out of the Army, so he paid back his military student loans and hired an attorney.

The reason may have been that he was being harassed and called names like “camel jockey ”. I guess all that sensitivity training for those with bigotry tendencies are all for not. (Can training real change the way you were brought up?)

Another reason is called PTSD by proxy, the stress of treating PTSD in other soldiers make you go a little crazy yourself. Its even more stressful because most of the higher ranks don’t even believe in such thing as PTSD. Their denial prompts them to tell suffering soldiers to “drink it off.” Some civilians in the defense dept feel the same way no doubt IMO, it’s why hardly anything is mentioned of PTSD until one of these violent episodes occurs. These people see PTSD as a cop-out or an excuse. First we need to have an understanding that PTSD actually is real before we can ever hope to help treat it (does anyone believe that being shot at or killing your fellow man is not going to affect you in some way either then or in the future?). I guess with the high soldier suicide rate before and after deployment kinda takes care of the complaints from coming in (so those who said he should have just killed himself, well that’s already happening ). What real ticked me off when I heard that the military was trying to say that some soldiers coming back from this war with PTSD or other psychological disorders had “Pre-Existing Conditions” and that the military would not pay to treat them, I think it has been corrected but what a bunch of asses they break you and don’t want to pay.

The final issue is why does the military want to keep people in their ranks that no longer want to be there is it just sheer number? I mean is it ten percent, twenty percent. Is it that it is the only contract in the US that you can’t get out of unless to kill yourself or kill your fellow soldiers? It does not make any sense to me.

I guess the Major could just be another wacko like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nicholas, of course McVeigh was executed and apparently because Nicholas became a Christian he received a life sentenced. I real think if he gets that far the Major will get the former and not in a million years the latter.

This is so messed up, hopefully they will make some changes that make sense.

[Ricky]

I'm with you on hate crimes, Timo. I cannot imagine a person wanting to kill or hurt a person because of any of the reasons that are protected by law, but then they think "wait a minute, they are protected under hate crimes legislation so maybe I shouldn't."

Aren't the acts that would get you an extra punishment under hate crimes laws already irrational? So we expect criminals to respect a law that requires one to think rationally to avoid?

The death penalty isn't tough enough, but it's what we've got, and I say give Hasan the UCMJ treatment and send him home to his maker.

Not that it matters, because if the state legal system gets a hold of him, if he survives, Texas will have him executed. Deliberations will take an hour, with time for a Coke break.

[Andrew Smith]

Good post, Ricky. Hate crime laws are thoughtcrime legislation masquerading as protection from crimes that would already be punished under current laws. By granting special protections through different sentencing guidelines, we only create division and inequity in the justice system. Criminals don't care about relative consequences; they have already made the decision to commit crimes and are hoping they don't get caught. Hate crime legislation don't deter those who hate, they tell citizens not to have certain thoughts, because if you act on them, you're going to jail or will be executed. These are the reasons are justice system is so perverted as to criminalize individuals for their motivation and segment them from equal treatment under the law.

If this person is convicted through a fair trial, allow him 1 appeal and if the conviction is upheld, proceed immediately to execution.

[Jon M.]

Coulda, shoulda, woulda ... In the end it will be what the law provides for such cases and not what we personally think should happen. That is the difference between civilization and chaos.

[Ceart]

The law in this instance is Article 118 of the UCMJ:

http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/mcm/bl118.htm

If found guilty of premeditated murder, the penalty can only be life in prison or death. There is no other option.

Texas does not have any say or jurisdiction unless the military wants to relinquish it, and that won't happen.

Obama or his lackey Holder may force the military to relinquish Hasan to the federal courts, but I also doubt that will happen. Obama would immediately lose the support and votes of military members, and possibly a good chunk of support from any civilian to the right of Michael or YNH.

As far as hate crime laws go, I believe that they only apply to state crimes, but allow the federal government to step in if the Justice Department certifies that a state is unwilling or unable to follow through on an alleged hate crime.

Still, I agree that they are bordering on thought crimes and add to punishment for crimes that are already covered by laws necessary to protect all citizens. Murder is murder, assault is assault, rape is rape...Yada, Yada.

[All Timo All the Time Oh]

Firing into a crowd is a pretty weak case to take on as a hate-crime prosecution, for obvious reasons.

[Ceart]

Montana - PTSD by proxy? For real? Secondhand PTSD?

PTSD is real. It is terrifying. But it is not a communicable disease. You can't "catch" PTSD from others. It is not the swine flu. You have to have suffered a traumatic event. That is the "post" part of it.

As one soldier blogger on a Walter Reed Hospital site put it, when referring to this new term in reference to Hasan: "It's an absolute slap in the face for every caregiver and every wounded warrior who ever set foot on Walter Reed Army Medical Center."

[All Timo All the Time Oh]

The problem with that reasoning is that it mirrors the objections "really injured" people had with PTSD itself when it was first diagnosed.

PTSD is about the communicability of stress, even in the absence of contact or harm.

Given that, it seems like second-hand PTSD makes sense, even if the "P" might stand for "pre."

[Constitutionally Speaking]

This was not a "hate crime" per se - it WAS however, an act of terrorism.

We have just ended our 8 year streak of no successful attacks on our home soil.

Why?? Because, once again, we are more concerned with being politically correct than we are with actually solving the problem.

Just like President Clinton was ASKED to take custody of Osama Bin Ladin, but refused, President Obama's politically correct influence on our military kept them from following up on the MULTITUDE of red flags this guy was sending up.

[Constitutionally Speaking]

It was probably not fair to say "President Obama's politically correct influence".

It IS however fair to say the LIBERAL priority for political correctness, over nearly everything else, contributed to the lack of follow up on all of the red flags that were sent up.

[Michael Schils]

Timo, you refer to "fairly abundant evidence that he acted alone". What evidence is that? The earliest reports claimed there were as many as 5 shooters. Indeed, its difficult to imagine how a gunman with two handguns could have shot so many people before being rushed or taken out by the police. As I pointed out in the other thread, to which you did not respond, the "official" story already includes a "magic bullet" explanation, attributing the high number of casualties to "ricochet fire".

As a possible explanation, you mention "friendly fire" but I can't imagine how that could have occurred. How could the aim of the police have been so poor as to miss the lone gunman and hit so many innocent bystanders?

The rush to judgment in this thread is interesting, considering what little we actually know about what happened. Timo, you say a penalty of death is appropriate "after a fair trial". Another commenter chimed in that "Deliberations will take an hour, with time for a Coke break". These are amazing pronouncements considering that we haven't even seen a video placing the suspect at the scene.

Timo, you also say you "believe Hasan was fully sane". Again, what are you basing that on as you know very little about the suspect? Your belief illustrates how military trials fail to protect the rights of individuals as the only objective is to finalize what is BELIEVED to be true (and looks good for the military), regardless of the evidence.

The "official" narrative that has been put forth has Hasan wanting out of the military given the government’s stand on Afghanistan and Muslims, and states that he has been harassed since 9-11 about his Muslim faith. It was also reported that the FBI has him under surveillance for the past 6 months for radical anti-American and pro-Muslim writings on his online accounts.

Yet the media also reported that Hasan was promoted to Major in May of this year.

These facts are difficult to reconcile. If Hasan were truly radical and wanted out of the service, he would have never put in for a promotion to Major. Neither would the military promote someone who was unhappy, had objected to being in the military, had not wanted to deploy to anywhere outside of the U.S., and who had allegedly made himself a security threat with online radical comments.

Something doesn't add up. But nearly everyone here has already determined him guilty with the only question being which arm of the state should kill him.

[Ceart]

Michael - The complete silliness of your post comes down to one comment: "we haven't even seen a video placing the suspect at the scene".

Dozens of eyewitnesses and the fact that he was shot and arrested place Hasan at the scene (do you contend he was one of the victems?).

Hasan did it. All reports now point to the the fact that he did it premeditated and alone. His ties to Muslim extremism point to a Jihadist terrorist act.

Our pre-judgement is only an opinion that we are entitled to as Americans. I am sure the military court-martial will be fair, thorough, and deliberate. This is too big and public for there to be a cover-up as you seem to suggest.

You also should stop commenting on military matters that you know so little about. Promotions are not "put in for" by individuals. Most, up to a certain rank, are almost automatic (sort of a military Peter Principal). Since he was in a clinical, and not in a leadership track, it would take a lot of official negative documentation to stop his promotion to Major in his critical specialty.

[yournamehere]

Ceart, you should stop commenting on military matters that you only pretend to know about.

[Ceart]

OK YNH - I am retired Army with 23 years and three combat tours behind me. What do you wish to debate about?

[Timo Kokko]

Michael,
I have not seen an "official" party line yet as it appears the investigation has not been completed. It is absurd to take early reports of "5 shooters" as fact on which to base an argument. I find it astonishing that one person with two hand guns could fire that many shots, but he apparently selected his target area carefully so as to inflict as much pain and damage as possible.

Ceart is exactly right on his promotion process. I haven't been able to find out how long the psychiatry sub-specialty residency program at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, but I was somewhat surprised it took that long to promote him to Major.

The US tax payer paid for his medical education and in return he agreed to serve at least seven years after training was complete. The fact that he changed his mind about service to the country (after getting the benefits of an expense paid medical degree and sub-specialty certification) in no way obligates the Army to release him early. If he used the military system just to get a paid up degree while believing all the time that the US was an evil country and picked on poor misguided Islamofascist, he was badly misguided. He swore an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution." He broke that oath in about the worst way possible and should have the proverbial book thrown at him.

YNH,
I thought Michael's post was silly, but you taking on Ceart on military matters rivals it.

Constitutionally speaking,
I would be interested in your view why Hasan's crime was not a hate crime, but was an act of terrorism. Could you expand on that line of thought?

[EricD]

Ceart thinks that people without military experience shouldn't comment about it. Let's apply that approach to every topic so that we avoid the absurdities coming from ceart and timo about global warming, health care, et al.

[Ceart]

EricD - That is crap and you know it, or you were not reading the posts thoroughly. Those were not my words. I was posting to YNH who thinks that my military experience doeasn't give me any credibility when writing about the military. By all means, enter into any discussion you want from whatever viewpoint or experience you have. If you have experience in any area, I would view your opinions as credible.

[DJ]

multiculturalism has failed. Close the borders, put the National Guard on the mexican border. At 10.2% unemployment for citizens, we don't need a single, solitary additional immigrant from anywhere: Africa, India, China, the middle east, not a single additional America hating piece of crap spy.

[WordUp]

He is terrorist scum.

He said infidels should have their throats cut,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6526030/Fort-Hood-gunman-had-told-US-military-colleagues-that-infidels-should-have-their-throats-cut.html

He was linked to the September 11 terrorists,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6521758/Fort-Hood-shooting-Texas-army-killer-linked-to-September-11-terrorists.html

[CaravaggiosZen]

Shills, methinks that the brilliant light eminating from your avitar is dimming...

The only thing missing from your conspiracy theroy is a grassy knoll. Perhaps you could place a call to Zapruder and see if he has the video you seek on the Ft. Hood shooting.

A point that I've found interesting as more information has become available:

How the MSM has chosen to ignore Hasan's links to radical Islam. Seems he attended a mosque at the same time as 2 of the 9/11 terrorists. He had multiple online posts on sites that are categorized as radical Islamist. He was known to utter anti-US military statements in the company of fellow soldiers.

And yet the MSM continues to portray Hasan as the victim in the thing. PTSD by proxy? Yeah, right. Someone drew a picture of a camel and labeled it "Camel Jockey," and stuck it to his car? Oh, indeed, there's a great excuse to mow down your fellow soldiers.

Give me a break. Why is it we continue to coddle these radicals as if they are normal human beings? They are members of a group of individuals who celebrate the violent deaths of "the infidels."

But no, we'll continue to be barraged by the fact we lack sensitivity, and then the usual cadre of gun control advocates are paraded in front of the camera to tell us how it was the guns that killed these people.

The only thing that I've not heard yet is how the Ft. Hood shooting is George W. Bush's fault.

Bob?

[Kerri Tang]

We don't need hate crime laws.
If you murder someone, you are a hate filled person.
Murder is murder.
How can hate crime legislation change the outcome or punishment?
If someone was sentenced to death or life imprisonment, because he/she murdered another, how would hate crime bills make that sentence any more significant?
It wouldn't. If the murderer got life, he's still in for life.
Hate crime is p.c. run amuck.
Like I said, murder is murder.

But, this man infiltrated our system, our military, and used it to his advantage to carry out crimes against those who don't believe in terrorism.
And, the CIA knew about it several months ago.
I want Pres. Obama and his CIA to answer to this. If this had been Pres. Bush he da$@ well would, and the libs know that.

[Kerri Tang]

And, the left still mock Pres. Bush for his tactics with which he fought and prevented attacks against Americans, after 9/11, and during the other 7 yrs of his presidency...........but, you know what? We didn't have any attacks against Americans, not at home or abroad. We WERE kept safe with his fight against terrorists.
Are we now? No. Because this president is so darn worried about looking good to the world, and being politically correct, he hasn't time to do the tough work. Step on a few toes.
And, here's the proof of that.
He's been off his guard. He's cut back on most of what Bush had in place. He's let the world know, we are not going to question anything any of the countries w/terrorists in them, because we want to be friends with everyone.
We want to be buddies w/those terrorists, and then they will become nice people.
Pres. Obama, the left media, the democrat party, & all their supporters don't get it at all.
Freedom isn't free.
Peace does NOT come or exist, where there is not freedom first.
Taht's what the fight against terrorism is about and that's worth fighting for. Pres. Bush did that.
He made a tough decision, an unpopular one, but the right one...because he was more concerned about freedom, our safety, and keeping peace, here and abroad, instead of being liked....yet, doing nothing, as Obama has.

[Michael Schils]

O Zen master, in your islamophobic zeal, you are breathlessly repeating alleged "facts" that have not been substantiated. Your claim of radical online posts by the suspect has already been debunked, didn't you hear?

London's The Daily Telegraph, cited above, is fueling much of the anti-Islam hysteria in this thread.

Last month, this same Daily Telegraph ran a fake story claiming that Iran’s leader Ahmadinejad was born a Jew—a story that was quickly debunked as disinformation. The Telegraph has a history of disinfo plants–like the 2003 article claiming to have discovered “proof” that Saddam Hussein trained the 9/11 terrorists in Baghdad.

[Andrew Smith]

I find it hard to chalk this one up to a sole nutbag Muslim terrorist, but I find the conspiracy theory even more laughable. A medic who treated Hasan after the shooting stated that "camouflage cargo pant pockets were full of magazines." Kim Munley was hit three times before Hasan went down. Witnesses claimed that they saw him reload at least once. I don't have any trouble believing that a trained military officer with a pair of handguns and plenty of ammo could walk into a crowded area and rain down a hail of bullets very quickly and hitting pretty much anybody he wanted. WSJ reported that witnesses saw him moving methodically through the area shooting at people hiding under desks and taking cover. It isn't hard to hit people who are paralyzed by fear and/or trapped. I'm confident that the initial reports of multiple shooters came from the chaos of the scene.

It's also a pretty damning case for gun control advocates. I have to believe that were there armed security on the scene immediately, locked and loaded, that it would either have not have been possible for this scale of an attack to have occurred, or have been over very quickly. Personally, I don't get the logic of not having armed personnel everywhere on a military base. Security would seem to be essential.

I also have no confidence in military mental health facilities and it's clear this guy had some issues. His family says he was desperate to get out of the military because he opposed the war and was about to be deployed. He was also quite a devout Muslim so obviously his religious views played a part in his decision to commit the attack. I can see the stress of his personal situation coupled with his strong (but warped) religious convictions leading to him snapping.

It's way too early to reach firm conclusions but to me, it seems that this can't be what we would traditionally call terrorism because there clearly is an element of non-ideological, somewhat practical and non-religious circumstance here. A purely terrorist act needs no catalyst; it just requires a strong ideology and the motivation to act on it with violence. There's no evidence that Hasan was acting on behalf of any terrorist organization or in the name of Islam itself, except for unverified reports of his comments immediately prior to beginning his assault. At best we can say that a strongly religious man clearly felt trapped and perhaps betrayed, and went over the deep end. He might just as well have launched his attack in the 7-11 where he stopped shortly before, but the military was his target. That's important to note as well.