Jury’s Verdict in Jasper Was a Special Case

The lighting-quick conviction of white supremacist John William King for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. inspired hope that Southern white jurors and prosecutors will finally nail whites for killing blacks. But the case from Day One was a prosecutor’s dream.

A barrage of physical evidence linked King to the crime. A parade of witnesses called him a rabid racist. A buddy of his fingered him as one of the killers. King practically convicted himself in a venomous, racist letter in which he declared himself a folk hero for murdering Byrd.

Yet even if King and his pals pay with their lives, hate violence against African Americans shows no sign of abating. Since the FBI began tallying hate crimes five years ago under the hate crimes bill of 1990, African Americans have been the No. 1 target of hatemongers, with about 40% of the hate crimes in America committed against them. Meanwhile, law enforcement response to hate crime wildly varies. For example, more than half of police agencies still have no hate crime task force units or specific procedures for dealing with hate crimes.

Byrd’s hometown of Jasper, Texas, is a prime example of a city that had not faced up to hate crime. Although ultimately the city’s response was commendable, local officials seemed clueless at first over whether to even call the Byrd murder a hate crime.

The federal Hate Crimes Act of 1998 was supposed to increase the types of hate crimes prosecuted and the penalties for them. But, because of Republican opposition, the measure hasn’t budged an inch--nor is it likely to soon--from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Meanwhile, opponents of tougher hate crimes measures accuse civil rights groups of trying to panic the public by exaggerating the extent of hate violence. But the number of reported hate crimes is only the tip of the iceberg of hate violence in America, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which says that four out of five victims of hate crimes do not report attacks or incidents out of fear or because they feel police and local officials will do little or nothing about them.

When individuals are victimized solely because of their race, this deepens racial fears and frustration, reinforces the us-vs.-them divisions and increases the danger of a racial explosion or violence. This danger alone should be more than enough to spur law enforcement officials to take more seriously reports of hate attacks.

The murderer of Byrd was caught and convicted because of his own arrogance, ignorance, bumbling and bad luck. But that doesn’t mean that in the future other hatemongers who commit violent acts will get their just due as quickly.