Hate Crimes: Gruesome Deserves a Special Name

The impetuous of a crime calls for a stiffer penalty

Shootings in Atlanta have a lot of people rethinking crime, especially hate crimes as they relate to Asian Americans. In Atlanta, eight people were killed, six of them Asian women. Robert Aaron Long went on a bloody rampage and killed employees who worked at specific massage parlors, and he planned to do more harm. He was arrested as he was traveling to a pornography shop in Florida to further his efforts.

The question on everyone’s mind is: When will hate crime charges be filed?

The answer for so many people is clear. News outlets and newspapers across the US report this as a hate crime.

Criteria exist to make such a determination. As the crime happened in Atlanta, Georgia, we’ll follow US law to help make a determination. The Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law offers a general definition:

(1) Offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin. — Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion…