Another ‘hate crime’ hoax
ODENTON, Md. — A vandalism incident over the weekend has sparked debate as to whether a suspect in a criminal investigation that is the same race as the victim can be charged with a hate crime. Virginia Trotter, of Odenton, said that the racial slurs that were spray painted on the side of her home over the weekend offended her deeply.”I thought it was awful,” she said.
Police said that a witness reported seeing four black teenagers fleeing the scene. But on Thursday, Anne Arundel County police told WBAL TV 11 News reporter John Sherman that because both the victim and suspects in the case are black, they are not investigating it as a hate crime.
But professor Byron Warnken of the University of Baltimore School of Law disagreed.
“Is an African-American defendant eligible to be the defendant in a hate crime where you have an African-American victim? Absolutely,” he said.
Trotter told Sherman that she didn’t care about the vandals’ race — she said she wants justice.
“Red, green, orange — I don’t care what color, I think that they should be prosecuted for it,” she told Sherman on Thursday.
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