A set of Companion Bills HB10/SB112 have been filed for the upcoming 2018 Virginia General Assembly session to expand the victims under a Hate Crime to also include disability, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims.
The definition of a Hate Crime: Hate crime (also known as bias-motivated crime) is a usually violent, prejudice motivated crime that occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group. Examples of such groups include but are not limited to: ethnicity, gender identity, language, nationality, physical appearance, religion, or sexual orientation.
In Virginia it’s any criminal act committed against a person or his property with the specific intent of instilling fear or intimidation in the individual against whom the act is perpetrated because of race, religion or ethnic origin.
Registered Sex Offenders (RSO), their spouses, their parents, their significant others, their children, their room-mates and their property have become targets of vigilantes across the U.S. because their addresses are public information The property of RSO’s and their loved ones have been robbed, vandalized and set on fire. RSO’s and their loved ones have been harassed, taunted, assaulted and even murdered simply because a stranger found their name and address posted on the public Sex Offender Registry.
Based on the definition of a Hate Crime, Registered Sex Offenders are a “certain social group” and any violence against them should be punished as such.
Mary Devoy is exactly correct. However, I don’t know why they would limit hate crimes to just be people listed on Virginia’s SEX Offender Registry. I think it should be a hate crime to target anyone who is listed on any government’s SOR. And it should also include any family members, friends, employees, or anyone else, that is targeted because of an SOR.
The SORs are obviously a government sponsored hit list. I think government should give anyone that they list a set of lethal weapons, including guns.
The only reason they would not put us on this “good” list is that they believe we deserve violence against us. Let us write to them and require them to add registrants to the list and demand a reason if they believe otherwise. This way we can further document their intention to create a punitive registry or maybe even be successful in protecting our fellow registrants. I am writing to the patrons today, even though I am not a Virginia resident.
This is very interesting. Could the bordering states/WDC see similar legal attempts made to pass a comparable law? If a Marylander was in VA visiting and a Virginian committed a crime against the Marylander because they knew they were a Maryland RC, could the Virginian be tried under this law even if the VA registry was not used, but perhaps the Maryland registry was used? You’d think it would be possible because of the definition, but the spine of the prosecutor’s office would be key here in their respective political ambition and willingness to do the right thing and press for applicability. Would they say the MD registry fine print says what it can and cannot be used for; thus, is the guiding light?
I agree with the notion the definition of lists needs to be expanded as mentioned.
Well this is a nice step, but since it would only apply after the fact, it seems it will fail to protect anyone.
Would someone in the KKK be dissuaded from killing a sex offender because it would be hate crime? Hate crimes are what the KKK do.
It seems to me that if the rso registry was not public, it would be a more effective solution.
But, at least people are starting to think about what is and what is not justified in terms of living as a rso
Most every State already has “hate crime” admonitions written on their registry websites:
“The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability”
-and I know California has it in their sex offense statute . I believe it is 5 yrs enhanced sentence for a felony committed against a registrant.
Does is do any good? Not much because it is not publicized. Every time a newscaster advises the public to check the registry, or even mentions the public registry, the aforementioned admonishment should be mandatory. And THAT is what we should be pushing for ( short of getting rid of them altogether- which will probably happen in the near future)
These hate crime laws really don’t do much to prevent violence anyways.
. They just focus attention on the individual perpetrators by giving them lengthier sentences and distract attention away from the true systemic source of violence – the State.
The fact that Virginia only wants to add gender/ sexual orientation to its protected class reveals to me that this is just a political agenda. Why not homelessness? The homeless are statistically the most abused and assaulted group in the country. Pfft.
This is creating a new crime.
If you want to stop a new crime just remove the Magan’s Law.
Easy and Simple
I know writing these politicians may not do much to stop vigilantism, but the way I view it, the important thing is for politicians to hear the voices of registrants.